The GWR applies to all public water systems that serve groundwater. 

The Groundwater Rule has four major elements:

  1. Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rules for all systems with direct connections to lakes, rivers, or streams. These requirements become effective December 1, 2011, but it is anticipated that some of these requirements may be initiated before this date.
  2. A requirement for any system using both surface water and groundwater to comply with at least one of the surface water provisions in place of equivalent protection offered by the existing GWR.
  3. A requirement for any system that draws groundwater is to provide an annual wellhead protection plan. (The purpose of a WHP is to identify potential sources of contamination within the drinking water source area that may affect the drinking water supply as well as identify potential impacts from those identified sources on the drinking water supply.)
  4. Provisions requiring additional testing of water from certain wells used as sources of drinking water (e.g., monitoring for 3,4-dichloroaniline (DCA), 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane or 1,2,3-trichloropropane).

If you believe that your water service is not in compliance with Pennsylvania's groundwater rules, you can request a copy of the town's water quality reports from your local Department of Health. To request independent testing of your town's water supply, you can contact an environmental laboratory.

To ensure that your personal water supply is safe, you may want to consider a whole house filtration system or a reverse osmosis system for your drinking water.

The team at Spring Rain Inc. would be happy to test your water and provide a recommendation.