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| For more information contact: Joe Thornton For immediate release City of Parkersburg honored for protection of drinking water Before drinking your next glass of water, you may want to consider what goes into protecting it from any number of potentially harmful contaminates. While the United States has one of the safest water supplies in the world, it is ultimately the responsibility of individual communities to effectively ensure their water supplies are safe for the consumer. For that reason, the city of Parkersburg is the recipient of the source water protection award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The award is presented to communities that encourage leadership, innovation and dedication to source water protection. Parkersburg won the award for its strong financial commitment to water protection by identifying potential contaminate sources to its resources and developing emergency and contingency plans to minimize any threat to its drinking water. According to EPA Regional Administrator for Mid-Atlantic Region Donald S. Welsh, "Drinking water is a finite and precious resource, so we applaud communities that take the necessary steps in order to protect it. We hope that other communities will take the lead of Parkersburg and establish an award-winning program in their communities to protect their sources of drinking water." William Toomey, program manager for DHHR’s Office of Environmental Health Services, added that the source water protection program helps protect the West Virginia's public water supplies at the source, by managing development and other activities in the areas surrounding a public drinking water supply, municipalities and communities throughout the state can better protect public health and help avoid costly contamination. By recognizing communities currently taking steps to protect drinking water sources, the EPA stresses to neighboring communities the importance behind the initiative and hopes to establish similar responses by those communities. – 30 – |