Public Water System Supervision Program Water Supply Guidance Manual

(EPA 816-R-00-003, January 2000)

EPA periodically issues memorandums which clarify drinking water policies and regulations.  These policy memos have been collected into a water supply guidance which has been made available to states and public water systems to assist them in implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.  The guidance manual was last updated in 1993.  This 2000 revision has been updated to add new memos and remove memos which no longer apply.  The manual includes 135 policy memos and 52 guidances from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline.  The guidances have been renumbered from the 1993 edition to reflect deletions and additions. Index 5 to the manual has information on how to obtain materials that are not on this site.  Additional materials may also be available on the PWSS publications page.

The water supply guidance (WSG) files are available in an Acrobat PDF format.  For help with PDF files, click here.  The guidances are indexed in three formats:

• by Subject matter:  PDF(no internal links, select subject below for links)
• • Alternative Treatment Technologies
  • Analytical Requirements/Laboratory Certification
  • Capacity Development
  • Chemicals other than Lead & Copper
  • Direct Implementation
  • Disinfection
  • Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF)
  • Emergency Action and Planning
  • Enforcement
  • Federal Facilities
  • Grants
  • Indian Land Issues
  • Information Collection Rule (ICR)
  • Interpretation of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Regulations
  • Interstate Carrier Conveyances
  • Lead & Copper Control Issues
  • Microbiological Regulations
  • Point Of Entry Devices
  • Primacy
  • Public Involvement
  • Public Notification
  • Radionuclides
  • Reporting, Record Keeping and Data Management Requirements 
  • Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS)
  • Surface Water & Ground Water
  • Unregulated Contaminants
  • Variances and Exemptions
• by new WSG number:PDF(includes internal links to files)
• by old WSG number:PDF (no internal  links to files)