62-520.600. Ground Water Monitoring Requirements and Exemptions

(1) The purpose of a ground water monitoring plan is to provide the data needed to evaluate an installation’s compliance with the ground water requirements contained in this chapter. Unless otherwise exempted by Department rule, any installation discharging into ground water shall establish a monitoring program as described in subsection (3) below. Subsection 62-520.310(4), F.A.C., provides that other Department rules with different ground water requirements for specific types of installations will supersede these generally applicable requirements. If requested by the permittee, a monitoring program instituted under some other state, federal, or local government regulation or permit shall be substituted for this program if it is in substantial compliance with subsection (3) below. All field and laboratory activities performed under a monitoring program shall meet the quality assurance requirements in Chapter 62-160, F.A.C.

(2) Plan Submission.

(a) New installations shall submit to the Department monitoring plans in conjunction with its initial permit applications.

(b) Existing installations shall have submitted to the Department an acceptable monitoring plan on or before March 1984.

(c) Installations that were not required to submit monitoring plans by March 1984, but were thereafter required by rule to submit monitoring plans must do so in accordance with the applicable rule.

(d) Installations exempt from obtaining permits to discharge to ground water shall develop a monitoring plan upon Department order that the installation owner obtain a permit defining ground water discharge.

(3) Monitoring Plan Contents. Unless otherwise specified in program-specific Department rules, the installation owner shall provide the Department with a plan containing findings and recommendations for ground water monitoring derived from site-specific information. Any information submitted as part of a permit application does not have to be resubmitted as part of the ground water monitoring plan. The plan shall evaluate facility operations, discharges, actual and potential environmental risk, and provide a design that ensures compliance with applicable program-specific rules and water quality criteria depending on where the discharge will take place. The design shall be such that the permittee can detect and monitor adverse impact upon ground water and upon surface waters affected by ground water by facility activities. Design of a ground water monitoring plan is variable and dependant on the complexity of the site hydrogeology, type of facility, and method and characteristics of the discharge. The Department’s document, Guidance for Ground Water Monitoring Plan Design, 2008, is adopted as guidance to assist permittees and installation owners in designing and placing monitoring wells to demonstrate whether compliance with the requirements in this chapter are being achieved. Copies of this document are available from the Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Water Facilities Regulation, MS 3580, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400 or at the Department Internet site at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/groundwater/pubs.htm. Pursuant to Chapters 492 and 471, F.S., the ground water monitoring plan shall be signed and sealed by the professional geologist or professional engineer who prepared or approved it. The Department shall evaluate the adequacy of the plan upon submittal; however, the applicant should arrange a pre-application meeting with the Department to resolve the needed information at an early stage. The plan shall:

(a) Describe the physical and hydrogeologic characteristics of the facility and surrounding area including:

1. Direction and rate of ground water flow and ambient ground water characteristics;

2. Primary and secondary porosity, and horizontal and vertical permeability for the receiving aquifer(s);

3. The depth to, and lithology of, the first confining bed(s);

4. Vertical permeability, thickness, competence, and extent of any confining beds;

5. Topography, soil information, and surface water drainage systems surrounding the site;

(b) Show the locations of the proposed monitoring wells labeled as background, intermediate, or compliance well;

(c) Provide construction and development details of the monitoring wells;

(d) Provide a water sampling and chemical analysis protocol;

(e) Provide a water sampling schedule;

(f) Demonstrate the quality of the receiving ground water prior to discharge;

(g) Indicate how to determine natural background (where available) or background quality of the ground water in the vicinity of the site and any deviations in the quality of the receiving ground water in the downgradient monitoring wells;

(h) Show the locations of all surface waters and their classifications including springs within a one mile radius of the site, and on-site sinkholes with depths exceeding the seasonal high water table or that are perched; and

(i) Identify the location and use of all wells within 1000 feet of the site.

(4) Plan Approval. The plan shall be approved if it will provide the data needed to evaluate an installation’s compliance with the ground water requirements contained in this chapter. If the plan is approved, it will become part of the permit. If a permit is not associated with the plan, a letter of approval, denial, or request for modification will be sent to the applicant. A letter of approval or denial shall have a notice of rights for an administrative hearing under Sections 120.569 and 120.57, F.S.

