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<br />to take certain steps to resolve the problem, such as shutting down the well, notifying the EPA, <br />making a determination regazding the cause of the failure and developing a proposed plan for <br />addressing the failure. EPA believes that the stipulations in the Final Permit regazding well failure <br />are sufficient to ensure an adequate response to any solution mining well failure that could <br />endanger USDWs. <br />Therefore, as discussed above, EPA does not agree with the comments that the <br />Region should develop an EIS or SEIS in order to comply with 102(2)(Cj. Thus, Region <br />VIII will not develop an independent EIS. As part of the review of all comments, however, <br />the Region has addressed all of the technical comments on their merit and has made <br />changes to the Permit warranted by the review. No EIS related actions regarding the <br />Permit will be made in response to these comments. <br />Comment 3: The Draft Permit does not comply with the SDWA Requirements for Protection of <br />USDWs. <br />The following five (5) pazaphrased comments discussing the issue relating compliance of <br />the Permit with the requirements of the SDWA regarding the protection of USDWs. <br />I. The Draft Permit does not comply with the requirements of the SDWA. EPA has not <br />established a baseline as required by the SDWA. These data aze inadequate to determine if <br />USDWs exist within the area of review. <br />2. Issuance of Permit would violate both NEPA and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) <br />because the Permit does nothing to ensure that SU DWs are protected from contamination. <br />3. Why must EPA approve all 550 wells to be used over the next 30 yeazs, especially when so <br />much crucial information about effects of those wells on overlying USDWs is missing?. <br />4. The SDWA does not allow EPA to guess-as it seems to have done here-about whether <br />injection will affect ground water or whether USDW's occur in the vicinity. The statute requires <br />that EPA operate the program to prevent degradation of USDWs resulting in violation of primary <br />drinking water standards. That means that EPA obtain (or have the project proponent obtain) the <br />necessary data to make these determinations before, not after, the UIC Permit is issued. <br />5. The Draft Permit does not comply with the SDWA There are USDWs at stake, and there is a <br />lack of ground-water baseline data to make decisions regarding their protection. <br />Response; Under Subpart C of the SDWA, EPA has established regulations that protect existing <br />and potential future USDWs from the impacts of underground injection. Subpart C states that: <br />"underground injection endangers drinking water sources if such injection may result in <br />the presence in underground water which supplies or can reasonably be expected to <br />9 <br />