West Virginia ground-water quality

Abstract

background and compliance monitoring programs, and water-purity analyses. The Department of Health (wvc, section 16-1) is responsible for the protection of drinking-water supplies, including the regulation of all drinking-water wells, both public and private. The Environmental Engineering Division of the WVDH has primacy for the "Safe Drinking Water Act" to develop laws, design standards, policies, and regulations for public water supplies. This Division also has the authority to enforce drinking-water standards for publicwater systems, to issue construction and operating permits for public water systems, and to train and certify well drillers and public watersupply operators. The WVDH laboratories perform chemical, bacteriological, and radiological analyses of drinking water on a routine basis for public water supplies and, at the request of county health departments, for private water supplies. County health departments are responsible for site inspection and issuance of permits for construction of domestic water wells and sampling for contaminants. The county health departments also are responsible for inspection and issuance of permits for the installation and operation of septic-tank systems and other onsite sewage-disposal systems, as well as the regulation of septic disposal. The Department of Energy, created in 1985, is responsible for the regulation of the coal, petroleum, and natural gas industries (wvc, §22). The Division of Mining and Minerals requires mine operators to prevent or minimize degradation of the quality and quantity of groundwater resources. The Oil and Gas Division is responsible for preventing the contamination of freshwater by saltwater and by other contaminants associated with the oil and gas industry. The Department of Agriculture, Plant Pest Control Division, is involved with the usage of pesticides. Responsibilities include training and certification of pesticide applicators, establishment of standards for powerline and right-of-way spraying, and investigation of groundwater complaints involving pesticide contamination. Other activities of the Department of Agriculture related to ground water include dispensing information about proper disposal practices for agricultural wastes, such as fertilizers, manure, and dead animals. The Department of Highways (DOH) is responsible for the prevention of contamination of ground water by highway deicing materials and highway runoff, the regulation of salvage yards (wvc, section 17-23), and the management of materials stored at DOH maintenance facilities. The Water Resources Board (WRB) is an independent agency composed of five members appointed by the Governor.

Occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and inorganic analytes in groundwater and surface water used as sources for public water supply in West Virginia

“…According to current regulatory benchmarks, groundwater quality is generally acceptable for domestic and other uses, with most problems resulting from geology, fossil-fuel extraction and other industrial activities, agriculture, and improper waste disposal. Groundwater chemistry is strongly affected by topographic setting, complicating areal delineations of water quality based on aquifer composition and compounding the effects of anthropogenic activities (Ferrel, 1987). Elevated levels of radon-222, iron, manganese, and arsenic, relative to drinking-water benchmarks set by the EPA, represent the primary constituents adversely impacting water quality in West Virginia (Ferrel, 1987;Chambers and others, 2012;Law and others, 2017).…”

“…Groundwater chemistry is strongly affected by topographic setting, complicating areal delineations of water quality based on aquifer composition and compounding the effects of anthropogenic activities (Ferrel, 1987). Elevated levels of radon-222, iron, manganese, and arsenic, relative to drinking-water benchmarks set by the EPA, represent the primary constituents adversely impacting water quality in West Virginia (Ferrel, 1987;Chambers and others, 2012;Law and others, 2017).…”

Water-quality indicators of surface-water-influenced groundwater supplies in the Ohio River alluvial aquifer of West Virginia

“…High transmissivities in the alluvium (4,800 feet squared per day; Kozar and Mathes, 2001) allow rapid infiltration of overland flow, either from precipitation or flooding, and induced infiltration directly from the Ohio River because of pumping (Kozar and Paybins, 2016). Progressive urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural development along the Ohio River has created multiple sources of contamination and removed surficial clays that retard infiltration (Ferrel, 1987). This removal simultaneously increases the intrinsic susceptibility and vulnerability of the alluvial aquifers that are a major groundwater resource in West Virginia, underlining the need to refine current [2019] delineations of SWIGs in the Ohio River alluvium.…”

“…Development, particularly agriculture, decreases away from the river because of rugged terrain that typifies the Appalachian Plateau physiographic province. Residential land use is a result of the Ohio River facilitating transport across the mountainous topography during settlement, which has spawned a diverse industrial presence including electric-power generation, chemical and metal manufacturing, and petroleum refinement that supports municipal growth alongside agriculture activity (Ferrel, 1987;Bader and others, 1997;Battelle Memorial Institute, 2003). Agricultural land use, which is concentrated in the Ohio River Valley, has declined by 58 percent since 1950 (Kutta and Hubbart, 2019).…”

Hydrogeology, Aquifer Geochemistry, and Ground-Water Quality in Morgan County, West Virginia

“…These limited published data illustrate wide ranges in hydrogeologic and water-quality characteristics for sites in Morgan County. Ferrell (1987) and Mathes and others (1998) provide summaries of available ground-water quality data, and Kozar and Mathes (2001) provide a compendium of aquifer characteristics throughout West Virginia. However, few data were available for Morgan County in these studies.…”