About Us

Office of Drinking Water Overview

Mission Statement

We are committed to protecting public health by ensuring that all people in Virginia have access to an adequate supply of affordable, safe drinking water that meets federal and state drinking water standards.

We accomplish this mission by:

1. serving as Virginia's advocate for safe drinking water
2. monitoring drinking water quality
3. applying engineering judgment
4. providing technical assistance and training with respect to all drinking water issues
5. financing improvements to drinking water systems, seeking funding sources for drinking water projects
6. enforcing drinking water regulations and standards of the Virginia Public Water Supply Law and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act

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History

First Sanitation Law in Virginia
• Jamestown
• May 24, 1610
• First attempt at maintaining a clean water supply

Water Quality from a Historical Perspective
• At the turn of the 20th Century in America, Typhoid fever killed 36 out of 100,000 people
• In 1908, New Jersey began to use Chlorine as a primary disinfectant which helped to decrease deaths caused from drinking water

ODW Timeline

1908 - Virginia Department of Health created

1910 - Bureau of Sanitary Engineering created
        • Responsible for public water supplies, sewage treatment, swimming pools
        • Allowed to adopt, promulgate, and enforce rules and regulations for the protection of the public health

1910 - 90 waterworks in Virginia

1916 - 1st waterworks permit issued to Martinsville

1934 - First Short School Offered

1946 - State Water Control Board created

1972 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formed
        • Federal intervention to help cleaning up the environment

1974 - Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) issued
        • Virginia needed to obtain "primacy" in order to remain as the primary regulatory authority

1974 - Virginia Waterworks Regulations were adopted

1977 - Virginia received primacy for SDWA

1997 - Virginia received Drinking Water State Revolving Fund

2003 - Office of Drinking Water established

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Office Structure

ODW consists of the Central Office and six Field Offices and employs a staff of 115. Central Office staff provides management, administrative and training support to ODW and the public. Field Offices are located in

Field Office staff provides direct service and are organized to provide one‐stop‐shopping to owners, operators, and designers of waterworks and the general public.

Organizational Chart
Mouse over each block to view the services provided by each program.

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Legal Authority

The Office of Drinking Water provides Technical Information to all facets of the drinking water community, including, but not limited to, the consumers of drinking water and the owners of waterworks that provide drinking water.

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