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Basic Information
This page answers the following questions about the Drinking Water Academy:
- What is the Drinking Water Academy?
- What is the mission of the Drinking Water Academy?
- Why is the Drinking Water Academy needed?
- Who benefits from the Drinking Water Academy?
- How are materials for the Drinking Water Academy being developed?
- What training needs does the Drinking Water Academy address?
- What training courses are currently available?
- How does training take place?
- How can I access training materials?
- What other types of information resources are available?
- How can I obtain more information?
What is the Drinking Water Academy?
The Drinking Water Academy (DWA) provides training and information to help EPA, States, Tribes, and others increase their capability to implement the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments. Training will, in turn, promote better compliance and encourage greater public health protection. The Academy will develop courses designed to meet the training needs of the Public Water System Supervision, Underground Injection Control, and Drinking Water Source Water Protection programs.
What is the mission of the Drinking Water Academy?
The mission of the Drinking Water Academy is to assist EPA, States and Tribes in enhancing their program capability to successfully carry out the goals and requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Why is the Drinking Water Academy needed?
The 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act pose implementation challenges to EPA, States, Tribes, and water systems. These challenges include adopting new regulations and other program requirements, establishing stronger drinking water source prevention programs, and developing a new infrastructure financing program to provide systems with a source of lower cost financing to make infrastructure improvements. The 1996 Amendments also place a great emphasis on involving the public in developing and implementing of the program. New and more comprehensive training efforts are necessary to meet these important public health protection goals of the Act.
Who benefits from the Drinking Water Academy?
The benefits of the Drinking Water Academy are widespread and extend to EPA personnel, State and Tribal officials, and the public. EPA, States, and Tribes are responsible for overseeing and implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act and Amendments. Initially, the primary focus of training will be EPA Headquarters, Regions, and States. Tribal programs will benefit immediately since they rely on EPA Headquarters and Regions for support and guidance in implementing the program. EPA will later extend Academy training to directly serve Tribes. The public will benefit from the Academy since EPA, States, and Tribes will become better equipped to implement programs that support the objective of providing safe and affordable drinking water.
How are materials for the Drinking Water Academy being developed?
EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water has established an advisory board of EPA Headquarters and Regional staff and State representatives. The work group identifies training needs, establishes priorities, and helps to develop all training materials for the Academy. The work group also identifies existing training materials and potential trainers and training sites.
What training needs does the Drinking Water Academy address?
The Academy is designed to address the needs of drinking water program staff administering the Public Water System Supervision (PWSS), Underground Injection Control (UIC), and Ground Water/Source Water Protection (GW/SWP) programs. The DWA Advisory Board has identified some specific training needs within these programs. Additional training needs will evolve as implementation deadlines draw near and new regulatory responsibilities emerge.
What training courses are currently available?
The Academy presently offers courses in ten topic areas: Safe Drinking Water Act Overview, National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, Public Water System Operation, Public Water System Supervision Implementation, Sanitary Survey, Source Water Protection, Underground Injection Control, Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), Laboratory Certification, and General Interest. For more information about the courses, see the DWA Course Catalog.
If your State or Region is interested in hosting a Drinking Water Academy training course, see the DWA Course Catalog for the contact for each course, or contact Jamie Bourne (bourne.james@epa.gov) at (202) 564-4095.
How does training take place?
A majority of training will take place in the form of web conferences. Some courses, which are highly interactive or which include field work, will continue to be provided on-site as classroom training. The Sanitary Survey and Comprehensive Performance Evaluation courses, are examples. Trainers have extensive experience and expertise with specific drinking water programs.
How can I access training materials?
A regularly updated Calendar of Course Offerings and Course Catalog are available on this Web site. In addition, EPA will post participant manuals or other materials from some courses in the Electronic Workshop as materials are developed.
What other types of information resources are available?
The Academy uses other methods to provide information to drinking
water professionals, including a periodic bulletin. EPA developed and
distributed the first quarterly DWA Bulletin in January 1999 to introduce EPA Regions and States to the Academy and provide a schedule of upcoming training sessions.
You may contact the EPA Office of Water Resource Center (center.water-resource@epa.gov) for more information or copies of specific documents. The Center can be reached 24 hours a day at (202) 566-1729 and 1-800-832-7828, or online at the Resource Center Web site.
The Academy is working in partnership with a number of organizations that are part of the drinking water community. Our Training Partners Web page lists and describes these organizations and provides links to their Web sites for additional information.
How can I obtain more information?
For more information on the Drinking Water Academy, contact
us directly or call Nhien Pham ((pham.nhien@epa.gov)) at (202) 564-1726. For general information, call the Safe Drinking Water Act hotline at (800) 426-4791. You can download
an Adobe PDF version of the Drinking Water Academy Fact Sheet (PDF) (1 pg, 53K, About PDF).