Laserfiche WebLink
variety of operational conditions were satisfied. For example, the Director might allow an <br />injection upon a determination that the rate of flow or the volume or pressure of injection was <br />sufficiently small to assure that fluids would not enter.the prote-cted region. <br />PATHWAY 6 - DIRECT INJECTION OF FLUIDS INTO OR ABOVE AN <br />UNDERGROUND SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER <br />The last pathway of contamination of groundwater is potentially the most worrisome. The <br />injection of fluids into or above underground sources of drinking water can present the most <br />immediate risk to public health because it can directly degrade groundwater especially if the <br />injected fluids do not benefit from any natural attenuation from contact with soil, as they might <br />during movement through an aquifer or separating stratum. <br />The regulations prohibit injection of contaminants directly into an underground source of <br />drinking water for wells in Classes I to III;" Class IV wells, which inject directly into <br />underground drinking water are to be banned as soon as possible but in no event later than six <br />months after a State underground injection control program becomes effective. Class IV wells <br />which inject above an underground drinking water source are to be studied further. Accordingly, <br />EPA has decided to defer issuance of permitting and technical standards for Class IV wells until <br />this fall. Class V wells, of which little is known, will be assessed before regulations for their <br />operation are proposed47 (for a fuller discussion of the regulatory approach proposed for Class IV <br />and V wells, see the preamble to the regulations). <br />OTHER REQUIREMENTS <br />ABANDONMENT - the regulations also require that well injectors abandon their <br />injection wells in a way which will prevent the contamination of underground sources of <br />drinking water."," As indicated earlier, abandoned wells can act as conduits for contaminants to <br />enter protected aquifers. To assure that currently used and future wells do not create problems of <br />this type, the regulations require plugging of wells after termination of operation. Again, the <br />exact means of accomplishing an effective abandonment are left to the judgment of the Director <br />to be exercised on a case by case basis. In addition, § 146.10(d) requires the operator of a Class <br />III well to subinit a plan of abandonment which must demonstrate that no movement from the <br />mining zone into underground sources of drinking water will occur after abandonment. <br />" § 122.34(a)(1). <br />97 §146.52(b)(1). <br />48 §146.10. <br />99 See Generally, Development of Procedures and Costs for Proper Abandonment and <br />Plugging of Injection Wells, Booz Allen and Hamilton Inc., and Geraghty and Miller, April 30, <br />1980. <br />Page 17 of 20