Southeast Minnesota Domestic Well Network

CLEAN WATER PARTNERSHIP

Southeast Minnesota Domestic Well Network

FINAL REPORT

Submitted by

Linda Dahl

Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board

July 29, 2015

This project was conducted with a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency; Grant ContractSwift # 61177

Table of Contents

Grant Project Summary...... 2

Grant Funding...... 2

Executive Summary of Project...... 3

Pictures...... 4

Acronyms...... 4

Partnerships...... 4

Body of Main Report...... 5

Section I – Work Plan Review (A brief report of each activity in the work plan)...... 5

Section II – Grant Results

Measurements

Products...... 8

Public Outreach…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. .9

Long-term results – Project Evaluation...... 9

Section III – Final Expenditures...... 10

List of Attachments...... 11

Final 319 Project Report
Volunteer Nitrate Monitoring Network

Grant Project Summary

Project title: / Southeast Minnesota Domestic Well Network
Organization (Grantee): / Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board
Project start date: / 06/03/2013 / Project end date: / 06/30/2015 / Report submittal date: / 07/30/2015
Grantee contact name: / Linda Dahl / Title: / Director
Address: / 972 Summerfield Dr.
City: / Northfield / State: / MN / Zip: / 55057
Phone number: / 507-457-5223 / Fax: / 507-457-2840 / E-mail: /
Basin: / Lower Mississippi River Basin in Minnesota / County: / Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Winona and Wabasha

Project type: CWP Implementation

Grant Funding

Final grant amount: / $109,128 / Final total project costs: / $104,783.93
Matching funds:Final cash: / $0 / Final in-kind: / $ / Final Loan: / $0
Contract number: / Swift 61177 / MPCA project manager: / Shaina Keseley

Executive Summary of Project

This project builds upon efforts to develop and implement a low-cost monitoring network as a sustainable means of obtaining long-term trend data for nitrate occurrence in private drinking water supply wells. Beginning in 2006 the project team, including nine southeastern Minnesota counties and state agency staff, with funding from EPA’s 319 program and MPCA’s Clean Water Partnership, coordinated efforts to develop a low-cost groundwater monitoring network in Southeast Minnesota that relies on volunteers to sample their private drinking water supply wells and send the samples to their county representative for nitrate analysis. This project consisted of assembling a network of 675 domestic wells and enlisting well owners to sample their private drinking water wells. Since 2008 we’ve used the network to sample nitrates within the network annually at minimum, and some years semi-annually. Sample return rates have ranged from 613 to 525 per year

The focus of the VNMN project is to measure nitrate in groundwater, but the project work plan goals included sustaining the network as a tool for assessing long term trends and as infrastructure for future groundwater sampling projects. The network was utilized in the spring of 2009 by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) when they conducted triazine immunoassay analyses for 92 water samples to screen for atrazine. Previous work indicated that wells with high nitrate-nitrogen concentrations had a higher likelihood of pesticide contamination. Therefore available wells in the network with high nitrate levels were selected for sampling.

This project, termed the Domestic Well Network, was developed to sustain and capture more of the full potential of the network through the additional measurements of other analytes, such as major ions, trace metals, radionuclides, and pollutants. Data generated will be useful to agricultural chemical management, pollutant studies (e.g., TMDL), drinking water quality projects (domestic well completion or source water protection projects), and others. Stabilizing and sustaining the network preserves it for future use as other important study questions arise, and the network serves as a model for similar studies in other areas of Minnesota and beyond.

Goal

Sustain the existing VNMN domestic well network for long-term groundwater quality studies by generating ambient groundwater quality data in domestic drinking water wells completed in various southeastern Minnesota aquifers, contrasting vulnerable and non-vulnerable hydrogeologic settings.

