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

On the federal and state level, there are a number of specific land-use practices that are either restricted and/or require permits before they can be sited within the Source Water Protection area of public water supplies relying on ground water resources. Most of those programs do not require the screening of DRASTIC maps as part of their siting criteria, but they could. Informally, DRASTIC maps are often reviewed at the agency level when an application for a new land use is reviewed. However, to compel the mandated use of DRASTIC maps would require the development of a coherent set of regulations within the Ohio Administrative Code sections that control the siting process for each potentially contaminating land use. Those land uses as defined by OEPA (2004) are listed in Table 1.

When reviewing Table 1, the reader will note that in order to function as a screening tool for many land use applications, the DRASTIC map information would need to be modified. That modification is necessary because DRASTIC maps were developed to predict the potential for a contaminant spilled at the surface, moving with infiltrating water, to reach the underlying aquifer (Aller and others 1987). Most of these other land uses actually are facilities that would be installed into the ground. For land uses located below existing ground surface, the DRASTIC site numbers can be modified by removing the protection of the soil, flattening the topography to 0 to 2% slope for its site footprint or excavation area, and reducing the thickness of the vadose zone by the distance the facility lies below the earth's surface. This modification is appropriate for underground storage tanks or landfills still under active management. In some cases, insertion of synthetic liners or compacted zones may provide additional protection. If the land use results in a pond or pool of contaminated water that remains in place for long periods of time creating a continuous recharge source such as an animal manure lagoon or an abandoned landfill, additional modifications would have to be made. It is possible that even then, DRASTIC values would underestimate the contamination potential. Additional research is needed to verify this application of DRASTIC.

Support from the Law

The law lags behind the science, often at a great distance and at a glacial pace. That common statement applies in Ohio as well as in the rest of the United States. However, because of the great courage of some of Ohio's citizens, case law has been created by the Ohio Supreme Court that lets the science in. Since the mid-1800s, Ohio functioned under the 1861 decision, Frazier v. Brown (1861), which called the movements of Ohio's ground water "occult." In 1984, after many years of effort on the part of Ohio's scientific community to bring science into decision making, Rose Cline succeeded where the scientific community had failed. The Cline property is located in Jackson Township, Franklin County, OH. Her house foundation was shaken and she lost the water in her well as the nearby American Aggregates limestone quarry continued to expand and deepen their main pit. In order to continue to quarry at depth, pumps removed water that collected in the pit. American Aggregates fully acknowledged that they may have affected Rose Cline's well, but under Frazer v. Brown, they were not operating illegally if they dewatered her well. In Cline v. American Aggregates (1984), the Ohio Supreme Court stated that the primary goal for ground water protection was that "the legal system conforms to hydrologic fact." After years of legal efforts, Rose Cline's neighbors finally got their water supplies replaced. Rose Cline, unfortunately, died before the final remedies were in place. This landmark decision let the science in the legal door and opened the way for Ohioans to promote the protection of Ohio's ground water through the courts, when such an effort is necessary.