Calaveras County Groundwate Protection Report August 2004

County of Calaveras
Local Agency Ground Water Protection Program
Final Report August 31, 2004

Produced by the Calaveras County Department of Environmental Health _________________________________________________________________

Preface

The Calaveras County Local Agency Ground Water Protection Program was developed in cooperation with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) beginning in 2000. The County's Environmental Health Department was delegated as the agency responsible for program development. The attached report developed for federal EPA as part of the Local Agency Ground Water Protection Program grant agreement summarizes program activity through August 2004.

The program is a comprehensive look at ground water availability, quantity and quality within the County and those constituents occurring through natural or artificial means that may impact this valuable resource. Data collected through development of the associated Geographic Information System (GIS) program allowed the department to:

a) Identify ground water resources throughout the county;

b) Identify possible threats to ground water quality;

c) Identify possible threats to public health, safety and the environment as a result of
contaminated ground water.

    Table of Contents
    References
    Table of Figures
    Complete Document via FTP
    Calaveras County Department of Environmental Health

All documents are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format

Many of these files are quite large and will take considerable time to download,
especially via a dial-up internet connection.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section 0. includes: (3.1mb)

Cover
Table of Contents

Section 1. includes: (1.4mb)

1.1 Program Background and Applicability
1.2 Project Objectives and Activities
1.3 Calaveras County Geography and Population
1.4 Calaveras County Environmental Health Department
1.5 Enabling Ordinances and Resolutions Associated with Ground Water Protection

Section 2. Origin of County Ground Water Supplies includes: (5.2mb)

2.1 Calaveras County Ground Water Supplies

Section 3. Drinking Water Supplies includes: (4mb)

3.1 Drinking Water Supplies
3.2 Large Public Water Systems
3.3 Small Public Water Systems
3.4 Water Wells

Section 4. Potential Ground Water Impacts includes: (20.3mb)

4.1 Potential Ground Water Impacts
4.2 Class V Injection Wells
4.3 Abandoned Wells
4.4 Abandoned Mines
4.5 Certified Unified Program Agency elements (CUPA)
4.5.1 Underground Storage Tanks
4.5.2 Hazardous Materials and Hazardous Waste
4.6 On-Site Septic Systems
4.7 Failing Septic Systems
4.8 Solid Waste Sites
4.9 Other Pathogenic Organisms

Section 5. Ground Water Impacting Surface Waters includes: (7.7mb)

5.1 Ground Water Impacting Surface Waters
5.2 Naturally Occurring Contaminants
5.3 Commercial/Industrial Activities

Sections 6-11. Reports include: (2.6mb)

6.1 GIS Development
6.2 GIS Database Manual/Attribute Tables
7.1 Program Reports
8.1 Public Outreach and Educational Activities
9.1 Proof of Ground Water Studies/Land Use
9.2 Front Desk Database

Calaveras County Groundwater Protection Report August 2004
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REFERENCES

Appendices include: (2.4mb)

Appendix I. Well Construction Application and Permit
Appendix II. GIS database manual
Appendix III. Program Attribute Tables
Appendix IV. Quarterly Reports

