Department of Health

Security Over Community Water Supply Systems

Most community water supply systems in New York State are required to develop plans for responding to threats to local water supplies. The plans are to be submitted to the Department of Health for review and approval. We examined the Department’s oversight of this planning process. We found that all community water supply systems subject to the planning requirement had submitted plans to the Department, and the plans had been approved by the Department. However, when we examined the actions taken by selected water systems to correct potential security weaknesses, we found that certain improvements were needed in the oversight provided by the Department. Our findings and recommendations were provided to Department officials during the course of our audit, but were not included in our public report due to the sensitivity of the information.

For a complete copy of Report 2006-S-31 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.