Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

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Monitoring and Data Management: 3. Provincial and state governments should institute and expand monitoring of groundwater withdrawals, use, consumptive use and groundwater quality, including the presence of the full range of pathogens and emerging chemicals. They also should review the adequacy of groundwater monitoring around hazardous waste sites, landfills and underground storage tanks and implement additional monitoring as needed. In Canada, this effort could be based upon the existing provincial groundwater monitoring networks and also incorporate available data from municipal well monitoring and from domestic water well surveys. 4. Provincial and state governments should develop integrated, comprehensive databases of groundwater quality and quantity that incorporate data from these expanded monitoring programs as well as data from the monitoring of contaminated sites and source water protection programs. These databases should be publicly available. Among other uses, this will enable those who depend on well water for drinking water to determine appropriate monitoring for chemicals and pathogens in their individual wells. Regulation and Enforcement: 5. State, provincial and local governments should adopt watershed-based planning and management that includes source water protection and the protection of groundwater resources even if not used as drinking water sources. Conservation measures should be incorporated into water withdrawal regulations. 6. State, provincial and local governments should develop and consistently enforce standards that ensure the adequacy of installation and maintenance of on-site wastewater treatment systems to prevent groundwater contamination by pathogens and chemicals. This could be done through requirements for periodic inspection and maintenance or for point-of-sale inspection and certification. 7. State and provincial governments should regulate confined animal feeding operations to ensure proper treatment of manure and application of methods to reduce run-off. These governments also should regulate carcass burial as well as land application of septage and manure. 8. State and provincial governments should develop and enforce abandoned well programs to avoid aquifer cross contamination and prevent the access of contaminated surface water to groundwater. Grants or incentive programs should be implemented to ensure maintenance and proper decommissioning of wells. Financial support: 9. Federal, state and provincial governments should continue to fund the cleanup and remediation of hazardous waste sites and leaking storage tanks, the detection and replacement of leaking sewers and the adoption of best management practices for the storage and use of road salt. All governments should take efforts to minimize or prevent the generation of hazardous wastes and to develop and implement alternatives. Role of the Commission: 10. The Commission should continue to monitor key issues identified in this report and the appendices affecting groundwater within the Basin, and report regularly on progress. The Parties should each designate a lead agency with responsibility for compiling and regularly reporting to the Commission on relevant research, monitoring and program information on these key groundwater issues. 7
8 Transmittal Letter Groundwater/Annex16 Recommendations July 31, 2006 To: From: IJC Commissioners Michael Donahue, U.S. Co-Chair Isobel Heathcote, Canadian Co-Chair IJC Great Lakes Science Advisory Board Subject: Groundwater/Annex 16 Recommendations Introduction The International Joint Commission is preparing advice to the Parties on future form and content of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Groundwater was one of the priority issues adopted by the Commission for the 2005-2007 biennial cycle, and the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board wishes to advise the Commission of its opinion concerning the attention given to groundwater in the redrafting of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. This letter presents a brief summary of information and analysis obtained to date by the SAB on groundwater issues in the Great Lakes Basin. Toward its objective of producing a 2007 Status of the Great Lakes Basin Groundwater Report, an expansion and update to earlier IJC reports that have dealt with groundwater, the SAB has conducted two expert consultations on the topic: one in Lansing, Michigan, on March 8-9, 2006, and one in Syracuse, New York, on June 13-14, 2006. A third consultation is scheduled for November 3, 2006, in conjunction with SOLEC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The three consultations will form the basis of the report to be issued in 2007. The SAB has had only limited opportunity to review the results of the two consultations and anticipates that the third expert consultation will provide further findings about groundwater issues in the Great Lakes Basin. While the recommendations presented herein must be considered preliminary, there has been substantial agreement in the two consultations on the importance of, and challenges to, groundwater in relation to water quality in the Great Lakes Basin. It is on the basis of this consensus that the SAB offers preliminary recommendations. Preliminary SAB Recommendations on Groundwater Issues The following preliminary recommendations are, for the most part, a reinforcement of the content and direction of recommendations contained in previous advice offered to the IJC. The sources of that advice are outlined following the recommendations. The preliminary recommendations are limited to those the SAB believes are most relevant to the current review and possible revision of the Agreement, and particularly Annex 16 on groundwater: 1. Amend or extend Annex 16 in view of current scientific understandings, calling on the Parties to: a. Recognize and reflect the relationship between the quantity and the quality of groundwater and the interactions between groundwater and surface water in respect to both quality and quantity. b. Require systematic, ongoing, basin-scale collection of data following standardized protocols about quantity and quality trends in groundwater. c. Maintain water budgets for the basin that include major groundwater withdrawals and consumptive uses, and provide frequent reports concerning trends. d. Support research on spatial and temporal variation in recharge to groundwater, the status of groundwater resources and the role of groundwater recharge, storage and discharge in ecosystem functions of the basin. e. Recognize the importance of groundwater as a source of drinking water in the basin and, therefore, the high priority that should be given to protection of groundwater through monitoring, wellhead protection, well registration and abandoned well closure programs to ensure protection of human health. f. Develop funding sources to support groundwater monitoring, the continued operation of programs for the protection and remediation of groundwater, and research activities. 2. Implement concrete plans to meet Party commitments under Annex 16, including: a. Designating lead agencies responsible for the implementation of Annex 16. b. Producing a public agreement between the Parties’ lead agencies for standardization of mapping, sampling and analytical protocols for use in monitoring contamination in groundwater of the Great Lakes Basin. c. Based on these protocols, reporting at regular intervals on the sources and quantities of contaminants entering groundwater and the Great Lakes through groundwater.
