Assess Lake and Reservoir Source-Water Susceptibility and Design Intake Monitoring
Build a source-pathway-receptor susceptibility record and a decision-specific monitoring design while preserving utility, authority, security, laboratory, and inference boundaries.
What to do first
Start with the supplying system, decision, source-water use, responsible utility and authorities, evidence class, and protected information. Delineate the protection area with documented hydrology, tributaries, intake zones, travel assumptions, uncertainty, and version. Inventory potential contaminant sources without assigning blame; proximity is not hydrologic connection, susceptibility is not contamination, and DWMAPS or another portal is not a complete current inventory. Design baseline, sentinel, event, tributary, lake, depth, and intake-zone roles around the decision rather than a universal panel or station. Use authorized methods, qualified laboratories, custody, QA, reporting limits, validation, and versioned provenance. A non-detect does not prove absence, untargeted contaminants cannot be declared absent, ambient criteria are not MCLs, CWA impairment is not an SDWA violation, and a source-water result does not authorize utility action. Predefine utility, primacy, emergency, public-health, security, and public-release handoffs.
- Define a bounded source-water decision
- Preserve source-to-tap and authority boundaries
- Build a versioned protection-area model
- Separate potential sources from releases and blame
- Design reproducible monitoring and QA
- Predefine secure authority handoffs
Use the versioned field record.
Use this guide inside a field curriculum.
2. Preserve source-to-tap and regulatory boundaries
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Name the decision owner, supplying system, source-water use, jurisdiction, evidence class, and prohibited inference before selecting measurements. Source-water monitoring does not determine tap safety or authorize utility operations.
3. Delineate the source-water protection area
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Use current assessment, delineation, watershed, intake-zone, tributary, travel-time, land-use, and operational evidence. Record assumptions and uncertainty; proximity is not hydrologic connection, a potential source is not a release, and susceptibility is not contamination.
4. Model lake, tributary, intake-zone, and travel-time hydrology
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Use current assessment, delineation, watershed, intake-zone, tributary, travel-time, land-use, and operational evidence. Record assumptions and uncertainty; proximity is not hydrologic connection, a potential source is not a release, and susceptibility is not contamination.
5. Inventory potential contaminant sources without assigning blame
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Preserve portal provenance and gaps. DWMAPS is not a complete current inventory, a map layer does not prove a current facility, and database absence does not prove compliance.
6. Evaluate source-pathway-receptor susceptibility
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Preserve portal provenance and gaps. DWMAPS is not a complete current inventory, a map layer does not prove a current facility, and database absence does not prove compliance.
7. Audit DWMAPS, WQP, ATTAINS, USGS, state, Tribal, and utility provenance
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Assign baseline, sentinel, event, tributary, lake, depth, intake-zone, and existing-data roles to the stated decision. No universal contaminant panel, station, depth, interval, or season represents every system.
8. Define baseline, sentinel, event, tributary, lake, and intake roles
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Assign baseline, sentinel, event, tributary, lake, depth, intake-zone, and existing-data roles to the stated decision. No universal contaminant panel, station, depth, interval, or season represents every system.
9. Select contaminant groups and indicators without a universal panel
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Use authorized methods, qualified laboratories, custody, reporting limits, blanks, duplicates, calibration, validation, and a QAPP appropriate to the decision. A non-detect does not prove absence and untargeted contaminants cannot be declared absent.
10. Design spatial, temporal, depth, event, and operating-state coverage
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Use authorized methods, qualified laboratories, custody, reporting limits, blanks, duplicates, calibration, validation, and a QAPP appropriate to the decision. A non-detect does not prove absence and untargeted contaminants cannot be declared absent.
11. Control methods, laboratories, custody, QA, and validation
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Predefine utility, primacy, environmental, emergency, public-health, and public-communication handoffs. Ambient criteria are not MCLs, CWA impairment is not an SDWA violation, and a source result does not authorize intake action.
12. Separate screening, detections, non-detects, and criteria
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Predefine utility, primacy, environmental, emergency, public-health, and public-communication handoffs. Ambient criteria are not MCLs, CWA impairment is not an SDWA violation, and a source result does not authorize intake action.
14. Release and update versioned evidence
Build one attributable monitoring-design decision without crossing utility, authority, or inference boundaries.
Release versioned evidence with source, method, scope, qualifiers, security classification, reviewer, correction path, and supersession. Generalize sensitive intake and infrastructure information.
Sources and review notes
Educational source-water protection, evidence-control, and preparedness guidance only. It is not a tap-water safety determination, drinking-water advisory, contaminant identification, regulatory finding, emergency-response plan, treatment instruction, intake operating instruction, permit, funding award, or authorization. Current utility, primacy-agency, public-health, emergency, Tribal, federal, state, territorial, local, landowner, laboratory, security, privacy, access, sampling, and public-communication requirements control.
- Basic Information about Source Water ProtectionU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Assess, Plan and Protect Source WaterU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Source Water Protection PlanningU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Source Water Protection PracticesU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Evaluate Progress Toward Source Water Protection GoalsU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Common ConsiderationsU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Preparing for EmergenciesU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Incident Action Checklist: Source Water ContaminationU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Primacy Agency Drinking Water DataU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- DWMAPS User GuideU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Resources for Source Water AssessmentsU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Types of Drinking Water ContaminantsU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Tribal Governments' Role in Safe Drinking Water in Indian CountryU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- How's My WaterwayU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Assessment, Total Maximum Daily Load Tracking and Implementation SystemU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Water Decontamination Frequently Asked Questions for CustomersU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · agency guidance
- Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule DocumentsU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · reference
- Quality Assurance Project Plan StandardU.S. Environmental Protection Agency · field protocol
- Drinking Water and Source Water ResearchU.S. Geological Survey · reference
- Lakes and Reservoirs: Guidelines for Study Design and SamplingU.S. Geological Survey · field protocol
- Water Quality PortalNational Water Quality Monitoring Council · reference