Results that count

1st / Result: / Monitoring plans were developed that helped characterize vulnerability of wells in different hydrogeologic settings to receiving contamination from activities at the ground surface. Based on round 8 results wells were sorted into groups based on well construction, geology and chemistry: “red” (or vulnerable), “green” (or non-vulnerable), “yellow” (or transitional), and “purple (wells with conflicting information). The four groups are helpful in targeting future sampling efforts, using what we know to tailor expensive laboratory analyses so that we can learn as much as possible.
2nd / Result: / Conducted three rounds of testing, utilizing a monitoring coordinator and MDH Laboratory analysis.
3rd / Result: / Results were shared with well owners, the nine County Coordinators and agency partners
Pictures
Description/location:
DWMN 2014 Pic (Attachment 5d)
DWMN 2014 Pic2 (Attachment 5e)
Acronyms
DWN – Domestic Well Network
VNMN – Volunteer Nitrate Monitoring Network
WNC – Well Network Coordinators
MDH – Minnesota Department of Health
MDA – Minnesota Department of Agriculture
MPCA – Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
QA – Quality Assurance
Partnerships
Olmsted County served as Monitoring Coordinator
County Water Planners for the nine participating counties provided an up to date contact spreadsheet to Olmsted County for all participating volunteers.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency; served as the grant project manager, partner in developing the annual monitoring plans, agency oversight of monitoring protocol and procedures.
Minnesota Department of Health, Sourcewater Protection Program; partner in developing the annual monitoring plans, provided training and data analysis
Minnesota Department of Agriculture Fertilizer Management Unit; partner in developing the annual monitoring plans
United States Geological Survey
Minnesota Geological Survey
County Water Planners of Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Wabasha and Winona
SE MN Water Resources Board (ten County Joint Powers Board); grant recipient with oversight and decision making responsibilities of the grant.

Body of Main Report

Section I – Work Plan Review

Approved Work Plan Changes:

January 2015 - Completed an amended budget and work plan for a request for a change order to allow the funds to be best utilized for the final (round 10) monitoring in spring of 2015.

Program Element 1 –Sustain Network by Engaging Well Owners and County Staff in the Project

The SEMWRB worked with County, MPCA, MDH,MDA, USGS and MGS partners to develop the annual work plans and develop procedural and reporting forms

The SEMWRB developed sub-recipient agreements with County Well Network Coordinators and with Olmsted County to work as Monitoring Coordinator.

Counties transferred landowner contact information to the Monitoring Coordinator and kept the databases up to date

Olmsted County developed monitoring protocol with guidance provided by the agency partners.

MDH provided YSI meter training to Olmsted County staff

Wrote and distributed annual newsletters to keep network volunteers informed

With funding from a separate grant, we held annual volunteer recognition events throughout the region

Held multiple project partner planning and information sharing sessions

Program Element 2 – Prepare for and Conduct Sampling Events

Fall 2013 (round 8): Prepared for and conducted Round 8 monitoring on all network wells for Groundwater Assessment Parameters (chloride, sulfide, bromide, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia). Developed well owner sampling instructions for this event. Developed and executed an updated well owner consent form for each participating well owner and updated sampling procedural and reporting forms and distributed them to County coordinators. County WNC’sprepared sample materials and mailed them to all homeowners who returned their consent forms. Well owners sampled their own domestic well,returned their samples to their County Coordinator, and the WNC stored them and delivered them to MPCA for shipment to MDH Lab for analysis. Monitoring Coordinator entered Round 8 results into a GIS database. A total of 404 samples were returned by network volunteers.

James Lundy, MDH,prioritized and categorized wells based on results of Round 8. The results of round 8 have helped fine-tune ideas about the vulnerability of wells in different hydrogeologic settings to receiving contamination from human activities at the ground surface. He sorted wells into groups based on well construction, geology and chemistry: “red” (or vulnerable), “green” (or non-vulnerable), and “yellow” (or transitional). The “purple” group consists of wells with conflicting information, where what we know just doesn’t add up. The four groups are helpful in “smart” targeting of future sampling efforts, which means using everything we know to tailor expensive laboratory analyses so that we can learn as much as possible.

