For Immediate Release
No. 12-OPA006
EPA Announces Comment Period for Injection Well Permit Changes in Wright County, Minn.
CHICAGO (Jan. 26, 2012) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced the start of a public comment period on a request from the Joint Powers Water Board to make changes to its current permit for injecting treated drinking water into the Mount Simon-Hinkley aquifer. EPA will accept written comments until Feb. 21.
Comments should be addressed to William Bates, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (WU-16J), 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604-3590 or bates.william@epa.gov. For questions and additional information, contact William Bates at 312-886-6110 or call EPA's toll-free line at 800-621-8431, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., weekdays.
Draft documents and more information about public comment procedures are available on EPA’s website at www.epa.gov/r5water/uic/.
Official records are also available at the Great River Regional Library, St. Michael Branch, 11800 Town Center Drive, N.E, St. Michael.
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I couldn't find the document that explains this injection permit, but I am interested in finding out why one would want to inject treated drinking water into an aquifer, especially in an area of abundant water supplies. Jon, can you find the subject permit application?
ReplyDeleteChuckster,
ReplyDeleteI don't know the answer to your question offhand, but if I had to guess, I would say that perhaps the applicant is located in an area where the surface streams are highly polluted and the permitting authority is not issuing any more NPDES permits for those watersheds. So the applicant has to go underground. Clean up the wastewater to drinking water standards and then inject it underground.
That is my guess, but I will see what I can find out.
Jon
Chuckster,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like they are using the underground aquifer (If I may be redundant) for storage. Cheaper than building a bunch of water towers all over the place, I guess. Check out this URL:
http://jointwaterboard.com/projects/projects.htm
Jon