This tool guides you in the development of collaborative partnerships across jurisdiction, sectors, departments, and geographic areas.

Strong and lasting partnerships are essential to source water protection.

While water suppliers do not have jurisdiction to directly act in upland watersheds, you can develop positive, working relationships with other agencies, companies, and organizations to influence practices within and outside their scope of authority.

Pooling resources—ideas, information, knowledge, efforts, and funding — leads to more shovels in the ground and better source protection overall (see Figure 2 to learn about more benefits of collaboration).

For local governments, collaboration with other departments within your organization—planning, parks and recreation, engineering, public works, finance, information technology, communications, and emergency management—also helps to realize the mutual benefits of source protection.

Good collaboration for source protection requires good coordination. Water suppliers can take a leading role in coordination through their technical advisory committees and source protection plans (see ROADMAP to Source Water Protection).

Figure 2: Benefits from collaboration

Figure 3: Who to consider for your TAC
(entities involved in regulating source water concerns)

NOTE: Also consider academia, fisheries, industry & business sectors, not-for-profit groups, conservation groups and
recreation clubs.

Use the best management practices in Table 8 to facilitate an efficient collaborative process.

Table 8: Collaboration guide for source water protection

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