Soil, Stabilization, and Stormwater Symposium held on Friday, May 11 in Lebanon, PA

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Rick Grant, 570-325-2818

Brian Oram to Speak on Soils at Symposium

WILKES-BARRE, PA—May 8, 2012—Brian Oram, a professional geologist and soil scientist and founder of B.F. Environmental Consultants, will be presenting at the Soil, Stabilization, and Stormwater Symposium held on Friday, May 11 in Lebanon, PA.

Oram will be speaking on soils, infiltration, and their application to stormwater BMPs. His presentation will begin at 8 AM.

“This information is very useful to municipal leaders and their engineering teams,” said Oram. “Advance planning can save literally millions of dollars by helping communities avoid damages that can occur during storms. There can be no better example than the flooding we experienced in our own area last year.”

The symposium is being hosted by the Lebanon County Conservation District, and will be held at Marabelle’s, 1352 Cumberland Street, Lebanon, PA, 17042, from 7 AM to 4 PM. Other presenters at the symposium will be Mark Fiely of Ernst Conservation Seeds, Michele Adams of Meliora Designs, and Tavis Dockwiller of Veridian Landscape Studio.

About B.F. Environmental Consultants, Inc.
B.F. Environmental Consultants, based in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Poconos, has been providing professional geological, soils, hydrogeological, and environmental consulting services since 1985. The company specializes in the following areas: hydrogeological and wastewater evaluations for siting land-based wastewater disposal systems; soils consulting (soil scientists), environmental monitoring, overseeing the siting, exploration, and development of community/ commercial water supply sources; environmental training/ professional training courses, and other environmental services. For more information about B.F. Environmental Consultants, visit www.bfenvironmental.com and www.water-research.net.

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Media Contact:
Rick Grant
Principal, RGA Public Relations
570-325-2818
rick.grant@rga-pr.com

Well Water Dimock Pennsylvania HW-7 February 2012 EPA barium, manganese, lead, copper, nickel, zinc

Comment

1. Without predrilling data, it is not possible to comment on the cause for any water quality problems.

2. Where possible, I have noted situations where elevated levels of a water quality parameter exists in Pennsylvania.

3. If duplicate analysis provided, I attempted to use the highest reported value.

4. New Document - http://water.epa.gov/action/advisories/drinking/upload/dwstandards2011.pdf

5. This is not about cause and effect; it is about a review of the data.

 6. A Well by Well - Review of the Data for Dimock, PA collected by EPA

Well – HW-7 (2/15/2012)

With the exception of the following parameters, the remaining values were reported as NOT Detected (U)

Anionic Surfactants – < 0.01 mg/L – the secondary drinking water standard for foaming agents is 0.5 mg/L.  (OK)

http://www.chemetrics.com/products/pdf/detergents.pdf

Barium – 0.137 mg/L – the primary drinking water standard for barium is 2.0 mg/L –– this does not suggest any specific impact and barium is typically detectable in non-saline impacted water at a level of less than 1 mg/L. (OK)

Boron –< 0.050 mg/L (Total) – no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard is available. EPA appears to have a long-term health advisory of 2.0 mg/L, but other states have limits that range from 0.6 to 1 mg/L.   Therefore, this does not appear to suggest any form of impact.  (OK)

Source: http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/ccl/pdfs/reg_determine2/healthadvisory_ccl2-reg2_boron_summary.pdf

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/boron.pdf

Calcium- 36.5 mg/L (Total)– no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard is available.  (OK) – the value seems low.

Chloride –23.60 mg/L (OK) – drinking water standard is <  250 mg/L – this does not suggest any specific impact.

Chromium- < 0.002 mg/L (D) and the EPA/ PADEP primary drinking water standard is < 0.100 mg/L (OK).

Copper – 0.0075 mg/L (OK)- the secondary drinking water standard is 1.0 mg/L and the primary drinking water standard is 1.3 mg/L. (OK)

Ethane – < 0.0012 mg/L  – No specific drinking water standard (OK)

Fluoride – < 0.1 mg/L (OK) – drinking water standard is < 2 mg/L- PADEP drinking water standard is 2 mg/L.

