The Well Surveillance group manages several programs to identify and
monitor areas in Florida where contaminated drinking water is
suspected and may pose a threat to public health. The Well
Surveillance Section is composed of the State Underground Petroleum
Environmental Response Act (SUPER Act), Drinking Water Toxics
Program (Toxics), Drycleaner Solvent Cleanup Program (DSCP). The
section coordinates with the County Health Departments (CHDs) to
locate potable wells and conduct water sampling for contaminants of
concern. Chemical analysis of water samples is conducted at the
Department's laboratory in Jacksonville.
Well Surveys / Sampling
The two main activities of the Well Surveillance Program is well
surveys and sampling. The two essential activities performed when
completing a well survey are locating facilities (i.e. service
stations) and then sampling nearby drinking water wells for the
appropriate chemical. Each CHD provides accurate (opens in a new
window) Global Positioning System (GPS) locations for each facility
and drinking water wells located within a 1/4 mile radius, and all
large public water system supply wells (more than 150,000 gallons
per day) within a 1/2 mile radius.
What Happens if My Well is Contaminated?
If your well is contaminated with levels of chemicals that exceed
state or federal drinking water safety guidelines, you may be
eligible for assistance through the (opens in a new window) DEP's
Water Supply Restoration Program. If eligible, DEP will provide you
with either a connection to a central water system or an appropriate
filter system at no cost to the homeowner.
Well Surveillance Technical Guide
Technical Guide (8.5 MB pdf, opens in new window). This is the
guide we use to perform our program activities. Mapping and Data
Downloads
Make your own map
EH Water - Program
(opens in new window)Data Available for Download
The Well Surveillance Program maintains an extensive database. Two
tables, Wells and Facilities, are used to generate our well surveys.
These tables are available for download in either a dbase IV (.dbf)
or ASCII text (.txt) format. This table consists of data relating to
all privately and publicly owned potable wells investigated as part
of the Well Surveillance program. The table contains addresses and
geographic coordinates of the wells. For information regarding the
test results of specific wells included in this table, please
contact us at the link below.
Wells table (updated 3/13/2013)
(opens in new window)
Wells (Zipped MDB - 6Mb)
(opens in new window)
Wells (text - Zipped- 6.2MB)
fields and field definitions for the Wells table (pdf,<1mb).
Facility table (updated 3/13/2013)
(opens in new window)
Facility (Zipped MDB - 6Mb)
(opens in new window)
Facility (text - Zipped- 6.2MB)
fields and field definitions for the Facilities table (pdf, <1mb)
Instructions to extract the .zip file:
1. Click "Download Zip file"
2. Click "Open this file from its current location"
3. Click "Ok"
4. Click the "extract" button
5. Choose a file folder to extract to
6. Click "extract"
7. The file has now been downloaded to the folder you selected
Please note that older versions of MS Excel can open dbase files,
but may not display all of the records. If you are not sure about
your version of Excel, you may want to use a dedicated reader or
download the text version. Website update frequency - The data
tables will be updated on the first weekday of each month by program
staff.
Petroleum Program
In 1986, the Florida Legislature created the State Underground
Environmental Response Act (SUPER Act) Program in response to
groundwater contamination resulting from leaking underground
petroleum storage tanks. The primary authority for the SUPER Act
program was given to the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP). The DEP oversees the clean-up activities around
petroleum facilities that have had a loss of petroleum product. The
Department of Health (DOH) was given authority to provide field and
laboratory services, toxicological risk assessments, investigations
of drinking water contamination complaints, and public education.
Drinking Water Toxics Program
Discovery of extensive groundwater contamination of wells with
ethylene dibromide (EDB) in the early 1980's led to widespread
public concern about the water quality of Florida's private potable
wells. The Florida legislature enacted the Water Quality Assurance
Trust Fund in 1983 to protect public health and the environment.
This trust fund gave the DEP the responsibility to investigate wells
or areas that may be at risk due to chemical release and to provide
an alternative water source to a homeowner whose well is found to
contain contaminants above the primary maximum contamination level (MCL)
or health advisory level (HAL). The program is limited to chemical
contaminants that present an unacceptable risk to the homeowner by
any source not already covered by another program (i.e., SUPER Act,
drycleaner, lead, bacteria).
Drycleaning Solvent Cleanup Program
In 1994, The Florida Legislature established the state-funded
Drycleaning Solvent Cleanup Program (DSCP) to cleanup properties
that are contaminated as a result of the operations of a drycleaning
facility or wholesale supply facility. The statute was sponsored by
the drycleaning industry to address environmental, economic, and
liability issues resulting from drycleaning solvent contamination.
The DEP is now requesting investigations of specific drycleaning
facilities at sites being considered for cleanup.
Links (all links open in a new window)
General
USGS Chemical and Pathogenic Contaminant Exposure by
Drinking Water
Florida's 63 National Priority List Sites
EPA's Ground Water and Drinking Water Page
Our Partners at DEP
DEP's Drycleaning Solvent
Cleanup Program
DEP's Bureau of Petroleum Storage Systems
DEP's Bureau of
Waste Cleanup
DEP's Water Supply Restoration Program
Extoxnet (Pesticide
Information)
For More Information on Chemical
Contaminants
Water Fact Sheets
Agency
for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry
Florida's Maximum Contaminant/Health Advisory Levels
(pdf<1mb) |
