Michigan Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) Program
As a State with primacy for implementing the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) is expected to fully implement all aspects of its safe drinking water statues and rules on which primacy is based. By regulation, EPA conducts reviews for state programs annually: the End-of-Year (EOY) evaluation. An additional tool used by EPA to evaluate a state’s drinking water program is an in-depth drinking water program review conducted approximately every 6 years. In 2016, U.S. EPA conducted an on-site review of the Michigan Drinking Water Program. As a result of the October 24, 2017 Final Program Review Report, Region 5 and the State developed a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to address its findings.
Corrective Action Plan (CAP)
This CAP was drafted in late 2017 and continued to undergo changes with regular updates on status of commitments throughout its implementation. See the link below for the latest version of this CAP. The CAP is separated into 2 documents; Completed Activities and Ongoing Activities. The CAP prioritizes activities into 3 categories, which correspond to Tab 1, Tab 2, and Tab 3 of the CAP:
Required activities: Activities that are required to be completed first, such as those required by regulation and/or directly related to public health protection
Prioritized recommended activities: Activities that support the completion of required activities in Tab 1, including Inadequate Resources, Lead and Copper Rule, Data Management, and Laboratory Support.
Recommended activities for the State’s consideration.
Region 5 reviews EGLE’s accomplishments throughout the year and discusses updates to the CAP at a minimum every quarter, including during the EGLE/Region 5 semi-annual evaluation call conducted each year. As work is done by EGLE to complete the required activities, EGLE is updating the CAP to show progress over time.
In FY 2022 and future years, Region 5 will continue to ensure the State is making progress toward full implementation of the PWSS program in Michigan. State and Region 5 efforts to obtain additional resources necessary to fill the gaps associated with workplan activities that the State is not able to fully implement is also being tracked in the CAP. Ultimately, State progress in implementing the essential activities is formally documented in each year’s EOY report.
Michigan’s Corrective Action Plan (CAP) ongoing activities (xlsx)
Michigan’s Corrective Action Plan (CAP) completed activities (xlsx)
To date, Michigan EGLE has reported that it has completed 85% of the recommendations in the initial CAP, with only 23 activities that remain to be completed. The majority of these remaining activities are related to data management and IT solutions. EPA plans to create a new set of recommendations and opportunities for improvements based on an upcoming 2022 MI EGLE FR. Therefore, this will be the last CAP update and any findings in the 2022 FR will be incorporated into the new file review report.
The PDF below provides the FY 2021 PWSS grant workplan, which provides clear expectations, roles and responsibilities between EPA and Michigan EGLE.