AWWA ACE58270

Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) has three drinking water intakes in the Detroit River and in Lake Huron. Both sources are part of the Great Lakes system and are shared with Canada. The system has five water plants and supplies an average of 640 million gallons per day (mgd) of water to about 4 million people in Southeast Michigan. DWSD is developing a source water protection program (SWPP), as part of its 50-year master plan, to start the long-term process of better protecting the water quality of its drinking water sources. The source water assessments of three DWSD's intakes have been completed, and provides useful background information in the development of a SWPP. Background information provided in this SWPP include regulatory review, watershed management programs, early warning monitoring system development, and source water protection modeling tools. The survey results of the SWPP activities from other metropolitan utilities were also provided, and the source water protection framework was developed. The SWPP is in its initial stages of development, and its main components and issues are summarized here. Includes figure.