Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

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APPENDIX C Threats to Groundwater Quality in the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence River Basin — Chemical Contaminants A Contribution by the Health Professionals Task Force CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 38 CANADIAN AND UNITED STATES DRINKING WATER GUIDELINES AND REGULATIONS 39 CHEMICALS OF CONCERN 39 OTHER CHEMICALS 45 GREAT LAKES-ST. LAWRENCE RIVER BASIN HUMAN HEALTH EFFECT STUDIES 48 OUTBREAKS AND CASE REPORTS OF ILLNESS 50 SURVEILLANCE AND MONITORING FOR CHEMICALS IN GROUNDWATER 51 CONCLUSIONS 51 REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 52 ANNEXES 54 37
38 INTRODUCTION Many chemical contaminants can be found in groundwater either because they are naturally occurring or because they have originated from human activity. This appendix describes the regulatory framework in Canada and the United States to limit exposure to chemical contaminants in drinking water. It also briefly gives the health-related grounds upon which guidelines and regulations have been established for the chemicals of most concern. This appendix also reviews epidemiological studies on health effects related to chemicals in groundwater in Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin populations. These studies, however, represent only a small portion of individual exposures to chemicals in groundwater. Many individuals do not have their wells checked for chemical contamination. This testing is more expensive than routine checking for microbial contamination. The number of individuals made sick by chemicals in their well water is not known. Public drinking groundwater supplies, however, are routinely tested for chemical contaminants. There is an abundance of data on chemical contaminants in groundwater, much of it generated by state and provincial departments and ministries of the environment as a result of monitoring, inter alia, hazardous waste sites, landfills and spills. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides an interactive database called STORET for ambient environmental data relating to water quality. STORET includes information on marine and freshwater chemical and physical parameters as well as biological monitoring data. Data entered before mid-1999 is stored in a Legacy STORET. Data since then are stored on personal computers across the United States by the agencies generating the data. The data are uploaded monthly to the main database but also remain stored on the local servers. The U.S. EPA provides the software to generate and upload the data. The database can be searched through the STORET Web site (U.S. EPA, 2004). Monitoring programs for groundwater contaminants are now in place in Ontario and in some of the Great Lakes states. These programs gather data on the distribution of chemicals in groundwater, especially those of natural occurrence or due to widespread non-point sources like pesticides and fertilizers. This information, however, is generally not compiled into a single summary that gives a comprehensive picture of all the chemical contaminants in groundwater. An exception is the annual report of the Groundwater Coordinating Council in Wisconsin (Wisconsin DNR, 2006). Although these reports do not contain all the data, the description of the groundwater resource gives a very good picture of the state of the groundwater in Wisconsin. This appendix focuses on those chemicals that are likely to be found in groundwater sources in the Great Lakes states, Ontario and Quebec at concentrations that may exceed human health guidelines. It does not provide a comprehensive review of data available through the Internet on chemical contaminants in the basin. It covers United States-wide data on pesticides in groundwater and chemically related outbreaks of waterborne disease as an indicator of the likelihood of such problems in Great Lakes states groundwater. The naturally occurring chemicals most likely to cause health problems for humans are arsenic, fluoride, manganese, uranium, other radionuclides and radon. Pesticide use on agricultural land has contaminated many drinking water supplies. This problem is more severe for surface water than groundwater. Atrazine, aldicarb, aldrin and dieldrin are discussed here. Nitrates from manure and artificial fertilizer are the most widespread groundwater contaminant in the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence River Basin. Industrial sites in use or abandoned (brownfields), hazardous waste sites, municipal and illegal landfills have contaminated groundwater in many locations in the basin. Almost any chemical is a possible contaminant, but the most common are chemicals used in great quantities, especially liquids like chlorinated solvents (trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene) and hydrocarbon solvents such as toluene and the xylenes. In Ville Mercier, Quebec, for example, the disposal of industrial wastes into lagoons in an old gravel pit over many years rendered the water supplies of thousands of residents in the region unusable. Water has to be pumped from a well 10 kilometres away to replace the area’s supply (Environment Canada, 2004). A major source of groundwater contaminants comes from underground storage tanks for gasoline, heating oil and other liquid chemicals. The contaminants from leaking underground storage tanks include gasoline degradation products – BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene), lead from old leaded gasoline and other octane enhancers (MTBE and ethanol). Ethanol is not a toxicity problem in groundwater, but it does slowly dissolve the seals in old tanks making them more likely to leak. Leaking tanks create a problem only in the immediate area and in the downstream plume, but the tanks are widespread. At the time of their report in 2006, the Sierra Club documented a backlog of 36,135 cleanups for leaking underground storage tanks in the eight Great Lakes states. Many tanks reached the end of their lifespan but were not pumped out when taken out of use (Sierra Club, 2006).
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 and 14: 6 Groundwater quality is routinely
Page 15 and 16: 8 Transmittal Letter Groundwater/An
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 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
Page 64 and 65: Figure 1. Source: General Descripti
Page 66 and 67: (Gorman and Halvorsen, 2006). Any s
Page 68 and 69: Table 3. Washtenaw County, Michigan
Page 70 and 71: 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
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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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