(5) Implementation of Monitoring Program.

(a) The following apply except for installations already discharging to ground water that are later required to install ground water monitoring wells:

1. All ground water monitoring wells shall be installed before the application of waste or wastewater; and

2. After well installation and well development, but before the application of the waste or wastewater for which the ground water monitoring plan was required, the permittee shall sample one or more of the ground water monitoring wells specified in the Department-approved monitoring plan or permit for the primary and secondary drinking water parameters included in Chapter 62-550, F.A.C. (excluding asbestos, acrylamide, Dioxin, butachlor, epichlorohydrin, pesticides, and PCBs, unless reasonably expected to be a constituent of the discharge or an artifact of the site). In addition, volatile organics and extractable semivolatile organics shall be analyzed. Results of this sampling shall be submitted to the Department within 60 days after sampling.

(b) With the application for permit renewal, the permittee shall submit, to the Department’s office that issued the permit, the results of sampling monitoring wells specified in the Department-approved monitoring plan for the primary and secondary drinking water parameters included in Chapter 62-550, F.A.C. (excluding asbestos, acrylamide, Dioxin, butachlor, epichlorohydrin, pesticides, and PCBs, unless reasonably expected to be a constituent of the discharge or an artifact of the site). Additional volatile and semivolatile parameters as specified in the ground water monitoring plan or permit shall be analyzed. Sampling shall occur no sooner than 180 days before submittal of the renewal application.

(6) Location, Design, and Construction of Monitoring Wells to Detect Migration of Contaminants. Monitoring wells shall be as follows:

(a) One upgradient well located as close as possible to the site, without being affected by that site’s discharge, to determine the natural background quality where available, or background of the ground water (background well);

(b) One well downgradient from the site and within the zone of discharge designed to detect the chemical, physical, and microbiological characteristics of the discharge plume (intermediate well); and

(c) One well at the edge of the zone of discharge downgradient from the site (compliance well);

(d) Such other wells as are dictated by the complexity of the hydrogeology of the site, the magnitude and direction of the plume, or the likelihood of threat to the public health, to ensure adequate and reliable monitoring data in generally accepted engineering or hydrogeological practice. The Department shall exempt a facility from installing a background or intermediate well when not practicable or necessary because of site hydrogeology, effluent quality, site location, or surrounding land use;

(e) The Department’s Monitoring Well Design and Construction Guidance Manual, (2008), is adopted as guidance to assist permittees and installation owners in monitoring well design and construction. Copies of this document are available from the Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Water Facilities Regulation, MS 3580, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400 or at the Department’s Internet site: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/groundwater/pubs.htm;

(f) Monitoring well design shall be submitted to the Department;

(g) Before construction of new ground water monitoring wells, a soil boring shall be made at each new monitoring well location to properly determine monitoring well specifications such as well depth, screen interval, screen slot, and filter pack;

(h) Before the installation of any monitoring well, the permittee shall give at least 72 hours notice to the appropriate permitting program at the Department’s District office that issued the permit;

(i) Within 60 days after installation of any monitoring well, a properly scaled figure depicting monitoring well locations (active and abandoned) with identification numbers shall be submitted to the appropriate permitting program at the Department’s District office that issued the permit. The figure also shall include the monitoring well, top of casing, and ground surface elevations referenced to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD) of 1929 or to the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD 1988) and measured to the nearest 0.01 foot, along with monitoring well location latitude and longitude to the nearest 0.1 seconds;

(j) Within 30 days after installation of the monitoring wells, well completion reports and soil boring/lithologic logs shall be sent to the Department’s District office that issued the permit. The information is to be submitted for each well on DEP Form 62-520.900(3), Monitoring Well Completion Report, incorporated herein and listed in Rule 62-520.900, F.A.C.;

(k) Within 60 days after completion of construction of the monitoring wells, all piezometers and wells that are not reasonably expected to be used are to be plugged and abandoned in accordance with subsection 62-532.500(4), F.A.C. The permittee shall submit a written report to the Department’s office that issued the permit providing verification of the plugging including the well abandonment log when available;

(l) If any monitoring well becomes inoperable or damaged to the extent that sampling or well integrity may be affected, the permittee shall notify the Department’s office that issued the permit within two business days from discovery, and a detailed written report shall follow within ten days after notification to the Department. The written report shall detail what problem has occurred and remedial measures that have been taken to prevent recurrence or request approval for replacement of the monitoring well. All monitoring well design and replacement shall be approved by the Department before installation.

