Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

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APPENDIX I Threats to Groundwater Quality in the Great Lakes Basin — Confined Animal Feeding Operations CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 116 CONTAMINANTS 116 NUTRIENTS 117 ANTIBIOTICS 117 REGULATIONS 118 RECOMMENDATIONS 119 REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 120 GLOSSARY 121 115
INTRODUCTION 116 In 2003 there were an estimated 1.3 million livestock farms in the U.S. Of these approximately 257,000 were animal feeding operations (AFOs), which produced more than 500 million tons of manure annually (U.S. EPA, 2003b). AFOs are locations where animals have been, are or will be confined, and fed or maintained for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and where vegetation is not sustained in the confinement area during the normal growing season (U.S. EPA, 2003b). The largest AFOs are known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) or Intensive Farming. CAFOs are defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) as AFOs that are of a given size. The number and type(s) of animal(s) the operation houses and the extent to which waste from the operation may pollute surface water and groundwater determine whether the U.S. EPA considers a feeding operation to be a CAFO (CDC, 2004). The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs defines a CAFO as an AFO having the capacity to accommodate more than 10,000 pigs or 1,500 dairy cows (Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), 2000). AFOs also can be designated as CAFOs on a case-by-case basis if the facility is determined to be a significant contributor of pollutants to water (U.S. EPA, 2003b). In the U.S. there are an estimated 15,500 CAFOs, responsible for producing more than 300 million tons of manure annually (U.S. EPA, 2003a). CONTAMINANTS CAFOs are a pressing environmental concern due to the large volume of manure produced, small storage space for the manure and disposal of manure through land application (U.S. EPA, 2004). Common pollutants that affect watersheds as a result of CAFOs include Figure 1. Road killed animals are a common sight in Great Lakes Basin jurisdictions Photo provided by: Cornell Waste Management Institute, 2007 nutrients, pathogens (including parasites, bacteria and viruses), sediments, solids, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, trace elements and mineral salts (CDC, 2004; U.S. EPA, 2004). Contaminants enter waterways directly due to poor storm water management or failure of containment facilities and indirectly through runoff and percolation. Currently, the array of effects which these pollutants may have on humans and the watershed are unknown (U.S. EPA, 2004). Improper management of manure from CAFOs is a threat to surface and groundwater quality and has caused serious acute and chronic water quality problems (U.S. EPA, 2003a). Substandard construction, aging storage facilities and illegal disposal methods can lead to large amounts of waste being released into surrounding areas. In Manitowoc County, a farm agreed to pay a $59,000 state fine for spilling liquid animal waste into a Lake Michigan tributary and killing thousands of fish (Egan, 2007). Another potential source of groundwater contamination is wild and domestic animal carcass disposal. With high CAFO animal density, especially where fowl are raised, there are proportionally high numbers of animal deaths. On-site burial is a common method of carcass disposal (Spellman and Whiting, 2007). Burial site selection is therefore crucial to avoid contamination of water supplies. Disposal in local landfill sites is often not an option (Rennie and Hill, 2007). Road kill carcass disposal poses even greater problems. It is a pressing issue in all Great Lakes basin jurisdictions due to the huge number of wild and domestic animal carcasses which must be disposed each year. In a month-long survey of road kill in just five states, 15,000 reptiles and amphibians, 48,000 mammals and 77,000 birds were counted (Havlick, 2004). About 1.5 million deer-vehicle crashes occur each year in the U.S. (Kolb, 2006). In Pennsylvania contractors remove approximately 45,000 deer carcasses per year from highways at a cost of $30 to $40 each (Maryland Survey) in addition to 30,000 in Ohio and 65,000 annually in Michigan (Havlick, 2004). A wide variety of practices are utilized to dispose of road kill carcasses. These include burial on the highway right of way or in adjacent wooded areas and disposal in local landfills, where permitted (Maryland Survey; Rennie and Hill, 2007). However, there are currently no uniform practices across the provinces or states, and groundwater protection is rarely considered (Maryland Survey; Rusk, 2007; Carlson, 2009). Some jurisdictions are considering the potential of composting road-killed animals as an environmentally friendly and cost effective alterna-
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AReportoftheGreatLakesScienceAdviso
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Citation: Great Lakes Science Advis
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Commissioners’ Preface The Great
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2 required to monitor basin groundw