Round 8 Challenges: Finding shipping materials for our sample bottles that were durable and affordable was a challenge. With the use of padded envelopes, some samples came open during transit and had to be re-sampled. A couple WNC’s transported their samples to MPCA on ice resulting in smeared labels and extra work to decipher sample details for analysis. Data entry was hampered by the lack of the use of the Unique well ID on sample bottles by some counties. The lab was inundated by the volume of samples that arrived in a short period form our sampling. All of this added to an increased workload, delays in getting results from the lab and more time needed to enter results into the database.

Spring 2014 (round 9):Partners prepared the Round 9 sampling plan and updated the consent form which was sent by Olmsted County to all potential volunteers prior to sampling. MDH categorized and prioritized wells, with priority 1 and 2 wells proposed to be tested in round 9, with various classifications of wells assigned analytes. Olmsted County planned and organized the spring monitoring, sending consent forms, contacting each homeowner to schedule a time to come out and sample the well, collecting samples and field measurements on-site and delivering the samples to MPCA offices or directly to the MDH Lab in St. Paul. Regular meetings were held on Friday mornings to review that week’s sampling and prepare for the upcoming sampling..

Round 9 consisted of monitoring 163 of the 175 priority 1 and 2 wells between 4/1/14 and 6/6/14. Temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and ORP measurements were used to verify well stabilization prior to sampling. All sites were sampled for major ions (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, NO3, SO4, carbonate/bicarbonate) and a metals scan. Select sites were sampled for gross alpha and tritium. Approximately 10% of samples had field replicates taken for quality control purposes.. Due to a procedural error in gross alpha sample handling we decided to collect new samples immediately for the eight sites that tested above 10pCi/L. The rest of the wells initially tested for gross alpha were scheduled to be retested during round 10. Information from this round will better characterize wells and inform future monitoring.

Spring 2015 (round 10): Partners prepared the Round 10 sampling plan, with Olmsted County again handling monitoring coordination, contacting each homeowner to schedule a time to sample the well, collecting samples on-site and delivering samples to MPCA offices for delivery to MDH Lab for analysis. Sampling was concluded in June of 2015. The round 10 results are not back as of the end of the grant, but Olmsted County prepared the template of the results letters and prepared the addressed and stamped envelopes so that results can be sent to volunteers easily when results are in. Assessment of round 10 results will be completed by MDH.

Round 10 Well selection and analytes: Forty seven “green” wells were on the Round 9 list for gross alpha. Of these, 47 wells (the original list minus the two that lack stratigraphic information) were tested in R10. To this list, given sufficient funds, we add 24 “yellow” group wells, for a total Round 10 sampling list of 71 wells.

Analytes:

Gross Alpha on 47 wells
Arsenic on 79 wells
Tritium (36 wells, MDH covering cost)
Major ions 12 wells
Trace metals 11 wells
Field 83 wells
18 isotope sites for nitrogen sourcing

-Jane Willenbring (UPenn) and Carrie Jennings (DNR MN River Basin Data Center) were interested in stable isotope sample analysis/ nitrate source study in SE MN as an experimental way of figuring out what source of nitrate we’re seeing in a well (Fertilizer, sewage, etc.). No cost to DWN. They will provide the bottles and sampling protocol. This was done on 18 wells chosen by Jim Lundy.

Program Element 3 - Project Management and Report Writing

The Director of the SE MN Water Resources Board served as Project Manager, maintaining project financial records, processing invoices, obtaining annual audits of financial records and completing semi-annual grant reports.

