Abstract

Utah, as the second-most arid state in the country, must make wise use of its ground-water resources. Protection of groundwater quality is a major function in resource protection. The 2 general categories of potential ground-water contamination sources include: non-point and point sources.

The most common types of non-point sources are:

1. Agricultural Sources: application of pesticides or fertilizer.

2. On-Site Sanitary-Waste-water Sources: septic-tank drainfields.

Point sources include:

1. Agricultural Sources: feedlots and runoff impoundments.

2. Hazardous-Waste Sources: waste generators and/or transporters; waste-treatment, storage, and disposal facilities; and abandoned waste sites.

3. Mining and Mine - Related Sources: underground workings and surface excavations, waste-rock and tailings disposal, solution mining, dump and heap leaching, holding or process ponds, oil-shale and tar-sand retorting wastes, smelter wastes, and mine dewatering.

4. Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Sources: inadequate well surface casing, produced water disposal, drilling-mud containment and disposal, and inadequate well plugging and abandonment.

5. Solid-Waste Sources: industrial, municipal, and abandoned landfills.

6. Other Surface Impoundments: municipal-sewage lagoons, industrial lagoons, and storm-water-retention basins.

To protect Utah’s ground-water resources, the Utah Bureau of Water Pollution Control has developed proposed Ground-Water Quality Protection Regulations. These regulations consist of three major elements:, (1) ground-water quality standards that provide a means for measuring ground-water quality; (2) a ground-water classification system that provides a basis for protecting ground water; and, (3) a ground-water discharge permit system to insure that discharges to ground water do not degrade the quality of the resource and result in beneficial-use limits being exceeded. Implementation of these regulations will require development of a permit system, data management, a community-outreach program and management-oversight functions.