The mission of the Safe Drinking Water Branch of the Department of Health is to safeguard public health by protecting Hawaii’s drinking water sources (surface water and groundwater) from contamination and assure that owners and operators of public water systems provide safe drinking water to the community. This mission is accomplished through the administration of the Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) Program, Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program, Groundwater Protection Program (GWPP), Source Water Protection (SWP) Program, and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). The Safe Drinking Water Branch regulates public water systems as required by the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Public water systems, that is, water supply systems providing drinking water, are required to meet established federal and state drinking water standards to insure that drinking water is safe to use and drink.
The Federal Safe Drinking Water Act also requires the establishment of a UIC Program to protect the quality of underground sources of drinking water. The UIC Program is a regulatory program that controls the siting, construction, operation, and abandonment of injection wells throughout Hawai`i. Because injection wells are used for subsurface wastewater disposal, which in turn affects groundwater quality, proper control over injection wells reduces the risk of groundwater contamination. Regulatory control is exercised through an individual injection well permit, call a UIC permit, issued by the Department of Health to the injection well facility. Application forms related to the UIC permit are titled (briefly) General, Renewal, Existing, Change Operator, Registered Abandonment, Unregistered Abandonment, Facility Name Change, Drainage Well, Modification, Existing Drainage, Renewal Drainage, LCC Abandonment, Cesspool Abandonment, and File Termination. These application forms must be used to initiate permit-related actions that affect an injection well.
The Water Systems Operator Certification Program is a regulatory program which protects public health through the use of trained and experienced personnel to operate public water systems and to set standards for the certification of such personnel. Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and Water Treatment Plant Operators (WTPOs) are certified through this program.
The Wellhead Protection - Financial Assistance Program is a provides funding to qualified recipients for developing and implementing wellhead protection plans and projects. Under this program, qualified recipients include community public water systems and non-transient non-community water systems who can plan, develop, and implement protection projects. State and County agencies, community groups, planning agencies, and schools may also be qualified recipients if their protection project is part of a public water system protection plan or the public water system is a partner in the project.
The Hawaii DWSRF Program was established by the 1997 State Legislature as the result of the 1996 Federal amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. This program currently provides low interest loans to Hawaii’s regulated water systems for the construction of drinking water infrastructure projects. These projects help achieve or maintain compliance with drinking water standards, protect public health and the environment. See http://health.hawaii.gov/sdwb/drinking-water-state-revolving-fund/ for more information.