Source Water Protection Project States 2008
New Hampshire
Building upon the state's current programs and policies, the national partnership focused primarily on how the state could support better land use decision-making at local levels. Strategies included providing local governments with access to critical information and technical assistance, clear direction on regulatory matters, and improving communication channels across watersheds and regions.
The ten recommended action items fell into four opportunity areas that address regulatory incentives, conservation funding, access to important date and communication tools, and smart growth planning and development. Within these broad categories, the action strategies are often interdependent - where accomplishing one fosters implementation of another one - or they can be implemented simultaneously to use human and financial resources more efficiently.
Three action items stood above the rest, with broad support as high-impact initiatives. Two of these require low-to-moderate effort or investment to implement, while the third would require a more significant investment and long-term commitment:
- Revise surface water quality standards and protections, and groundwater classification to better protect drinking water sources, as well as other high-quality waters.
- Expand eligibility for the Water Supply Land Protection Grant Program.
- Expand and enhance New Hampshire's on-line geographic information resources to support local planning needs.
By pursuing these three action items, the state would make considerable progress in better aligning land use and drinking water source protection between the state and local governments.
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Maine
The action plan for the State of Maine provides guidance about steps the state can take to align land use and drinking water programs to better protect drinking water sources. In-depth analysis of existing programs and listening sessions with representatives from across the state revealed that three key short-term actions could assist with better synergy between land use and drinking water source protection:
- The State of Maine's Quality of Place Investment Strategy offers a key opportunity to strengthen drinking water source protection as a criterion for state direction of funding toward infrastructure and economic development. Taking into account the costs and benefits of drinking water source protection, the state is poised to build upon existing partnerships to conduct public outreach to raise the profile of water in a state that enjoys the position of being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to protecting its source waters.
- Continued phased investment in its on-line mapping resources and information-sharing will better enable access to critical data by local governments to make more informed land-use decisions.
- Efforts to develop guidelines for compatible recreational opportunities in and around sensitive protection areas will evolve into greater access to conservation funding and a broader constituency to preserve lands and waters important for drinking water.
The action plan focuses on those action steps where the majority of respondents rated them as:
- Having high impact on drinking water source protection;
- Requiring low-to-moderate investment of public resources;
- Demanding high urgency for implementation;
- Having a short-to-medium time frame for implementation;
- Having a moderate-to-high chance for implementation; and
- Requiring low-to-moderate (primarily administrative) effort to implement.
Developing a dedicated statewide funding source for drinking water source protection was identified as the action that would have the highest positive impact, but that would require long-term planning and implementation. Those steps rated as low impact, high investment and low chance of success were eliminated from consideration.
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Ohio
Introduced in 2004, the Lake Erie Balanced Growth Initiative seeks to influence what has come to be recognized as one of the biggest and most intractable threats to the quality of Lake Erie water, the source of drinking water for 11 million people throughout the Great Lakes region. In 2008, as four pilot watersheds approached the end of their planning processes, the Ohio Water Resources Council adopted the Lake Erie BGI and began the process of adapting it for statewide implementation.
At this important juncture in the development of the Balanced Growth Initiative, the project team began work with the state. A preliminary report to the team's state clients laid out an analysis of the program as framed by a central question, "What more is needed to encourage participation and program effectiveness in the context of statewide expansion?"
The preliminary report recommended four groups of refinements to the BGI:
- Identify and test program changes necessary to assure program effectiveness in a statewide context.
- Incorporate current understanding of the role of development form, type and location into all aspects of the Balanced Growth process.
- Maximize participation in Balanced Growth planning, both across the state and within participating watersheds/regions.
- Actively foster implementation.
The project team presented its findings at a two-part workshop in Columbus. The first part took the form of a seminar and panel discussion on the relationship between economic development, redevelopment of existing communities, and water quality. Featuring national experts, this portion of the workshop was open to the public and representatives from a wide array of state agencies. On the second day of the workshop, invited members of an existing multi-agency working group discussed and commented on the team's findings and recommendations.
The workshop and preliminary report were both incorporated into the Ohio Lake Erie Commission's evaluation of the BGI pilot. As a result of the workshop, an action-oriented final report will focus more narrowly on multi-agency work to develop state incentives for local government participation and strengthening the endorsement process to improve interagency communication.
Download completed action plan