Data Management

In 2018 and over the next few years, data management activities will focus on the development of SDWIS Prime — the new data management system for drinking water. ASDWA has recruited and will support state representatives for various committees and focus groups in the SDWIS Governance Structure that will manage the development of Prime and govern drinking water data management for the future. States and ASDWA will focus on state needs that must be adequately addressed in the development process; including maintaining core SDWIS/State functions, allowing connection of other state developed data modules (interfacing applications), and assuring adequate state control of data. ASDWA will ensure that state issues are identified and acted on by EPA; bringing concerns directly to EPA management when necessary.

SDWIS Prime

Looking for more information on SDWIS Prime? ASDWA maintains a SDWIS User Community with helpful information about both Legacy and Prime, access to SDWIS Legacy software and documentation, and quick links to EPA’s Prime resources [SharePoint and Zendesk]. Submit a Login Request Form to obtain credentials. Please note, ASDWA credentials will not work to access EPA-owned resources, like SharePoint or Zendesk.

ASDWA is also revamping the SDWIS User Community Discussion Forums. The forums are designed to provide users with quick access to peer-based support for Legacy and Prime. When a user posts a question to the discussion forum, all subscribers within the community receive a notification. If someone can help with the question, they will post a reply. ASDWA is working on a redesign of the forums, along with improved documentation, to ensure this useful resource is ready to meet the needs of the community as we move towards Prime Transition and official support channels for Legacy are retired. When you request access to the SDWIS User Community, you will gain access to the Forums [and subscribed to receive notifications of newly posted items]. Right now, the Forums are fully functional – we’re simply working to improve the user experience. If you have any questions, reach out to Anthony ASDWA.

Staying in the loop on SDWIS Prime – with all of the various distribution lists and moving parts, it can be challenging to know how best to stay in the loop with what’s happening with SDWIS Prime. ASDWA is currently working with EPA on ways to centralize all SDWIS communications to reduce confusion, but for now, here are some options to get you started:

Email Distribution Lists – a good first step would be to contact ASDWA and EPA to ask to be added to their email distribution lists. These are separate lists, each maintained by their respective organization.
ASDWA’s Update – ASDWA’s electronic newsletter covering all of the major happenings in drinking water from all ASDWA news feeds. This is a great option to track SDWIS Prime updates on a weekly or daily basis, without cluttering up your inbox with more notifications. Follow the instructions at https://www.asdwa.org/subscriptions/ to learn more about adding SDWIS Prime to your ASDWA Weekly Update.
SDWIS Prime News RSS – if you’re a savvy RSS user, you can track the information coming out of ASDWA’s SDWIS Prime news feed at https://www.asdwa.org/category/sdwis-prime/feed/.
SDWIS Prime Twitter – all of the content that gets published through the SDWIS Prime news feed is also routed through Twitter if you prefer to keep up with your news that way. The feed is private, so you must request access to follow @ASDWAorg_SDWIS.

Concerning the options outlined above, it’s important to note that, other than the email distribution lists, all of the content in the news feed, RSS, Twitter, and ASDWA Update is the same and you only need to choose one option.

If you have questions or need help determining the best option to meet your needs, feel free to contact Anthony of ASDWA.

Featured Documents

Minimum Federal Reporting Requirements for SDWIS Fed – Updated in June 2019, this technical guidance explains which data are required to be reported from primacy agencies to SDWIS/FED.
Requirements for Locational Data in the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) – includes the technical guidance to implement locational data requirements for states under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Locational data in this document are the latitude and longitude coordinates and the six required and eight optional/recommended method, accuracy, and description codes required under EPA’s Locational Data Policy.
EPA Latitude/Longitude Data Standard – provides a common set of data elements to specify a point by latitude/longitude. This standard describes data elements and data groupings that are used to exchange latitude/longitude data and information.