Our goal is for all Great Lakes Basin sources of drinking water to be protected as the first step to ensuring that residents have access to a safe and sustainable supply of drinking water. We’re using the principles of Blue Accounting to identify top strategies and investments for protecting source water, and to track the progress of these efforts against our goal.

Download the Source Water fact sheet here.

Tracking Progress

The Source Water Work Group has identified key approaches to protecting source water and appropriate metrics for tracking progress on source water protection:

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Focus on contamination associated with:

  • Nutrients
  • Oil or hazardous material releases
  • Emerging contaminants
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  • Existence of plans designed to protect source water, as well as the population covered by these plans
  • Age of plan and applicable update cycles
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  • Monitoring data and trends for Contaminants of Emerging Concern through the U.S. EPA Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR)
  • Efforts to raise awareness about where drinking water comes from and what citizens and policymakers can do to protect their source water
Learn About Our Progress

Highlights