Water Supply - Sources of Drinking Water

Maintaining a safe, sustainable water supply is essential to all human and natural activities. The first step involved in maintaining our water supply is protecting it at its source. Source Water is untreated water from streams, lakes, rivers or underground aquifers often used to supply private wells and public drinking water systems.

Source water comes from one of two sources: surface water or groundwater. Surface water is open to the atmosphere and includes lakes, rivers, streams, creeks and oceans. Ground water is water found beneath the Earth’s surface between the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock. Because it can be very costly and extremely difficult to clean a polluted water source, it is very important to ensure our water sources are protected. Protecting our source water will also help to ensure that there will be enough safe water for all of our uses, now and in the future.