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4 Systems have a 30-year lifespan d
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6 Groundwater quality is routinely
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8 Transmittal Letter Groundwater/An
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10 Acknowledgements, Activities and
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APPENDICES Appendices A through L p
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INTRODUCTION Groundwater, a major n
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16 DESCRIPTION OF NATURAL SYSTEMS M
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that are not substantially affected
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Estimates of the Level and Extent o
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APPENDIX B Threats to Groundwater Q
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24 PATHOGENS Bacteria, viruses and
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Viruses Viral pathogens continue to
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SPECIFIC EPISODES Walkerton In 2000
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30 season. The sampling sites inclu
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32 Curriero, F.C., Patz, J.A., Rose
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Infection of a suitable host specie
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APPENDIX C Threats to Groundwater Q
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Road salt has significant toxic eff
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converted to nitrite in the human s
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Atrazine Atrazine is an extensively
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Wisconsin DNR keeps track of about
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Table 1. Chemical Contaminants in G
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isks for 23 diseases in six contigu
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Figure 1. Number* of waterborne-dis
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Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Wa
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APPENDIX D Threats to Groundwater Q
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Figure 1. Source: General Descripti
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(Gorman and Halvorsen, 2006). Any s
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Table 3. Washtenaw County, Michigan
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that the OWTS would last until it w
Page 72 and 73: REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Aglie,
Page 74: Septic Tanks - Septic Tank Articles
Page 77 and 78: INTRODUCTION Leaking underground st
Page 79 and 80: sites that were previously closed,
Page 81 and 82: Table 1. USTs in Great Lakes States
Page 83 and 84: Estimation of Costs for Remediation
Page 85 and 86: Table 6. Operational Compliance of
Page 87 and 88: 80 Indiana Government. (2007, Febru
Page 89 and 90: 82 GLOSSARY AST - above ground stor
Page 91 and 92: INTRODUCTION 84 Hazardous wastes ar
Page 93 and 94: The town of Kincardine, Ontario, ha
Page 95 and 96: 88 • The monitoring and surveilla
Page 97 and 98: However, the U.S. EPA has been relu
Page 99 and 100: 92 Johnson, B.L. & DeRosa, C.T. (19
Page 101 and 102: PAHs - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocar
Page 103 and 104: INTRODUCTION An abandoned well is d
Page 105 and 106: Figure 6: Leaking oil well Source:
Page 107 and 108: CONTAMINANT SOURCES 100 During any
Page 109 and 110: Nearly 16 million operational water
Page 111 and 112: • Development of a targeted progr
Page 113 and 114: 106 Michigan Department of Environm
Page 115 and 116: APPENDIX H Threats to Groundwater Q
Page 117 and 118: far reaching. Road salt can inhibit
Page 119 and 120: 112 Desalinization Potential water
Page 121: Gray, J. (2004, January). Brine Spr
Page 125 and 126: 118 feed has increased to upwards o
Page 127 and 128: References and Bibliography 120 Arn
Page 129 and 130: APPENDIX J Threats to Groundwater Q
Page 131 and 132: for recreational purposes and destr
Page 133 and 134: 126 errors (human or mechanical), p
Page 135 and 136: Apparent Losses Old meters are like
Page 137 and 138: Figure 6. Examples of Windsor, Onta
Page 139 and 140: REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 132 Ada
Page 141 and 142: 134 Levy, S. (2004, November 16). T
Page 143 and 144: APPENDIX K The Châteauguay Transbo
Page 145 and 146: 138 the clay sediments of the St. L
Page 147 and 148: REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Bureau
Page 149 and 150: INTRODUCTION 142 Groundwater law ac
Page 151 and 152: 144 • Water withdrawn be returned
Page 153 and 154: 146 found to be failing. Now, with
Page 155 and 156: Part 373: Third Stage Treatment Lag
Page 157 and 158: 150 Chapter 1501:15 Soil and Water
Page 159 and 160: 152 Title 29 - Water Resources Mana
Page 161 and 162: APPENDIX M List of Acronyms ADHD -
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Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

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