The Environmental Finance Center at Boise State University (EFC) had been involved in facilitating the Idaho Pilot Project as part of EPA’s national pilot program on source water protection.  The goal of the pilot project was to bring together drinking water systems that share a common drinking water supply source together with other land use authorities and to have these jurisdictions work collaboratively to develop and implement unified source water protection measures.  This approach has the potential for greater collaboration in source water protection efforts and may permit communities to achieve greater control measures in protecting their drinking water from contamination.

The EFC selected the Big Wood River Valley, located in Blaine County, as the location for the pilot project in Idaho.  The drinking water systems in the Big Wood River Valley share a common groundwater resource.  This resource is characterized by a shallow aquifer with high travel velocity, meaning the aquifer is considered highly vulnerable to contamination.  The purpose of this project was to provide insight on the successes and the challenges in addressing the multi-jurisdictional issues of source water protection. All of the community water systems have had source water assessments completed for their supply wells. 

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