Page 1 and 2: AReportoftheGreatLakesScienceAdviso
Page 3 and 4: Citation: Great Lakes Science Advis
Page 6: Commissioners’ Preface The Great
Page 9 and 10: 2 required to monitor basin groundw
Page 11 and 12: 4 Systems have a 30-year lifespan d
Page 13: 6 Groundwater quality is routinely
Page 17 and 18: 10 Acknowledgements, Activities and
Page 19 and 20: APPENDICES Appendices A through L p
Page 21 and 22: INTRODUCTION Groundwater, a major n
Page 23 and 24: 16 DESCRIPTION OF NATURAL SYSTEMS M
Page 25 and 26: that are not substantially affected
Page 27 and 28: Estimates of the Level and Extent o
Page 29 and 30: APPENDIX B Threats to Groundwater Q
Page 31 and 32: 24 PATHOGENS Bacteria, viruses and
Page 33 and 34: Viruses Viral pathogens continue to
Page 35 and 36: SPECIFIC EPISODES Walkerton In 2000
Page 37 and 38: 30 season. The sampling sites inclu
Page 39 and 40: 32 Curriero, F.C., Patz, J.A., Rose
Page 41 and 42: Infection of a suitable host specie
Page 44 and 45: APPENDIX C Threats to Groundwater Q
Page 46 and 47: Road salt has significant toxic eff
Page 48 and 49: converted to nitrite in the human s
Page 50 and 51: Atrazine Atrazine is an extensively
Page 52 and 53: Wisconsin DNR keeps track of about
Page 54 and 55: Table 1. Chemical Contaminants in G
Page 56 and 57: isks for 23 diseases in six contigu
Page 58 and 59: Figure 1. Number* of waterborne-dis
Page 60 and 61: Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Wa
Page 62 and 63: 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
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REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Aglie,
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Septic Tanks - Septic Tank Articles
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INTRODUCTION Leaking underground st
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sites that were previously closed,
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Table 1. USTs in Great Lakes States
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Estimation of Costs for Remediation
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Table 6. Operational Compliance of
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80 Indiana Government. (2007, Febru
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82 GLOSSARY AST - above ground stor
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INTRODUCTION 84 Hazardous wastes ar
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The town of Kincardine, Ontario, ha
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88 • The monitoring and surveilla
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However, the U.S. EPA has been relu
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92 Johnson, B.L. & DeRosa, C.T. (19
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PAHs - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocar
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INTRODUCTION An abandoned well is d
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Figure 6: Leaking oil well Source:
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CONTAMINANT SOURCES 100 During any
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Nearly 16 million operational water
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• Development of a targeted progr
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106 Michigan Department of Environm
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APPENDIX H Threats to Groundwater Q
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far reaching. Road salt can inhibit
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112 Desalinization Potential water
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Gray, J. (2004, January). Brine Spr
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INTRODUCTION 116 In 2003 there were
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118 feed has increased to upwards o
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References and Bibliography 120 Arn
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APPENDIX J Threats to Groundwater Q
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for recreational purposes and destr
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126 errors (human or mechanical), p
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Apparent Losses Old meters are like
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Figure 6. Examples of Windsor, Onta
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REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 132 Ada
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134 Levy, S. (2004, November 16). T
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APPENDIX K The Châteauguay Transbo
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138 the clay sediments of the St. L
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REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Bureau
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INTRODUCTION 142 Groundwater law ac
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144 • Water withdrawn be returned
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146 found to be failing. Now, with
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Part 373: Third Stage Treatment Lag
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150 Chapter 1501:15 Soil and Water
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152 Title 29 - Water Resources Mana
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APPENDIX M List of Acronyms ADHD -
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Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

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