The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) as the state's Primacy Agency for Drinking Water was required by the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to develop a SWAP. The SWAP includes delineating the boundaries of a source's assessment area, performing an inventory of land use activities of concern and determining a relative susceptibility of the source to the activities. The availability of the assessment to the waterworks owner and the public completes these first 3 steps in a Source Water Protection effort.
Overall there are more than 3,000 public water systems in Virginia, serving safe drinking water to more than 80% of Virginia’s population. The assessments indicated that very few sources have high levels of protection in place. Many public water systems are not in control of land use activities in a community. The Office of Drinking Water (ODW) encourages public waterworks to purchase land or conservation easements to reduce development risk. Several places to find out more information about this process can be found under Financial and Construction Assistance Programs or from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. Where this is not financially or logistically possible, they encourage waterworks and local governments to work together to adopt reasonable controls on development that protects water quality. Most do not own the entire contributing area for their source and many local governments have been reluctant to adopt protective zoning or other ordinances to reduce risk of development in these areas.
The assessments have identified future growth in source protection areas as a dominant risk factor threatening waterworks. The ODW has been working with a number of other state agencies to distribute and share SWAP data in an effort to bring more awareness to source protection areas. The ODW also has the ability to provide maps to local governments showing their source protection areas and maintains a Geographic Information System (GIS) that can be used to assist in planning future developments to avoid impact on source protection areas.
Although, Source Water Protection Programs are voluntary programs in the state of Virginia they are highly encouraged. Literature on how to start a Wellhead Protection Program (WHP) can be obtained by visiting this URL: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/gwpsc/pubs.html. Other documents are available by contacting ODW at 804-864-7500.
SWAP Susceptibility Results Table
Virginia gathered data from many different federal, state, local agencies and governments as well as private companies. Databases used to determine Potential Sources of Contamination (PSCs) are shown below:
Type of Data |
Type of Source |
Data Provider |
|
Superfund Sites |
Ground and Surface |
EPA |
|
NPDES Waste Discharges |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP, DEQ |
|
No-Discharge Facilities (Sewage Lagoons, Etc) |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP, DEQ |
|
Open Solid Waste Disposal Facilities |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP |
|
RCRA Sites |
Ground and Surface |
DEQ |
|
Hazardous Waste Sites |
Ground and Surface |
DEQ |
|
Tire Piles |
Ground and Surface |
CBLAD, DEQ |
|
Industrial Sites |
Ground and Surface |
Harris InfoSource |
|
Petroleum Tank Farms |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP, DEQ |
|
Storm Water Permits |
Ground and Surface |
DEQ |
|
Golf Courses |
Ground and Surface |
ESRI DATA, VEDP |
|
Hospitals |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP |
|
Highways |
Ground and Surface |
VDOT |
|
Rail Lines |
Ground and Surface |
VDOT |
|
Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) |
Ground and Surface |
DEQ, DCR |
|
Agricultural and Pasture Land |
Ground and Surface |
DCR, NRCS, DACS |
|
Military Bases |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP, VDOT |
|
Commercial and General Aviation Airports |
Ground and Surface |
VEDP |
|
Leaking Underground Storage Tanks |
Ground |
DEQ |
|
Underground Injection Wells |
Ground |
EPA |
|
Sites Investigated By DEQ For Groundwater Complaint/Contamination Investigation |
Ground |
DEQ |
|
Inactive Waterworks Wells |
Ground |
SDWIS |
Marinas |
Surface |
VDH Marina Program |
In total our GIS processed data from more than 12,000 PSCs and found 2,902 PSCs to be present in Zone 1 and 2 of groundwater source delineation areas. In addition, our GIS found 861 PSCs to be present in Zone 1 of surface water source delineation areas.
The ten most commonly found Land Use Activities from Tables 1 and 2 of Appendix F in Zone 1 and 2 are shown below.
|
Classification |
Rank |
Crop and fodder production |
4 |
Fuel Storage Systems |
2 |
Gasoline Station/Service Center |
7 |
On-site sewage system |
1 |
Parking Lots |
6 |
Pasture (grazing) |
3 |
Primary Roadways |
5 |
Solid Waste Collection/Transfer Site |
8 |
Underground Storage Tanks |
10 |
Wastewater Pump Station |
9 |
Complete statewide listing of Land Use Activities present in Zone 1 and 2.
A summary of Potential Conduits from Table 3 of Appendix F is shown below.
|
Type |
Totals |
Abandoned Wells (which have not been permanently abandoned according to the VDH Regulations) |
38 |
Caves / Sinkholes |
279 |
Elevator Shafts |
0 |
Other Wells in Use (other than wells constructed in accordance with the VDH Regulations) |
5,655 |
Ponds, streams |
2,269 |
Vertical Ground Source Heat Pump Systems |
2 |
|
8,243 |
Complete statewide listing of Potential Conduits present in Zone 1.
Documents Related to SWAP
The USGS project called the Virginia Aquifer Susceptibility study (VAS) is complete and should soon be in publication. This project involved collecting water samples from ground water wells across the state and age-dating the water using a variety of dating methods. Results of sampling were used in determining sensitivity of ground water in all areas of the state.
Many of these files require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 
.
Source Water Assessment Program (150+ pages - count includes appendices below. This part without the appendices is 22 pages.)
Appendices
B - WAC Membership
E - Key Issues Responses to Tables 1-6
F - Land Use Activity Inventory Tables 1-3
H - Groundwater Protection Programs in Virginia
I - Surface Water Protection Activities in Virginia
K - SWAP TEAM MinutesLSWAP TAC Minutes
M - WAC Minutes