Guarding sources of local drinking water from contamination is the stated goal of a project undertaken last week by Surface Creek Valley area water interests and a Front Range non-profit group that is working in conjunction with the state government.

Thirty people responded to 60 written invitations that went out for the meeting held at the Cedaredge Community Center. Colleen Williams, a facilitator with the non-profit group, said $5,000 grants are available to groups participating in the program. "We might be able to get $10,000 easy with this (size) group," she told those at the meeting.

The SWPP project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by the Environmental Protection Agency, and by the Colorado Health Department, Williams said. The grants require a 50 percent local match which can be provided by local attendance at meetings credited toward the match at the rate of $30 per hour. "Specialists" who attend meetings qualify for a $100-per-hour grant match credit.

Williams said the SWPP program is not funded by federal "economic stimulus" money.

The Town of Cedaredge volunteered its services to be the "lead agency" handling grant accounting and fund dispersal, subject to town trustees' approval. The SWPP project would aim to identify possible sources of contamination to the raw drinking water supplies of the towns of Orchard City and Cedaredge, the Coalby Domestic Water Company, and the Upper Surface Creek Domestic Water Company. The CRWA is involved in other water programs besides the SWPP. They include water system mapping, planning, consulting and education.

Williams said the Source Water Protection Plan would not be a watershed protection scheme like ones considered in the county about five years ago. At that time, town governments in Delta County and especially Cedaredge were interested in passing "watershed protection ordinances." It was believed they would give local communities control over activities on their watershed lands. The initiative stalled when the U.S. Forest Service asserted its jurisdiction over the town's watershed areas.

The Source Water Protection Plan is aimed at "keeping contaminants off the land and out of water treatment plants," Williams said.

Williams said that other communities, including the Plateau Valley area and Rangely, are participating in the SWPP project.

Groundwork for the SWPP effort was laid in 1996 with passage of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The initiative was advanced in 2004 with the compiling of local "Source Water Assessments" (SWA).

These SWA reports were put together for hundreds of local drinking water systems in the state. In Delta County alone, the consultant compiling the SWA data produced 23 separate reports for different water systems here.

The SWA reports were "thrown together," Williams said, from readily available data. She said the SWA reports contained inconsistencies and errors "that created a lot of problems" and asked for updated information. The SWA reports are available on the State Health Department's website. A sampling of three reports for local water systems in Delta County showed them to be identical in 20-page length, and identical in almost all content, most of which describes the local drinking water systems in terms of state criteria, statistical averages, and bureaucratic boilerplate.

In the Surface Creek area, Domestic water systems have been operating and improved for 100 years or more. Information about domestic system water quantity, quality, policy, and infrastructure is often readily available to water users and others.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website explains the statewide Source Water program as follows: Colorado Source Water Assessment and Protection (SWAP) is a program designed to provide information about your drinking water, as well as provide you and your community a way to get involved in protecting the quality of your drinking water. The program encourages community-based protection and preventive management strategies to ensure that all public drinking water resources are kept safe from future contamination."

In addition, the CDPHE describes its Source Water Assessment project as follows: "The Colorado Water Quality Control Division completed the initial source water assessment reports for over 1700 public water systems in November 2004. The reports were sent to all the evaluated public water systems for their review and comments. The Division received feedback and corrections from several water systems throughout the state, and is in the process of incorporating the appropriate revisions. Approximately 23 public water system's reports remain in the revision process and their reports are not currently accessible on the website. If your public water system's report is being revised, the water system name will appear under the assessment report heading but the link will not be active, and the associated report can not be viewed. A second meeting of the local SWPP group is scheduled for Monday, Sept.. 21 at the Cedaredge Community Center at 6 p.m.

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