Sources policy

Sources and Update Policy for Well-Water Guides

This page explains how official guidance, labs, and product standards should be used across public guides and decision outputs.

Public trust asset Indexable Last updated 2026-03-07

Sources policy

Preferred source tiers

Public guides should lean on primary or official sources whenever possible.

Working rule

Federal and state public-health or environmental guidance is preferred for testing scope, safety, and escalation logic.

Working rule

Certified laboratory directories and standards bodies are preferred for lab and treatment verification questions.

Working rule

Commercial pages can support a comparison, but they should not be the main authority for health or scope decisions.

Sources policy

Each page should keep a visible source trail and, where useful, more than one supporting citation.

Working rule

Primary official source links are shown on the page instead of being hidden in a separate note.

Working rule

Pages that depend on state context should cite that state guidance, not only national summaries.

Working rule

Comparison pages should link to standards or claim-verification sources when product capability is part of the decision.

Sources policy

Some triggers should force a refresh instead of letting a page drift.

Working rule

If a state resource changes, the related regional page should be checked.

Working rule

If the commercial route changes but the underlying safety logic does not, the safety logic still wins.

Working rule

If the page cannot be refreshed with strong sources, it should stay narrower rather than becoming more speculative.