The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Office of Drinking Water (ODW) provides this report to describe actions taken to ensure compliance with federal and state drinking water regulations. This report identifies the use plan for $1,803,598 of additional funding to ensure compliance with drinking water requirements. ODW regulates more than 2,800 public water systems (“waterworks") in Virginia. Virginia’s drinking water program ensures that waterworks are in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and Virginia Code § 32.1-167 et. seq., delivering safe drinking water to customers, and attempts to avert public health crises related to public drinking water.

The recommendations and actions outlined in this report were informed by:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed budget (2025) and the current status of federal budget development as of this report’s writing;

• Conversation and meetings from 2023 through 2025 of the Waterworks Advisory Committee (12VAC5-590-45);

• The Virginia Department of Health 2025 Employee Engagement Survey;

• ODW’s three-year strategic plan (2025);

• An independent 2023 Workload Analysis of Virginia’s Drinking Water Program;

• RD805 (2022) - Review of the Budget and Structure of the Office of Drinking Water;

• Office of State Inspector General Performance Audit of the Office of Drinking Water, June 24, 2021;

• A Study on Virginia’s Drinking Water Infrastructure & Oversight of the Drinking Water Program, House Document 13, HJR92, 2020;

• ODW’s budget workbooks for FY25 and FY26; Key performance indicators; and

• ODW’s programmatic metrics.

The findings, observations, and recommendations from these background documents guided the plan for how to use the additional funding to ensure compliance with federal and state requirements that protect public health and drinking water supplies.

Use of Funding Plan

To respond to programmatic needs, ODW will use the $1,803,598 to reorganize the management structure at six field offices such that professional engineering staff can focus efforts on engineering and allow other technical staff to focus on regulatory compliance, sampling reviews, inspections, emergency preparedness, and other technical assistance to waterworks. The change in managerial structure will allow certain functions to centralize (i.e., compliance and sampling verification). This change will also improve efficiencies in procurement, emergency response, regulatory compliance, inspection frequency, and timely permitting. The additional funding will address inflation and increased costs for software systems to improve customer service and key performance indicators of program effectiveness. As part of the organizational structure change, funding will support the addition of sixteen (16) new positions as outlined in this report.

Why focus funding on increased staffing to the extent possible?

Report 805 (2022), “Review of the Budget...of the Office of Drinking Water" to the Virginia General Assembly, authored by the Department of Planning and Budget and the Virginia Department of Health, stated on Page 1 of the Executive Summary that “additional funding is needed to sustain loans, monitoring, and oversight for the Commonwealth’s aging drinking water infrastructure." The Executive Summary also stated, in part, “a shortage of staff has been identified by an EPA strategic consulting firm." The strategic consulting firm referenced in Report 805 (2022) is the Cadmus Group, a national consulting firm contracted by EPA to conduct an independent study of resource needs in Virginia. In its final report (March 2023), Cadmus wrote the following:

Virginia’s drinking water program is understaffed and underfunded. The workload model estimates that in 2023 Virginia’s drinking water program needs $9,412,098 more in funding and an additional 42 [full time employees or FTEs]....Virginia’s drinking water program needs approximately 29 percent more full-time employees (FTEs) and a 56 percent increase in funding than currently available to effectively implement the program and ensure safe drinking water for the public....

Adding the 42 FTEs and the additional funding to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s existing support level, Cadmus wrote that the Office of Drinking Water has total need of funding in 2023 as follows:

Virginia’s drinking water program needs 185 FTEs and approximately $26.3 million in additional funding to carry out current program responsibilities, implement drinking water regulations, and uphold public health protection in 2023. The greatest need is in 2031 when it is estimated that Virginia will need 186 FTEs and $26.4 million to implement the baseline drinking water program required by the [Safe Drinking Water Act].

In May 2025, VDH’s senior leadership team shared results from an employee engagement survey conducted by Gallagher, a national consulting firm. Gallagher observed two opportunities for ODW to improve staff engagement: (1) addressing inadequate staff to do the job well; and (2) responding to inadequate resources and tools to do the job well.

Personnel Allocations

To address excessive workload volume as outlined in the 2023 workload analysis report, ODW will use the additional funding to hire four central office staff and 12 additional field office staff. The central office staff additions will improve administrative support for federal grants and procurement, centralize certain compliance and enforcement activities, improve emergency preparedness and response, and centralize activities with the sampling verification program. The 12 field office staff additions are intended to reorganize management structure and allow for increased waterworks presence and oversight from technical staff. The estimated total cost for new full-time employees ranges from $1,585,000 to $1,805,000 per year. New positions are outlined in the table found on page vii of the report. Revised organizational charts are also included at the end of the report.