A Request for Proposals has been issued to local governments with ground water based community water supplies. Local governments with an interest in wellhead protection are encouraged to respond to the RFP. Funding for this competitive grant program is provided through federal grants to the Virginia Departments of Health and Environmental Quality. Deadline for proposal submission is 2 p.m. Friday, August 28, 2009. The RFP is available in pdf format at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/gwpsc/whp.html.
To further the efforts of the Source Water Assessment Program, the Department of Health has created a Wellhead Protection Plan development program for small community groundwater waterworks in central and western Virginia.
Source Water Protection Programs are voluntary in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Office of Drinking Water encourages and financially supports community's efforts to develop source water protection plans. These programs provide technical support to assist small water systems serving less than 3,300 people. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has additional literature on how to start a Wellhead Protection Program (WHP). Other documents are available by contacting ODW at 804-864-7500.
Participation in this program has enabled several small water systems to prepare and implement site-specific Wellhead Protection Plans while a number of other waterworks are currently in the process of completing Wellhead Protection Plans. Further details are available in the Wellhead Protection Plan Development Approach.
On May 26, 2005, EPA granted final approval to Virginia's Wellhead Protection Program. Protection of ground water source public water systems will be achieved through: ongoing regulatory and non-regulatory state programs; voluntary participation by local governments in land use management; and development of local planning and zoning ordinance that accounts for these issues.
DEQ will serve as the lead agency for coordination of this voluntary protection program. The Virginia Department of Health will continue as the Commonwealth's regulatory authority for public water supplies, including ongoing oversight of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Program.
For information on this voluntary program, please visit DEQ's Wellhead Protection site.
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