Fractured tills, Ohio's ground water resources, and public policy considerations addressed by DRASTIC maps

Ohio Journal of Science, The, April, 2006 by Julie Weatherington-Rice, Ava Hottman, Earl Finbar Murphy, Ann D. Christy, Michael Angle

These review efforts were well beyond the technical expertise encompassed by the scientists and engineers who have been responsible for most of the papers presented in these two special issues. To undertake a credible effort, the OFFWG turned to members of the group who are expert in the fields of planning, public policy, and the law, especially environmental and water law. This effort represents an overview of the subject at hand, and a more fully developed effort, published in a suitable professional journal or law review, is warranted.

RESULTS

A review of programs identified a number of efforts in place that, through modification of the program and/ or revision of the base documentation, could include the concept of fracture flow and DRASTIC mapping as they relate to ground water protection. Most of these programs are designed to address a specific land use for which protection of the ground water is only one of many competing goals. There are, however, two programs that have as their primary goal the protection of Ohio's ground water resources. Both of these programs have their roots in the Safe Drinking Water Act, specifically the 1986 and 1996 Amendments. The earliest program identified here in Ohio was the US EPA Safe Drinking Water Act Sole Source Aquifer designation and protection program. That regional program is locally supported by the Safe Drinking Water Act's Wellhead Protection Program (now expanded to the Source Water Protection Program) whose areas of protection have slowly but surely been created for almost all of the public water supply well fields in Ohio (Smith 2004).

These other activities are found on Table 1. Since the law lags behind the science, it is not surprising to find only a few references in case law and law review articles that reference fractured till and/or DRASTIC mapping. Those few references are here discussed.

DISCUSSION

Protection by Sole Source Aquifer Designation

Ground water protection programs are not new to Ohio. There were efforts underway on the local and regional level to protect ground water as early as the late 1970s. Most of these efforts, however, were linked to Ohio's buried valley aquifers and/or the northwest Ohio carbonate bedrock aquifers. The concept of a Sole Source Aquifer (SSA) designation (US EPA 2004a) was advanced with the 1986 amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (1974, Public Law 93-523) (US EPA 2004b). Some local and regional communities, not having an Ohio model to adopt, eagerly began the lengthy petition process for Sole Source Aquifer designation from US EPA. To date, there are five separate designated Sole Source Aquifers in Ohio protecting parts or all of 20 counties. They include the Pleasant City SSA (sand and gravel, southern Guernsey County), the Upper and Lower Great Miami River Valley SSA (sand and gravel, 2 applications, 14 counties in southwest Ohio), the Catawba Island SSA (carbonate bedrock, Ottawa County), and the Western Allen County Combined SSA (sand and gravel and carbonate bedrock, portions of five counties). Their locations are shown on Figure 1 (OEPA 2004).