Creating Critical Mass for Drinking Water Protection

During the Source Water Assessments, Maine identified unplanned growth and development as the primary threat to water supply safety and security. We also identified that our large number of small community systems were most at risk, and least able to reduce their risks.  We have developed a multi-pronged approach for reaching these systems and their municipal officials, and are slowly making progress. 

The major barriers we have identified are the limited capacity of the systems to advocate for protection, and the resistance of both town government and neighboring property owners to taking action to protect drinking water for these populations.  Where we have been able to form stakeholder groups with representatives of the systems, the town, and neighboring property owners, we have been able to make progress and improve drinking water protection.  We have also had some success working closely with allied  programs that advocate for well-planned development, including NEMO and Beginning With Habitat, both of which focus on natural resource and water resource protection.

We will discuss ongoing work in several towns that illustrates both the promise and difficulties of dealing with volunteer local government and small water systems. In the half a dozen years since the assessments were completed, we have raised awareness among many small system owners to the point where they have been willing to support new regulations, including a requirement for double-wall home heating oil tanks in their protection areas and increased regulation of subsurface disposal systems. MRWA and the DWP have collaborated in collecting detailed data about threats and property ownership in primary protection areas of small community water systems, and is using this data to develop priorities for protection planning.