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The federal Safe Drinking Water Act contains a number of safeguards to protect groundwater used for drinking
water. First, the act's Sole Source Aquifer provision gives special protection to aquifers designated as the sole source of drinking water in the area. Any construction or development project
that could impact that sole source aquifer cannot receive federal assistance. In Texas, the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies San Antonio with drinking water, has been designated as a sole
source aquifer. Interestingly, the Edwards Aquifer is the only major supply of water in Texas that requires no advanced treatment. The water is merely pumped out of the aquifer, chlorinated,
and drunk by over one million San Antonio residents.
The act's second major safeguard for groundwater is its Source Water Assessment and Protection Program (SWAP).
Under the Source Water Assessment Program, the TCEQ is trying to determine how susceptible the state's public water sources -- both surface and groundwater -- to chemical constituents. The
assessments were mailed out to all Public Water Systems in May of 2003 and these systems are reviewing the information. The second part of SWAP is to implement local source water protection
plans, previously known as the Wellhead Protection Program. Previously focussed only on protection of groundwater, today this program seeks to protect from human-made contamination the wells,
lakes, rivers and streams used for municipal water supplies, as well as the land surrounding those wells and surface water bodies. To participate in the voluntary program a city
conducts a field inventory to identify all potential sources of contaminants for the public water supply. A city then has several options to help protect their water supply, including adoption of an ordinance that requires generators of contaminants to use best-management practices to reduce the risk of contamination. It may also require limits on certain agricultural or industrial activities, to prevent contamination from occurring. Since the program's inception in Texas, over 700 local water systems have voluntarily participated in the program. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund administered by the Texas Water Development Board sets aside ten percent of its alloted monies to provide loans to communities to help develop and implement Source Water Protection projects.*
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