NI 440-313 provides that additional guidance will give STCs the opportunity to revise and update high priority areas for source water. If STCs make this determination through collaboration with community water systems, the State drinking water agency, and the State Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), they may submit a revised list of watersheds defining the high priority areas for source water in their State.

STCs will use the guidance in NI 440-313 and below to indicate revised high priority areas, based on HUC12 watersheds, as a refinement to those that were previously identified.

The following risk factors should be considered when selecting these areas where agricultural land uses may impact source water:

• ·       Nutrients, sediments, pathogens, and pesticides – identified water quality resource concerns at watershed/area scale

• ·       Reported or likelihood of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs)

• ·       Water system violations

• ·       Size of population served by source water protection areas (SWPAs)

• ·       Ground water systems served by an aquifer designated as “sole source”

• ·       Known areas of aquifer depletion or ground water management areas

• ·       Other risks that may impact source water:

o    Karst geology

o    Highly erodible soils

o    Degraded habitat

o    Livestock access to surface water

o    Wildfire risk

• ·       Opportunity to address risks to source water and also related resource concerns:

o    Impaired surface waters

o    Aquatic habitat.

The following Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SWPA spatial data are available for States to consider in selecting high priority areas:

• Percent HUC12 in wellhead protection areas (ground water systems):

https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=b6e08515c946454292c9533dbecbdb25

• Percent HUC12 in SWPAs (surface systems):

https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=7b34c37c64b64c559a5d887f974f24ba

Note:   Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters (DWMAPS) will default view to the Prime meridian (Longitude 0) and the mapped layer will not appear until zoomed in on a location within the United States. The user can either pan into a location of interest or search for the location using the search bar.

This data represents the density of SWPAs aggregated at the HUC12 scale (percentage of the HUC12 in an SWPA). This data is a good representation of the SWPAs modeled by EPA and is what NRCS is using to track the 10 percent of conservation program funding. States should focus on HUC12s with the greatest density of SWPAs to incorporate into high priority areas, where possible.

Providing information on revisions to high priority areas. For each HUC12 selected, the type of systems addressed (ground or surface water) and the source water threat (water quality or aquifer depletion) must be included using the spreadsheet available at the link below:

https://usdagcc.sharepoint.com/sites/nrcs_programs/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7BCDB1F73E-62A3-445B-9310-D28113B03B3B%7D&file=Source%20Water%20Local%20Priority%20Refinement_FY23.xlsx&action=default&mobileredirect=true&cid=64597f9e-e316-4539-961a-f6dae4b531da

Please do not edit the spreadsheet in SharePoint. Download the spreadsheet, enter required information, and email as described below. Please ensure that the most current watershed boundary dataset for HUC12 is used, and the additional requested attributes have been included in the spreadsheet for selected HUC12s.

Please provide the high priority SWPAs (HUC12s) and any modifications to the original local priorities on the “Source Water Local Priority Refinement FY23” spreadsheet by September 30, 2022. The Water Programs Coordinator is John Bullough. Contact information is available via the contact page for the Areawide Planning Branch at the link below:

For additional information or clarification, please contact John Bullough, Water Programs Coordinator, at john.bullough@usda.gov.