6-9 Water

RESPONSE 6-9

Expla   RIDEM and others have performed extensive sampling of groundwater, monitoring wells to delineate the MTBE impacts to groundwater in the area of the Main Street Mobil property and Pascoag Utility District’s (“PUD”) Well 3A.  The areas impacted by the MTBE contamination have been well defined as a result of this extensive sampling. RIDEM has performed multiple pumping tests to assess the effect of the operation of Well 3A on the delineated areas of contamination.  The results of the pumping tests demonstrated that the operation of Well 3A will remove contamination from the aquifer and will not spread the contamination to areas that are not currently impacted or to areas that were not historically impacted. 

In pre-application meetings for the project, RIDEM has stated that it will require further pump testing to reconfirm Well 3A capabilities.  RIDEM will also require that monitoring be conducted of the water levels and groundwater quality in the existing monitoring wells surrounding Well 3A prior to, during and after the pump test.  Invenergy Thermal Development LLC (“Invenergy”) and PUD will submit a test protocol to RIDEM for approval, outlining the level and frequency of groundwater monitoring which will be conducted prior to and during the pump test.  The results of the pump test will be submitted to RIDEM for review.  Based on the results of the pump test, it is anticipated that RIDEM will require PUD to continue monitoring the water levels and the groundwater quality in the surrounding wells on an ongoing basis to ensure that the extraction of water from Well 3A is not causing impacts to groundwater volume or quality in the surrounding area.       

DATE:

May 11, 2016