(7) Monitoring Requirements for Class G-III Ground Water. Discharges to Class G-III ground water shall be analyzed to assure compliance with the standards in Rule 62-520.400, F.A.C.; alternatively, the permittee may institute a ground water monitoring program, which shall demonstrate that the criteria in Rule 62-520.400, F.A.C., are not violated.

(8) Monitoring Requirements for Class G-IV Ground Water. The Department shall specify applicable monitoring criteria as part of an underground injection control well permit issued under Chapter 62-528, F.A.C.

(9) Monitoring Exemptions. The Department shall exempt the following installations that discharge to ground water from ground water monitoring requirements:

(a) Domestic sewage treatment installations with less than 100,000 gallons per day (gpd) design capacity except those described in subsection (10) below; stormwater facilities; agricultural fields, ditches and canals; and waste management systems for animal feeding operations exempted from ground water monitoring under Chapter 62-670, F.A.C.; as long as the discharges present no potential hazard to human health or the environment, or do not endanger a source of drinking water; and as long as the facilities do not discharge directly to ground water.

(b) Wastewater impoundments containing effluent or reclaimed water, cooling water, or other discharge waters meeting the minimum criteria of Rule 62-520.400, F.A.C., and the applicable standards for the receiving ground water and contiguous surface waters; provided, however, that if necessary to ensure that the water quality criteria and standards are being met, the Department shall require the installation owner to determine the background, or natural background where available, water quality of the receiving ground water and regularly sample the quality of the discharge prior to contact with ground water.

(10) New domestic wastewater facilities that discharge to ground water with less than 100,000 gpd design capacity (excluding on-site sewage disposal systems) which have filed a complete permit application after July 1, 1994, shall install and analyze samples (as described below) from one downgradient monitoring well designed to evaluate the impact of such facilities to the ground water quality. One ground water sample from within the upper 20 feet of the zone of saturation shall be collected and analyzed semiannually for the ground water monitoring parameters listed in Chapter 62-601, F.A.C.

(11) Reporting Requirements. Installations required to monitor shall submit the following reports:

(a) The permittee shall, within 90 days after the permittee has begun the discharge that is expected to result in a discharge to ground water, submit a report stating the volume, and chemical, physical, and microbiological composition of the discharge unless otherwise specified in the installation’s permit or ground water monitoring plan.

(b) On a quarterly basis thereafter, or such other frequency specified in the permit, the permittee shall submit reports on all monitoring wells indicating the type, number and concentration of discharge constituents or parameters that have been approved by the Department as appropriate criteria to monitor in the monitoring program based upon their potential to exceed the minimum criteria contained in Rule 62-520.400, F.A.C., and the appropriate standards for the particular class of water adjacent to the zone of discharge as described in Rules 62-520.420 through 62-520.470, F.A.C.

(c) Water levels shall be recorded before evacuating wells for sample collection. Elevation shall be referenced to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD) of 1929 or to the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD 1988) and measured to a precision of plus or minus 0.01 foot.

(d) In order to obtain representative seasonal variations in the ground water, there shall be a minimum of 45 days between any two consecutive quarterly sampling events, a minimum of 90 days between consecutive semi-annual sampling events, and a minimum of 180 days between consecutive yearly sampling events.

Rulemaking Authority 403.061 FS. Law Implemented 403.021, 403.061, 403.087, 403.0877, 403.088 FS. History–New 9-8-92, Amended 4-14-94, Formerly 17-522.600, 62-522.600, Amended 7-12-09.