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Collaboration and Partnerships
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
Potomac River Basin Drinking Water Source Protection Partnership
EPA Region 3 - Philadelphia
Description of activity: Region 3 has made the development and enhancement of partnerships a priority for working on source water protection issues. The Schuylkill Action Network was developed with the Philadelphia Water Department and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as a proto-type for collaborative work. Building on that success, the Regional Office worked with metropolitan Washington water utilities, various state and local agencies, and others to form the Potomac River Basin Drinking Water Source Protection Partnership. Both these partnerships have developed internal strategies for working within the regional office as subsets of the overall partnership strategies.
Region 3 commits time and personnel to both efforts and works to develop cross program coordination and grants to help in the partnership efforts. Both the Schuylkill Action network coordinator and the Potomac DWSPP coordinator have held Knowledge Transfer sessions to provide information exchange to other members of the Water Division and other divisions in the region.
Region 3 views both Partnerships as part of the Region’s new “Healthy Waters Initiative” and as key players in developing the public health source water protection activities portions of our logic models and strategies for our workgroups.
In 2007 two actions in the Potomac Partnership stand out. A cryptosporidium study was financed with EPA RARE grant and utility in-kind, and Region 3 held an Inter-Agency meeting to reach out to a number of federal agencies. In 2008 the partners will increase efforts on emerging contaminants and work on specific sub-watersheds in a coordinated approach.
Potomac Partnership Meeting
Interagency partners: District of Columbia Department of Environment, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, Maryland Department of the Environment, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, EPA - Region 3, DOI - United States Geological Survey, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Department of Health, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has also been actively participating with the partnership.
Local partners: The following water suppliers (including local jurisdictions that operate drinking water treatment facilities) and government agencies have formally joined the Partnership by signing the partnership resolution: City of Frederick , Maryland; City of Hagerstown , Maryland; City of Rockville , Maryland; Fairfax Water; Frederick County , Maryland; Town of Leesburg , Virginia; Washington Aqueduct Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Washington County , Maryland, and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.