UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY WSG 169 Date Signed: September 10, 2003 MEMORANDUM From: William R. Diamond, Director Drinking Water Protection Division To: Regional Drinking Water/Source Water Branch Chiefs, Region 1-10 Subject: Interim Data Security Procedures for Handling State SWA Polygon Data At the request of GWPC and several states, I want to reaffirm the security procedures we currently have in place for handling source water area (SWA) polygon data we receive from the states. OGWDW holds the State polygon data in a protected development servers and restricts access to only those involved in developing the SWA data repository. By agreement with each state, no one else will have access to the data until the state reviews EPA's security policy and authorizes EPA to release its data for production use. These interim data security procedures will remain in effect until we establish a data security policy on handling the SWA polygon and related source water assessment and protection data reported to EPA by the states. Once EPA's data security policy is in place, our agreement is to offer the states the option of having their data deleted from EPA's data base if the state determines that EPA's public access policy is less restrictive than the comparable State policy. As you know, I announced the start of our quest to develop our own GIS coverage of the State delineated source water areas in late September, 2002. From the start, we committed to securing the state data from access by anyone other than those working on developing EPA's database until we published our long term data handling policy. This commitment is documented in the "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" paper we developed to address the policy and procedural issues raised by the states about the initiative. We have been remarkably successful in working with the states in developing our SWA polygon coverage. Currently, we have SWA polygon data from 19 states and agreement with nine others and D.C. to submit their data. Our SWA polygon coverage is the foundation for the pilot effort with GWPC and ASDWA to begin implementation of the measures guidance this year. The success we have had with the states depends to a large extent on our commitment to protecting the state data until the security policy is settled. ------- WSG 169 We are working with the key groups in EPA and the states to publish a data security policy related to the SWA polygons and related source water assessment and protection data. I am hopeful that we'll have a policy in place over the next few months that will meet the concerns of most of the states. Until then, we plan to continue working with as many states as we can to resolve the technical challenges of building a consistent GIS coverage of the State delineated source water areas. Your active involvement in working with your states on this initiative is appreciated. Attachments cc: Chuck Job Roy Simon Jim Taft, ASDWA Michael Paque, GWPC Regional Source Water Representatives ------- |