Drinking Water Policies and MOUs

Policies Under Development

Same Farm Exemption (Polic A.09) Revision

We began revising the policy in 2023 when we discovered that a lack of definitions in the original 1995 policy (PDF) may have caused misunderstanding of the criteria to meet the exemption. The original policy had two paragraphs of text and an affidavit. 

We conducted a public comment period on draft changes to the policy in August 2024. Currently, we are reviewing comments received from the public comment period and are considering making changes related to the comments before finalizing the draft revised policy.

Revised Policy

The draft revised policy includes additional text for clarity and the definitions of Group A and Group B water systems. The citations for them are:

In addition, the draft policy requires that every five years, the water system owner must reaffirm the system’s status by resubmitting a signed affidavit provided by the Department of Health or its designee, as well as an updated Water Facilities Inventory (WFI) form indicating the number of residents.

Next Steps

Current Policies

Office of Drinking Water policies describe how we implement a law or rule. Each policy includes our practice or procedure. The statements made in these documents reflect our interpretations of rule and law and approaches to implementation. Water system requirements are not in our policies. These requirements are found in rule and law. View drinking water rules page

Rescinded policies are only available as hard copy. View rescinded policies.

If you have questions about a policy or need a copy mailed to you, contact Brad Burnham. at 564-669-0820. 

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Memorandum of Understandings (MOU)

MOU between DOH and the Department of Ecology related to the coordination between planning, engineering, public health and safety processes, and water resources.