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Geographical location of Calaveras County and its neighboring counties. (911K)
Figure 2. Population Density as calculated from the Census 2000. (468K)
Figure 3. Drill rig set up in Calaveras County (615K)
Figure 4. The East San Joaquin Ground Water Basin reaches into the western most part of Calaveras County. (3.8mb)
Figure 5. A 3-dimensional view shows the depth of the wells within the East San Joaquin Ground Water Basin. (1mb)
Figure 6. Tertiary River Channel System in Calaveras County. Map derived from Figure 11 (page 81) in California Division of Mines and Geology publication - 1962. (1mb)
Figure 7. Water and sewer service areas throughout Calaveras County (For a description of the abbreviations see text) (1.2mb)
Figure 8. Public water and sewer service areas in the two regions of the county with greatest population density and the highest growth rate. (261K)
Figure 9. Wells of Small Public Water Systems in Calaveras County. The insert is showing a detail view with the general geology and the two systems that are under the direct influence of surface water. (1mb)
Figure 10. Old Wells in Calaveras County (346K)
Figure 11. DWR and CCEHD records for wells drilled in Calaveras County since 1980. (985K)
Figure 12. Average Yield and Depth to Water for domestic wells in Calaveras County. (294K)
Figure 13. Yield rates of 1119 wells in Calaveras County drilled since 1977. (10K)
Figure 14. Average total depth, depth to water and depth to static water level of new wells drilled in the years between 1979 and 2004 (as of August). Data from well completion reports submitted to DWR or CCEHD (11K)
Figure 15. Class V Injection Wells in Calaveras County. (966K)
Figure 16. Destructed wells in Calaveras County since the beginning of the well program 1998. (980K)
Figure 17. Abandoned mines in Calaveras County. (975K)
Figure 18. Recently set underground storage tank. (111K)
Figure 19. Underground storage tanks in Calaveras County. For Areas with a higher density of tanks insert maps with a more appropriate scale are depicted. (817K)
Figure 20. A 1000 ft circle is drawn around the location of an Underground Storage Tank. Due to the location of wells for Small Public Water Systems within this distance the storage tank facility is subject to enhanced testing requirements. (2mb)
Figure 21. Plot plans of Underground Storage Tank sites are tied as CAD files to the GIS database. Plans can be viewed by clicking on the symbol on the GIS map. (664K)
Figure 22. Hazardous Waste Sites in Calaveras County. (791K)
Figure 23. Engineered and standard on-site septic systems built in Calaveras County between 2000 and 2003. (1.2mb)
Figure 24. The number of on-site septic systems in subdivisions with small parcels can be significantly higher than the general average. (3mb)
Figure 25. Estimated number of on-site septic systems per square mile. (190K)
Figure 26. Failing on-site septic systems. (783K)
Figure 27. Solid waste sites in Calaveras County. (788K)
Figure 28. Images of closed, illegal or abandoned (CIA) solid waste sites. (6.6mb)
Figure 29. Monitoring wells at Rock Creek Landfill. (714K)
Figure 30. Springs bearing salty water create a bare spot where the concentrations reach toxic levels. (1.8mb)
Figure 31. Salt water bearing wells in Calaveras County. (791K)
Figure 32. Even after the clean-up of the Penn Mine Site, acidic ground water is surfacing and destroys the vegetation (right). Due to the low pH the ground water leaches iron which is then deposited in the creek bed after oxidation. (2.4mb)
Figure 33. Aerial photograph of Copper mine tailings and copper-laden leachate in the holding pond (bottom right corner). (1.1mb)
Figure 34. Salt water bearing wells in the vicinity of the Royal Mountain King Mine. (1.7mb)
Figure 35. Domestic water wells and on-site septic systems. Where public water is available, wells and septic systems are more or less separated (left and lower inset). In those areas not served with public water, wells and septic systems are mostly situated in close proximity. (1mb)
Figure 36. Ground water potential throughout Calaveras County. (343K)
Figure 37. An example on how to approach amendments to the ground water potential map. (96K)
Figure 38. A screen shot of the main data entry form for the front desk database. (145K)
Figure 39. 137 Wells were tested on nitrate and bacteriological contamination. Only few test results were positive. (950K)

Calaveras County Groundwater Protection Report August 2004
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COMPLETE DOCUMENT

Complete document is available for download as a single pdf file via FTP
(File Transfer Protocol). Most modern web browsers will download via FTP without
special commands. This file is very large and will take considerable time (hours)
to download over a dial-up internet connection.

DOWNLOAD GROUNDWATER PROTECTION REPORT VIA FTP - 46.6mb

Calaveras County Groundwater Protection Report August 2004
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