Ground Water Protection Council
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Key Message
The success of the deep well Underground Injection Control
(UIC) program in isolating massive volumes of pollutants from
underground sources of drinking water and other parts of the
ecosystem has led some national policy makers to assume that no
additional funding is needed, even though new challenges and
responsibilities continue to be added to the program.
The two most serious challenges and responsibilities confronting
the UIC program today are:
- Some types of shallow injection wells, such as motor vehicle
waste disposal wells, large-capacity cesspools, stormwater
drainage wells, and some types of septic wells, continue to be
among the most neglected sources of ground water
contamination in the country.
- Technologies necessary for the management of residuals from
water treatment and for the geosequestration of carbon dioxide
(CO2) will require very large numbers of new injection wells, far
exceeding present program
resource capabilities.
Without additional funding,
federal and state UIC programs
will not be able to eliminate the
harmful impacts of high-risk
types of shallow injection wells,
nor maximize the benefits of safe
underground injection to enable
new technologies for providing
safe drinking water and
environmental protection.
The threat to Underground Sources of Drinking Water
(USDWs) posed by Class V wells is inherent in their general
shallowness and the fact that they are often located
over aquifers. Contamination incidents tend to be associated
with the most prevalent of the high-risk types of
Class V wells.
Photo: USEPA
Flow diagram showing sources of CO2 and their pathways to sequestration.
Source: Carbon Sequestration Atlas of the United States, USDOE
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why the UIC program
matters to ground water...
Underground injection refers to the
placement of fluids into the subsurface
through a well bore. The federal UIC
Program, designed to prevent contamination
of underground sources of drinking
water (USDWs), covers wells used to
inject a wide range of fluids, including
oilfield brines; industrial, manufacturing,
pharmaceutical, and municipal wastes;
and water for solution mining. A
“mature" regulatory” program suggests
that the major processes are working
smoothly, the principal issues are well
understood, and significant problems
encountered have been solved. While
this is the case for Class I, II, III,
and IV UIC well types, the
Class V part of the UIC
program has not kept
pace with the rest
of the program.
Frio Brine
Pilot Project:
CO2 injection/
observation
wells
Photo: The
University of Texas
at Austin, Bureau
of Economic
Geology
While other potential isolation
methods are being investigated (e.g., deep-ocean and
terrestrial isolation), one of the most promising is
geosequestration by underground injection into deep
subsurface rock formations. However, a number of technical and regulatory issues
must be resolved before this technology can be effectively
used to isolate large quantities of CO2.
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Recommended Actions
To Congress:
- Increase annual funding for the national UIC program to at least
$56 million to allow for more reasonable regulation of current UIC
facilities, and provide additional funding for new injection streams
that require safe management.
To USEPA:
- Revise the current injection well classification scheme to make it
more consistent with current and future program needs and to
provide greater flexibility for cost-efficient regulation of new
injection streams.
Underground injection control is all about protecting underground
sources of drinking water. McFarland dry spring cave,
Jackson County, Alabama.
Photo: Alan Cressler, USGS
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