The Drinking Water Capacity Development Program helps public drinking water systems improve or optimize their technical, managerial, and financial framework to provide safe drinking water to their customers cost-effectively and sustainably.
Water system capacity is the ability to plan for, achieve, and maintain compliance with drinking water standards. Three major components of capacity are identified in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA):
- Technical capacity refers to a water system’s ability to produce safe drinking water as well as operate and maintain its equipment.
- Managerial capacity refers to the ability of the water system’s personnel to administer the system’s overall operations.
- Financial capacity refers to the financial resources of the public water supplier and the fiscal management that supports the cost of operating the water system.
Capacity development provisions provide an exceptionally flexible framework within which states and water systems can work together to ensure that systems acquire and maintain the technical, financial, and managerial ability to consistently achieve the health objectives of the SDWA.
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These Simple Tools for Effective Performance (STEP) guides offer clearly stated, step-by-step information to help small systems better understand complex regulatory requirements or policy initiatives.
- Drinking Water Security for Small Systems Serving 3,300 or Fewer Persons—One of the Simple Tools for Effective Performance (STEP) Guide Series (December 2005)
- Strategic Planning: A Handbook for Small Water Systems—One of the Simple Tools for Effective Performance (STEP) Guide Series (March 2021)
- Asset Management: A Handbook for Small Water Systems—One of the Simple Tools for Effective Performance (STEP) Guide Series (April 2022)
- Taking Stock of Your Water System: A Simple Asset Inventory for Very Small Drinking Water Systems (April 2022)
- Small Systems Guide to Safe Drinking Water Act Regulations: The First STEP to Providing Safe and Reliable Drinking Water—One of the Simple Tools for Effective Performance [STEP] Guide Series (September 2003)
- Setting Small Drinking Water System Rates for a Sustainable Future—One of the Simple Tools for Effective Performance [STEP] Guide Series (April 2022)
DEQ provides annual capacity development activity reports to EPA each fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). Additionally, federal requirements direct DEQ to provide a capacity development report to the state’s Governor every three years. The two sets of reports are below.
Annual Reports
- 2023 Annual Report to EPA
- 2022 Annual Report to EPA
- 2021 Annual Report to EPA
- 2020 Annual Report to EPA
- 2019 Annual Report to EPA
- 2018 Annual Report to EPA
Triennial Reports
Cyber-attacks are a growing threat to critical infrastructure sectors including drinking water systems. These attacks can compromise the ability of drinking water systems to provide safe water to customers, erode customer confidence, and result in financial and legal liabilities.
A water loss control program helps to identify real or physical losses of water from the water system and apparent losses, the water that is consumed but not accounted for. Real losses represent costs to a water system through the additional energy and chemical usage required to treat the lost water. Apparent losses represent a loss of revenue because the water is consumed but not accounted for and thus not billed.