来自16个国家、美国联邦机构和与水有关的机构的水系统专家 专业团体于2004年5月9日至12日在蒙大拿州的博兹曼举行会议，作为座谈会的一部分 “保护小型水系统中的公共卫生”以考虑一系列细节问题 面对发达国家的小型供水系统。目的是交换 最终结果为改进小型供水系统提供指导的信息和经验 表演这些问题包括对公共卫生、公共卫生和公共卫生系统的潜在威胁 管理和运营、人员培训和公众教育、监管 挑战，以及系统整合的模型。与会者商定了四项原则 小系统中的问题:对公共卫生风险的理解不全面； 缺乏 设计、组织、管理、监控和操作小型系统的专业知识； 各级运营和监督的培训和教育不足；还有 监管环境过于关注合规性，而不是公共卫生风险。 本文总结了一份题为“保护小城镇公共卫生”的文件 2005年1月出版的《水系统:国际学术讨论会报告》 （Ford等人，2005年）可从蒙大拿水资源中心获得。完整的报告可以 也可在以下网址下载:http://water.montana.edu/colloquium.

Water system specialists from 16 nations, U.S. federal agencies, and water-related professional groups met in Bozeman, Montana on May 9-12, 2004 as part of the colloquium "Protecting Public Health in Small Water Systems" to consider a detailed set of issues facing small water systems in the developed world. The purpose was to exchange information and experience with the end result being guidance on improving small water system performance. Among the issues were potential threats to public health, system management and operation, personnel training and public education, regulatory challenges, and models of system consolidation. Attendees agreed upon four principal problems in small systems: incomplete understanding of public health risks; lack of expertise on designing, organizing, managing, monitoring and operating small systems; insufficient training and education at all levels of operation and oversight; and a regulatory climate too focused on compliance rather than on risks to public health. This paper summarizes a document entitled "Protecting Public Health in Small Water Systems: Report of an International Colloquium" published in January of 2005 (Ford et al., 2005) that is available from the Montana Water Center. The full report can also be downloaded at http://water.montana.edu/colloquium.