The New Mexico Source Water Assessment and Protection Program (SWAPP) is a federally funded program that assists communities in protecting their drinking water supplies. This is accomplished by identifying potential sources of contamination, evaluating the susceptibility of wells and surface water intakes to contamination, and working with communities, water utilities and service providers to develop Source Water Protection strategies. The SWAPP was approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in November, 1999, and is an information-gathering tool that follows on earlier drinking water protection initiatives mandated by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act .

The New Mexico SWAPP assists communities in making wise land use and resource management decisions through the following steps:
 

   Click here for more information from the EPA on the Source Water Assessment and Protection Program

Read about the New Mexico Environment Department's Source Water Assessment and Protection Program.  (read it in Adobe Acrobat format.)  (If you don't have Adobe's free Acrobat Reader, you can download it here.)
 

The Source Water Protection area is the land around each supply well or surface water intake where spills, leaks, accidents or other forms of contamination may have a direct impact on the drinking water supply. The size of this area depends on soil type, site geology, groundwater flow rate, and on the drainage area and land use in the watershed. The susceptibility of drinking water sources to contamination is based on the number and proximity of potential threats to the water supply and an evaluation of any sanitary defects at the wellhead, intake structures, or other components of the water system.

Potential sources of contamination are derived from industries, businesses and other activities which produce, use, distribute, or handle contaminants that have an established Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) under The Safe Drinking Water Act. Generators of microbiological and pathogenic organisms are also included in the contaminant inventory.