§ 144.86 What are the definitions I need to know?

(a) State Drinking Water Source Assessment and Protection Program. This is a new approach to protecting drinking water sources, specified in the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act at Section 1453. States must prepare and submit for EPA approval a program that sets out how States will conduct local assessments, including: delineating the boundaries of areas providing source waters for public water systems; identifying significant potential sources of contaminants in such areas; and determining the susceptibility of public water systems in the delineated areas to the inventoried sources of contamination.

(b) Complete local source water assessment for ground water protection areas. When EPA has approved a State's Drinking Water Source Assessment and Protection Program, States will begin to conduct local assessments for each public water system in their State. For the purposes of this rule, local assessments for community water systems and non-transient non-community systems are complete when four requirements are met: First, a State must delineate the boundaries of the assessment area for community and non-transient non-community water systems. Second, the State must identify significant potential sources of contamination in these delineated areas. Third, the State must “determine the susceptibility of community and non-transient non-community water systems in the delineated area to such contaminants.” Lastly, each State will develop its own plan for making the completed assessments available to the public.