Section II – Grant Results

Measurements

This project is intended as the first of multiple two-year extensions of the VNMN project. Outcomes we expected in the first two-year extension include:

Sustain the existing network and use it to its full ground water monitoring potential. The measure will be the number of wells successfully sampled during rounds 8 and 9.
A total of 404 samples were returned by network volunteers in round 8, and the results informed the development of the monitoring plan for round 9; Round 8 results were used to help characterize vulnerability of wells in different hydrogeologic settings to receiving contamination from activities at the ground surface. Based on round 8 results wells were sorted into groups based on well construction, geology and chemistry: “red” (or vulnerable), “green” (or non-vulnerable), “yellow” (or transitional), and “purple (wells with conflicting information). The four groups were helpful in targeting round 9 and 10 sampling efforts, using what we know to tailor more expensive laboratory analyses to appropriate wells.
Round 9 consisted of monitoring 163 of the 175 priority 1 and 2 wells
Generate ambient groundwater quality data in non-vulnerable settings by aquifer, to support the following efforts:
Source water protection;
Exploration efforts for sustainable drinking water supply;
Define ambient groundwater quality by aquifer and hydrogeologic setting (“fingerprinting”), which will aid the interpretation of hydrogeologic data in cases where well construction and/or geology are poorly known;
County water plans;
Generate ambient groundwater quality data in vulnerable settings by aquifer and over time, to support the following efforts to define pollutant fate and transport:
Total maximum daily load (TMDL);
Source water protection;
County water plans
Generating ambient groundwater quality data will provide the collateral benefit to domestic well owners about the quality of the water they are drinking.

Products

Products and documents that have been produced through this grant are included on the CD of attachments. They include the following attachments:

Round 8 forms:

1a. Sample Handling (Wellowner) Aug2013

1b Sample Handling (WNC) Aug2013

1c. Well Owner Consent Form 6.12.13

1d. Sample Tracking Record (form)

1e. Drinking Water Standards Summary (included with results letters)

1f. Analyte Descriptions R8 (included with results letters)

Round 9 forms:

2a. Consent form 2014

2b. DWMN Results Letter Alpha Found 2014

2c. DWMN Results Letter Alpha Not Found 2014

2d. DWMN Results Letter No Alpha 2014

2e. Gross Alpha Phone Points Final

Data:

3a. Round 8 Results

3b. Round 9 Results

3c. Round 10 picks with analytes

Outreach:

4a. Newsletter – 2013

4b. Newsletter – Spring 2014

4c. Newsletter –Summer 2014

4d. Newsletter – Summer 2015

Figures

5a. All Buffers and Network Well Locations

5b. DWN Wells Sampled 2014

5c. DWN Wells Sampled 2015

5d. DWMN 2014 Pic

5e. DWMN 2015 Pic2

Expenditures:

6a. Final Budget with Expenditures

Public outreach:

Results of the project have been shared with volunteers through direct mailings of their individual results and through an annual newsletter summarizing regional results. Newsletters included pertinent information about the project, individual analytes and results. Newsletters were prepared for a non-technical to semi-technical audience. Results were shared with the Water Resources Board through regular updates at their bi-monthly meetings. As part of the Volunteer Nitrate Monitoring Network grant, volunteer recognition events were held annually throughout the region to recognize volunteers and share project results.

Long-term results:

This network was designed to be flexible to meet groundwater monitoring needs as they arise, and as a resource to be built upon to assess other water quality parameters in the future. The SEMWRB has grant funds for continuation of the annual nitrate monitoring network, providing long-term trend data for nitrates in drinking water and keeping the network in place for future monitoring needs as they arise.

Olmsted County, acting as the Monitoring Coordinator, has assumed the bulk of the monitoring duties with cooperation from County Well Network Coordinators and coordination from the Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board. The statewide database will be an important tool for counties that continue with the network. Regional coordination and data analysis will be important in holding the network together and ensure sustainability.

The results of this project build capacity for long-term collection of ground water data which will aid local resource managers and environmental agencies to better understand the condition and of nitrate and other contaminant occurrence in groundwater and to aid in decision making.

Section III – Final Expenditures

See Attachment 6a for detailed expenditures.

List of Attachments

Because of the large number of attachments, the SEMWRB has compiled CD’s of the attachments, which can be obtained by contacting the SEMWRB at 972 Summerfield Dr, Northfield, MN 55057. Phone number 507-457-5223 or .