Public drinking water source areas (PDWSAs) are surface water catchments and groundwater areas that provide drinking water to cities, towns and communities throughout the state. PDWSAs are proclaimed under the Metropolitan Water Supply, Sewerage, and Drainage Act 1909 or the Country Areas Water Supply Act 1947. Groundwater sources are normally referred to as underground water pollution control areas or water reserves. Surface water sources are generally referred to as catchment areas. The PDWSA dataset is used by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation in policy decision-making and for providing advice about protecting drinking water quality when land uses and activities are proposed in PDWSAs. This dataset was formerly known as Public Drinking Water Source Areas (DOW-007)

The Drinking Water Surveillance Program (DWSP) monitors water quality at selected municipal drinking water systems for scientific and research purposes. DWSP is a voluntary partnership that compliments the regulatory monitoring that must be done by the drinking water systems. DWSP monitors for inorganic, organic and radiological parameters. Water quality data are available by individual years.

This GIS layer consists of the geographic location of active and inactive public (Community, non-transient non-community and transient non-community) water sources labeled by the Water System Identification Number (WSID) and source number (i.e. WL001 or IN002). The water source data and locations are drawn from the State Drinking Water database (SDWIS). The water sources are wells, springs and surface water intakes that predate regulations developed in the 1970s to the present. SDWIS is the repository for state and federal information collected from and about each public water system in Vermont, including bulk and bottled water facilities along with water production and water quality data. ",