Tribal Drinking Water Program

EPA Headquarters Information

Related Region 8 Drinking Water Program Pages

Administration of the Drinking Water Program on Tribal Lands

Tribal Governments in Region 8 have not received "primacy"; i.e., the authority to administer and enforce their own drinking water programs, from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Therefore, EPA Region 8 directly implements the Safe Drinking Water Act within Tribal lands in Region 8. This covers any public water system with 15 or more service connections or that serves 25 or more persons for more than 60 days per year.

As of October 1, 2007, there are 133 active Tribal public water supply systems. Nineteen percent get their water from surface water sources, while eighty-one percent get their water from ground water (wells). Seventy-one percent of the systems serve populations of less than 500. Only one system serves a population of greater than 10,000. Each public water system is classified into one of three categories:

community public water system, i.e., towns, cities, mobile home parks, private subdivisions, etc., that have 15 or more service connections or serve 25 or more persons year round;
transient non-community public water systems, i.e., campgrounds, restaurants, highway rest areas, motels, hotels etc., that serve 25 or more different persons more than 60 days per year; and
non-transient non-community public water systems i.e., mining and industrial operations, schools, churches, etc., that serve the same 25 persons more than 60 days per year.

Eighty-six percent of the systems are community systems, three percent serve transient non-community systems, and the remaining eleven percent serve non-transient non-community systems.

EPA works with various Federal agencies to coordinate activities to ensure that consumers are served safe drinking water. The Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Reclamation provide technical assistance as it pertains to the construction and the operation and maintenance of Tribal public water supply systems.

EPA also hires contractors to help provide training and technical assistance to operators of Tribal public water systems.

Public Water Supply System Operations

The National Primary Drinking Water Regulations require operators to routinely monitor for a variety of contaminants using approved sampling and analysis methods. The number of samples and the frequency at which samples must be collected depend on a variety of factors, including:

whether the drinking water source is surface or ground water,
the population served by the water system,
the classification of the water system,
prior compliance data, and
whether the system has received a monitoring waiver or exemption.

Violations

Violations occur when public water systems fail to monitor for the required contaminants or when the level of a contaminant detected in a sample exceeds the drinking water standard , or maximum contaminant level (MCL). Additional monitoring may also be required if a contaminant is detected above a threshold level that is below the MCL.

About Region 8