Successful Western States Source Water Protection Forum Held Last Week

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) hosted a successful Western States Source Water Protection Forum on May 13-15, 2025, in Portland.  Participants included 62 people in person and 52 virtually from 14 of the 15 western state source water protection programs (including Alaska and Hawaii), state rural water associations, water utilities, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and USDA Forest Service, the US Geological Survey, the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC), and ASDWA.

The forum opened with a warm welcome from Samina Panwhar, ASDWA’s Member and the OHA Drinking Water Administrator and Jennifer Wigal, the DEQ Water Quality Administrator, who spoke about their shared commitment to working across agencies to protect drinking water sources. Presentations and discussions during the three days of the forum highlighted the great work of all the partners to protect drinking water sources for their communities across the west. Topics included: updating source water assessments, working with small water systems, developing and maintaining collaboratives, integrating with local planning, emerging contaminants, leveraging funding sources, and more.

The forum concluded with a field trip to the Clackamas River Water Watershed, where a coalition of municipal water utilities are working together with partners to conduct a variety of programs and outreach to protect their drinking water source.