Local planning teams help guide the development and implementation of a community public water supplies system’s Wellhead Protection Plan. Whether your system is large or small it is important to continue to make wellhead protection a priority in your community by meeting with your local planning team on a regular basis, this could be yearly or more often depending on your communities needs and resources.
- Continue to meet so that the conversation about source water protection continues
- Invite groups to join the local planning team. See the list of groups to consider collaboration with for ideas on who to reach out to, this is not an exhaustive list and you may know of other groups that you want to invite to join your local planning team.
- Reference the Wellhead Protection Guidance Document [PDF] for additional information on local planning.
- Another resource is Purdue Extension’s handout Forming the Wellhead Protection Planning Team [PDF].
Stakeholders
Local planning teams must have representation of parties that may be affected by the development and implementation of the Wellhead Protection Program. If you haven’t already, reach out to groups that are stakeholders for wellhead protection in your community. There are many dedicated groups and citizens in our State who care about their natural environment and are interested in participating in or are already participating in activities every day that help to improve, promote and conserve our shared natural resources for future generations. They have insight, educational materials, speakers, and information to share. Include them on YOUR team!
The groups listed below are a good place to start when looking to fill out your local planning team. Some of these groups may have questions, knowledge, experience, or resources that can help to work on maximizing the impact and effectiveness of wellhead protection in your community.
Local Government
- Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4)
- MS4s have a wide range of requirements that may overlap with what your public water supply’s goals or activities. If your community has an MS4 program, consider collaborating to make the most of your community’s resources.
- Solid waste management districts
- Local fire department and emergency responders
- Fire departments and emergency responders have valuable knowledge of what is going on in your community and can help with keeping your potential contaminate source inventory up to date. Staff changes make it important to have regular communication and training to keep your community safe if you have to use your contingency plan.
- IDHS: Emergency management agencies
- IDOH: Local health departments
- Local zoning office
- Transportation department (local and state)
- Town/city/county council
- Include members on your LPT and/or give regular updates at meetings to help keep officials and community members up to date on what your water utility’s concerns and needs are as well as the value that safe drinking water provides to your community. Some councils publish meeting minutes in the newspaper, online, or on public access TV and this can help be a way for your utility to keep water in the public eye. Ongoing communication with the council can help give your utility better standing when you request funding, propose a local ordinance, or raise a concern.
Local Groups
- ISDA: Soil and Water Conservation Districts
- Local watershed groups
- Purdue: Extension offices
- Local USDA NRCS representative
- Local Colleges and Universities
Regional Group
- USDA: Natural Resources Conservation Service Technical Service Providers
- USGS: Ohio Kentucky Indiana Water Science Center
- An inventory of water related projects and groups can be found in the Indiana Water Monitoring Council’s Indiana Water Report
- Regional Planning Commission
Potential Contaminant Sources (PCSs)
Including PCSs in your LPT can help keep communication open so that PCSs are more likely to be open about their questions and concerns related to water contamination.
- Commercial / industrial businesses (gas stations, dry cleaners, golf courses, factories, landfills, etc.)
- Municipal land users (parks, maintenance facilities, sumps, nurseries, etc.)
- Agricultural land users
- Transportation corridors (roads, train tracks, airports, etc.)
- Local citizens
- Critical water users
- Landowners
Additional resources are also available.
Local Planning Team Meeting Topics
Local planning team meetings can take any number of paths in terms of formality or organization. What matters is that your community is having ongoing discussions and conversations about wellhead protection in your community. If you are not sure what to talk about at a meeting here are some topics that you might consider covering:
- Planning emergency responder training
- Planning your local wellhead protection ordinance and updating the ordinance once it passes
- Discussing concerns your community may have related to wellhead protection
- Planning monitoring for wellfields
- Updating PCS tables and maps
- Updating the emergency response plan
- Planning education and outreach events
- Planning local recognition for source water protection efforts