NGWA submitted comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on November 12 in response to the agency’s draft Strategic Plan that will guide the agency’s priorities from 2022 through 2026.
The plan outlines the EPA’s strategic objectives for achieving their long-term goals to better protect human health and the environment.
While NGWA is supportive of the water protection goals outlined within the Strategic Plan, its comments emphasize that groundwater should be managed and protected at the state and local levels.
From the NGWA comments:
“With a focus on the responsible use and development of groundwater, the National Ground Water Association supports the Environmental Protection Agency Strategic Plan goal to ‘Ensure Clean and Safe Water for All Communities.’ In carrying out this goal, NGWA supports the states’ management and control of their groundwater resources….”
In addition to focusing on local control of groundwater, NGWA’s comments also urged the EPA to add additional resources to groundwater protection, PFAS, stormwater management, managed aquifer recharge, and Superfund.
The EPA is expected to submit the final version of its Strategic Plan to Congress in February 2022.
Click here to read NGWA’s comments.
NGWA has long been an industry leader in providing PFAS research, education, and resources to the public and scientific communities. In 2017, NGWA published Groundwater and PFAS: State of Knowledge and Practice, which was one of the first PFAS guidance documents to be released. It can be found at NGWA.org/PFAS, which is a complete resource center about the groundwater contaminants featuring a FAQs document, a top-10 facts sheet, a homeowner checklist, and more.