The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1986 established requirements for states to develop Wellhead Protection Programs (WHPPs). A WHPP is a pollution prevention and management program used to protect underground sources of drinking water. These programs were intended by Congress to be a key part of a national ground-water protection strategy to prevent contamination of ground-waters that are used as public drinking water supplies. In North Carolina, development of a local Wellhead Protection Plan is not mandatory but, rather, is viewed as a valuable supplement to existing state groundwater protection programs. North Carolina's WHPP is intended for city and county governments and water supply operators who wish to provide added protection to their local ground-water supplies. The Wellhead Protection Plan, once implemented, reduces (but does not eliminate) the susceptibility of wells to contaminants.