Do you know where your drinking water comes from? When you turn on the faucet, you expect safe, clean drinking water for you, your family, and your pets. Did you know that over 50 of Maine’s 5,800 lakes and ponds are used for public drinking water?  Or that underground wells supply public water to some communities?

Approximately, 66 percent of Maine’s population receives water from one of Maine’s 1,900 public water systems, which is over 30-billion gallons of safe drinking water each year! Anytime you visit and use water in a hospital, apartment complex, school, restaurant, or business, there is a likelihood that you are being served by a public water system.  Public water systems are required to make sure the water is safe to drink, always.

Maine is lucky because we have a large number of high-quality lakes, rivers, and groundwater sources for drinking. Protection of these sources of drinking water is important because cleaner water is easier to treat and make safe for drinking. In an ideal world, drinking water sources would be located in remote, forested areas away from the influence of humans. Because forests act as filters, they help purify water as it moves across the landscape. Removal of forests through human activity can increase the risk of pollutants entering a drinking water source. 

Source protection of surface (lake, river, stream) and groundwater (well) sources is the first and most important step in a multi-step process that water systems use to ensure that your tap water is safe. In addition to source protection, systems provide proper disinfection and treatment, clean and maintain water pipes and tanks that carry and store water after treatment, and monitor water quality throughout each of those processes. Keeping pollutants out of the source is the best way to keep drinking water safe, because if pollutants never get into the source, then people won’t consume them even if other steps in the process fail.

Customers can help prevent pollution of all water sources by taking responsibility for their own actions and encouraging others to do the same.  Here are a few tips to start:

*Maintain your septic system.  Have it pumped out every three years.

*Use and dispose of chemicals properly.  Do not dump chemicals onto the ground or into water bodies, stormwater drains, or manholes.

*Put trash in its proper place: in your trashcan.  Clean up after your pets as well.

*Maintain your vehicle and inspect it regularly for leaky hoses and exhaust pipes.

* Support land conservation and preservation near your water sources.

Please help keep Maine’s water clean for us and future generations.