Iron – < 0.100 mg/L (Total)) – Iron is regulated as a secondary drinking water standard in Pennsylvania and the action limit is 0.3 mg/L.  Therefore, the total iron content does not exceed the secondary drinking water standard.  (OK)

Lead – 0.0032 mg/L (Total) and < 0.001 mg/L (D)- Lead is regulated as a primary standard (EPA and PA) at 0.015 mg/L, but the action level in PA for source water is 0.005 mg/L. Because of the hits for copper and lead, it is possible that the nuisance bacteria may be causing some corrosion related problems – Call MIC – Microbiologically Induced Corrosion – Problem recommend inspection of the well, camera survey, shock disinfection, and retesting.  This is a common problem in NEPA.  (OK) = Level below all action limits, but monitoring recommended.

http://www.water-research.net/lead.html

Lithium – < 0.200 mg/L (Total) – no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard is available, but EPA has recommend a level be below 0.7 mg/L    (OK)

Methane –  0.057 mg/L  – No specific drinking water standard. (OK).

The well water  is not above the new action limit of 7 mg/L. For more details, go to http://www.water-research.net/methanegas.htm

Magnesium-7.64 mg/L (D)– no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard is available.  (OK)

Manganese– 0.148 mg/L (Total) and 0.0456 mg/L (Dissolved) – Manganese is regulated as a secondary drinking water standard in Pennsylvania and the action limit is 0.05 mg/L.  Therefore, the total manganese content does exceed the secondary drinking water standard.   (OK)- May be advisable to check for iron related bacteria.  Water may be associated have a black precipitate.

http://www.water-research.net/iron.htm

Nickel – 0.0031 mg/L (T ) – no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard

is available, but the EPA has suggest a MCL of 0.1 mg/L.   (OK)

http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/pdfs/factsheets/ioc/tech/nickel.pdf

Sodium –9.27 mg/L  (D) – no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard is available, but the EPA has added it to the Candidate List to provide more analysis.  The EPA’s initial value of 20 mg/L has been clearly identified as not realistic.  When chloride (salt is sodium chloride) is present at a concentration of over 250 mg/L, the water can have an “off” taste. At 400+ mg/L chloride, the water will taste definitely salty. (Source- Dr. Brian Redmond, Professional Geologist). (OK)

Sulfate –10. 4 mg/L (OK) – drinking water standard is <  250 mg/L – this does not suggest any specific impact.

Strontium – < 0.200 mg/L   – no specific drinking water standard drinking water standard is available, but it is on the EPA Candidate List.  The EPA recommends that drinking water levels of nonradioactive strontium should not be more than 4 mg/L.  The report limit is consistent with background levels in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  If the background level was above 4 mg/L, it would be advisable to test for radiological parameters, especially alpha/beta.  (OK)

Total Dissolved Solids  – 141 mg/L   – Total Dissolved Solids is regulated as a secondary drinking water standard by the PADEP in Pennsylvania and the action limit is 500 mg/L. 

Total Suspended Solids - < 10 mg/L – no standard, but would recommend retesting to obtain a lower detection limit.

Uranium –0.0021 mg/L (Total) – Uranium is regulated as a primary drinking water standard by the EPA and PADEP in Pennsylvania and the action limit is 0.030 mg/L.  (OK)

Zinc  –0.0192 mg/L (Total) – Zinc is regulated as a secondary drinking water standard by the PADEP in Pennsylvania and the action limit is 5.0 mg/L.  (OK)

http://www.water-research.net/corrosion.htm

Nitrate+Nitrite- N – 0.874 mg/L, this is well below the EPA / PADEP drinking water limit of 10mg N/L for nitrate-N and would also be below the limit of 1.0 mg N/L for nitrite-N. (OK)

Ethylene glycol –  the reported value is < 10 mg/L – there is no standard, but the EPA has a guidance limit of < 7 mg/L.  Other states have lower and higher standards:

New Jersey 0.300 mg/L (300 ppb)

Arizona 5.5 mg/L (5500 ppb)

New Hampshire 7.0 mg/L (7000 ppb)

Florida, Massachusetts, and Minnesota14.0 mg/L (14,000 ppb)

Minnesota

At a minimum, I would recommend retesting for ethylene glycol other other glycol compounds using a method that is more sensitive or conducting some type of standard additions analysis.

No major problems

1. No major problems

2. Manganese is above the secondary drinking water limit.

3. Copper, lead, and zinc detected this could suggest a corrosion related problem. This is a common problem in NEPA

Document can not be copied in whole or part without the expressed written permission of Mr. Brian Oram, B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. http://www.bfenvironmental.com

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