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GeoInsighter Fall 2002 Newsletter

NH Potential Receptor Notification Clarification

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We noted the issue of an Executive Order requiring the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) to notify owners of private wells located in the vicinity of contaminated ground water in our previous newsletter (“New Ground Water Contamination Notification Policy,” Summer 2002, Vol. 5, No. 2, pg. 3). We were reporting the institution of an internal NHDES policy; however, we were subsequently informed by the NHDES that there was some confusion on the part of newsletter readers regarding the requirements of the Order and the assignment of responsibilities for complying with it. It is very important that readers understand that the Order affects the NHDES only and does not establish new reporting or notification responsibilities for owners of property with contaminated ground water or their consultants and engineers. It is currently the NHDES’s obligation to notify owners of properties with pubic or private water supply wells that are located within 500 feet of any site where constituent concentrations in ground water exceed Ambient Groundwater Quality Standards (AGQSs) or when methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is detected at 5 parts per billion (ppb) or above.

The rest of the information in our article stands as written in terms of the notifications that the NHDES is required to make and the required time frames, as well as the requirement that, effective July 1, 2002, receptor identifications provided by consultants pursuant to Env﷓Wm 1403. 07(d)(7) include full owner mailing addresses for all properties located within 500 feet of a site with contaminated ground water. It should be noted that the maximum time period of 120 days for the NHDES to receive ground water data confirming contamination above AGQSs, given in NHDES’s notice of the Executive Order’s requirements, is significantly longer than the 7﷓day reporting deadline in the current draft “Standards for Reporting and Remediation of Contaminated Sites,” (Env-Wm 1600), which was also discussed in the last newsletter (“NH Reporting and Remediation of Contaminated Sites,” Summer 2002, Vol. 5, No. 2, pg. 1). Please contact me if you have any questions regarding this clarification.

John A. Gilbert, P.E.
jagilbert@geoinc.com

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