Developing Comprehensive State Ground-Water-Protection Programs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a new approach to achieving national ground-water-protection goals, giving states primary responsibility for coordinating all activities associated with ground-water protection. This strategy represents a bold attempt to create a cohesive, planned approach to ground-water protection, where resources at all levels of government are directed by state-derived goals and priorities based on assessments of use, value, and vulnerability on a localized scale. If states are responsive to this new approach, and likewise the resources of federal agencies are guided by state rather than federally determined priorities, limited resources can be used much more effectively toward attaining ground-water-protection goals. EPA Region IV selected Alabama as the pilot state in the Southeast to develop a comprehensive state ground-water-protection program under the new EPA guidelines. Alabama chose to use a consensus-building process to engage all the interested parties in developing the program. In the course of the project, EPA's program development guidelines and processes for evaluating state programs were clarified. These are necessary components of the planning process.