Cadmus VP Leads Development of American Water Works Association Guide to Source Water Protection
Cadmus Vice President Chi Ho Sham, Ph.D., is the lead author of a recently published guidebook to help water utilities implement the requirements of ANSI (American National Standards Institute)/American Water Works Association (AWWA) Standard G300, which describes the six essential requirements for the effective protection of drinking water sources.
The 145-page Operational Guide to AWWA Standard G300, Source Water Protection covers SWP vision, source water characterization, program goals, action plan, implementation of SWP practices, and SWP program evaluation and revision. It includes worksheets, an extensive resource section, and case studies of successful source protection programs.
Protecting water sources from contamination is vital for providing safe and plentiful drinking water. SWP is a highly site-specific process due to the inherent diversity of natural waters and the areas from which they are derived. Although successful source water protection programs may vary widely in their details, successful programs share several fundamental elements that form the basis of the SWP standard, G300.
Within the standard’s generalized framework, individual utilities may establish and maintain source water protection programs that account for their unique local conditions, incorporate the interests of local stakeholders, and reflect sustainable long-term commitments to the process by all parties.
The guide is the result of a decade-long process that began as an effort by a volunteer AWWA workgroup to develop accreditation criteria and supporting guidance for SWP activities by water utilities. The accreditation effort later evolved into a series of management standards for water and wastewater utilities. A new volunteer committee developed the G300 standard, which was approved by AWWA in 2007. In 2009 the AWWA SWP committee chaired by Dr. Sham was charged with producing the G300 guidance.
Dr. Sham’s co-authors are Richard W. Gullick, Ph.D., director of water resources for Environmental Engineering & Technology, Inc.; Sharon C. Long, Ph.D., director of environmental microbiology at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and an associate professor of soil science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; and Pamela P. Kenel, P.E., is an associate vice president and a global practice and technology leader in water resources and sustainable planning at Black & Veatch, a global engineering, consulting, and construction company.
About The Cadmus Group, Inc.
Cadmus (https://cadmusgroup.com) helps government, non-profit and corporate clients address critical challenges in the environmental and energy sectors. We provide an array of research and analytical services in the United States and abroad, specializing in solving complex problems that demand innovative, multidisciplinary thinking. Our major service areas are Water, Energy Services, Social Marketing and Market Transformation, Health Policy and Communications, Green Building, International Development and Strategic Environmental Consulting.
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