Groundwater Pollution Control

The GPC Program assists federal agencies with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews on projects like Pinedale Anticline and Moneta Divide. The GPC Program provides information and assistance to private well owners that have palatability issues or suspected contamination of their water, like the rural wells near Pavillion.

The GPC Program also reviews subdivision applications to ensure that the quality of water supply sources is adequate and that wastewater collection and treatment facilities will not impact groundwater.

The GPC Program also oversees sites where groundwater contamination already exists and cleanup is on-going, as well as sites where impacts may occur in the future. Groundwater monitoring tracks the extent and levels of existing contamination while remediation treats the groundwater to remove contaminants.

Monitoring wells and remediation projects must be permitted and constructed properly to ensure that the contamination is not spread further. Examples would be legacy GPC Program sites, which are primarily sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, or uranium mine cleanup sites. The GPC Program also issues permits for monitoring wells designed to detect potential contamination originating from coal bed methane (CBM) produced water impoundments that may reach shallow aquifers.