Welcome to
WQARF
The Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF) was created under the
Environmental Quality Act of 1986 to support hazardous substance
cleanup efforts in the state. The WQARF Technical Support Unit is
the part of the Technical Support Section of the ADWR Hydrology
Division responsible for providing hydrologic support and
technical review of many water quality related activities that
involve the ADWR. The ADWR WQARF Support Unit also coordinates
its activities with project management of the Arizona Department
of Environmental Quality (ADEQ
Superfund web page) in the WQARF program.
Background
The
Ground Water Cleanup Task Force was formed in early 1996 in
response to House Bill 2114, to make recommendations on
groundwater cleanup issues at WQARF sites. The Well Design &
Use Subcommittee was formed specifically to address the goal of
providing ADEQ and ADWR with the authority to abandon,
modify, and or replace wells facilitating vertical
cross-contamination.
The concern over vertical cross-contamination
was clearly stated in the Ground Water Cleanup Task Force Final
Report position paper on well design and use (1996, pg. 2) as
follows. “Fifteen years of experience with Superfund groundwater
cleanups has taught us that, not only can remediation of
contaminated aquifers be an expensive proposition, but it is all
too often an impractical if not impossible task. We have learned
that otherwise innocuous wells can act as vertical conduits for
spreading contamination from one aquifer to another or from one
portion of an aquifer to another (i.e., vertical
cross-contamination).” The North Indian Bend Wash Superfund site
in Scottsdale, Arizona is a prime example of a groundwater
contamination site that has been severely impacted by vertical
cross-contamination through conduit
well flow.
Recommendations from the subcommittee included
the following:
- 1.) Existing ADEQ programs should be modified
to address vertical cross-contamination and a statutory definition
of vertical cross-contamination adopted.
- 2.) The ADWR drilling approval process should
be modified to prevent vertical cross-contamination in new wells
by reviewing well designs in relation to known contamination.
- 3.) A well inspection program should be
developed which identifies existing wells that are contributing to
vertical cross-contamination and rank the wells based on their
potential to act as pathways for vertical transport of
contamination. According to the recommendations, only those
high-ranking wells should be inspected. In addition, assured
funding for the well inspections and remediation was also
recommended.
- 4.) Lastly, the subcommittee identified that
“accurate, accessible data on groundwater quality and existing
water wells are necessary to a successful WQARF program”.
Critical inadequacies and poor interagency coordination were
observed between ADWR and ADEQ databases. The subcommittee
recommended a well
verification program be established.
The Ground Water Cleanup Task Force
recommendations were formulated in the “Ground Water Cleanup Task
Force Final Report” (1996). As a result of the Task Force’s
recommendations, a statutory definition of vertical
cross-contamination was established (A.R.S. §§ 45-605[A] and
49-281[15]).
Title § 45-605 (Well inspections;
cross-contamination; remedial measures), became effective April
29, 1997.
In response to the
newly formed legislation, ADWR has developed a program for well
inspection in consultation with ADEQ, and developed review
procedures for Notices of Intent (NOI) to Drill and Abandon wells
within known areas of contamination. A system for well
verification and assignment of a unique identifier (the 55-Well
registration number) to all wells within the state was also
implemented.
Program Objectives
Program objectives of the ADWR WQARF Support Unit are:
1. Prevent Vertical Cross-Contamination
- A technical review of Notices of Intent (NOI)
to Drill, Deepen, Replace, or Abandon a well within close
proximity to existing or anticipated future groundwater
contamination is provided in order to identify whether the
proposed well drilling or abandonment activities present a risk
of vertical
cross-contamination [A.R.S. §§ 45-605(E)].
- Special well drilling requirements (see
document)
and site-specific
well construction and abandonment procedures have been provided for areas of existing or anticipated
groundwater contamination to prevent vertical
cross-contamination. [A.R.S. §§ 45-594(A) and 45-605(E); A.A.C. R12-15-812. Special Aquifer Conditions].
Click
here to view a list of WQARF registry sites
Click
here to view ADEQ Reports and Maps for individual WQARF, CERCLA/NLP,
and DOD sites
2. Verify and Improve Current Well Information
- Well inventories are conducted within WQARF
sites to validate the Department’s database of registered wells
and determining actual field locations of wells and making the
appropriate changes to the database according to the Well
Verification and Database Improvement Program [A.R.S. §§ 45-105 and 45-618 ], as recommended by the
Ground Water Cleanup Task Force.
Click
here to view a statewide map of WQARF site locations
(2.9MB)
Map includes WQARF, NPL (National Priorities List), DOD (Dept. of
Defense), VRP (Voluntary Remediation Program), and RCRA (Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act) sites. (Updated December
2004).
3. Identify Current Cross Contamination
- Well
inspections are performed to determine if a well is acting as a conduit for
vertical cross-contamination between aquifers or aquifer
boundaries [A.R.S. § 45-605(A)]. A
Conduit Well Analysis is conducted within WQARF sites
to identify wells that may be acting as pathways for vertical
cross-contamination of hazardous substances between aquifers or
aquifer layers through a multi-phase process prior to well
inspections.
WQARF Section Navigation Links
[ WQARF Home ] [ Info ] [ Reports ] [ Statutes ]
[ Contact Us ]
Use the above links to navigate
the WQARF Section
Hydrology Division Navigation Links
[ Hydrology Division Home Page ] [ Basic Data Unit ] [ Field Services ] [ Geophysics Surveying Unit ] [ Water Resources Section ] [ Surface Water and Recharge Section ] [ Modeling Section ] [ WQARF - Water Quality Assurance Fund ]
Use the above links to navigate
the Hydrology Division
|
