Document ID: EPA_FRDOC_0001-13884
Agency: epa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Safe Drinking Water Act Sole Source Aquifer Program: Designation of Bainbridge Island, WA, as a Sole Source Aquifer
Posted Date: 2013-03-29T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 61 (Friday, March 29, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19261-19262]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-07409]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Safe Drinking Water Act Sole Source Aquifer Program; Designation 
of Bainbridge Island, Washington as a Sole Source Aquifer

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Final determination.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that pursuant to Section 1424(e) of the 
Safe Drinking Water Act, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that the Bainbridge Island 
Aquifer System located in Kitsap County, Washington is the sole or 
principle source of drinking water for the citizens of Bainbridge 
Island and that this aquifer system, if contaminated would create a 
significant hazard to public health. As a result of this action, all 
Federal financially assisted projects constructed on Bainbridge Island 
will be subject to EPA review to ensure that these projects are 
designed and constructed so they do not create a significant hazard to 
public health.

DATES: This determination shall be effective on March 29, 2013.

ADDRESSES: All documents relating to this determination are available 
for inspection by the public during normal business hours at the U.S. 
EPA Library, Region 10, 1200 Sixth Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101 
between the hours of 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and 1:00-4:00 p.m. and at the 
Bainbridge Island library at 1270 Madison Avenue North, Bainbridge 
Island.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Susan Eastman, EPA Region 10, Drinking 
Water Unit, by mail at the Seattle address given above, by telephone at 
(206) 553-6249, or by email at Eastman.susan@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    Section 1424(e) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h3(e), 
Public Law 93-523 of December 16, 1974) states:

    If the Administrator determines, on his own initiative or upon 
petition, that an area has an aquifer which is the sole or principal 
drinking water source for the area and which, if contaminated, could 
create a significant hazard to public health, he shall publish a 
notice of the determination in the Federal Register. After the 
publication of any such notice, no commitment for Federal financial 
assistance (through a grant, contract, loan guarantee, or otherwise) 
may be entered into for any project which the Administrator 
determines may contaminate such aquifer through a recharge zone so 
as to create a significant hazard to public health, but a commitment 
for Federal financial assistance may, if authorized under another 
provision of law, be entered into to plan or design the project to 
assure that it will not so contaminate the aquifer.

    On August 5, 2009, EPA received a petition from two citizens of 
Bainbridge Island requesting designation of the Bainbridge Island 
Aquifer System as a Sole Source Aquifer (SSA). On April 20, 2012, EPA 
published a notice in the Bainbridge Islander newspaper and mailed fact 
sheets to island residents which served to announce the public comment 
period. The public was permitted to submit comments and information on 
the petition from April 20 through June 4, 2012. Public comments 
received by EPA were generally in support of the designation.

II. Basis for Determination

    EPA defines a sole or principle source aquifer as an aquifer or 
aquifer system which supplies at least 50 percent of the drinking water 
consumed in the area overlying the aquifer, and for which

[[Page 19262]]

there is no alternative source or combination of alternative drinking 
water sources which could physically, legally and economically supply 
those dependent upon the aquifer (U.S. EPA, 1987, Sole Source Aquifer 
Designation Decision Process, Petition Review Guidance).
    Among the factors considered by the Regional Administrator in 
connection with the designation of an area under Section 1424(e) are: 
(1) Whether the Bainbridge Island Aquifer System is the area's sole or 
principal source of drinking water and (2) whether contamination of the 
aquifer system would create a significant hazard to public health. On 
the basis of technical information available to the EPA, the Regional 
Administrator has made the following findings in favor of designating 
the Bainbridge Island Aquifer System a SSA:
    1. The Bainbridge Island Aquifer System currently serves more than 
23,000 residents of Bainbridge Island. One hundred percent of the 
current population obtains their drinking water from the petitioned 
aquifer system either from individual wells or from one of the more 
than 150 water systems on the island.
    2. There is no existing alternative drinking water source or 
combination of sources which supply drinking water to the designated 
area, nor is there any available cost effective future source capable 
of supplying the drinking water demands for the population served by 
the aquifer service area. No potential surface water bodies exist to 
provide a source of drinking water, piping water from the Kitsap 
Peninsula across Agate Pass Bridge to Bainbridge Island is cost-
prohibitive and installation of a desalination plant is too costly.
    3. Since groundwater contamination can be difficult or sometimes 
impossible to reverse and since the Bainbridge community relies on the 
Bainbridge Aquifer System for drinking water purposes, contamination of 
the aquifer system would pose a significant public health hazard.
    The legal and technical basis for the proposal was outlined in an 
EPA publication titled: ``Support Document for Sole Source Aquifer 
Designation of the Bainbridge Island Aquifer System''.

III. Description of the Bainbridge Island Aquifer System

    The petitioned area includes all of Bainbridge Island. The island 
is a mix of developed land and forests. Six principal aquifers make up 
the Bainbridge Island Aquifer System. On island precipitation recharges 
the aquifers and is the only source of recharge for lakes, ponds, and 
streams. The island has a total of 53 miles of seawater shoreline and 
the aquifer area is bounded on all sides by Puget Sound. Interior 
plateaus reach maximum elevations of 300 to 400 feet above mean sea 
level. The island can be divided into 12 drainage basins. Large volumes 
of unconsolidated glacial and interglacial materials from at least six 
advances and retreats of Pleistocene continental glaciers over the last 
300,000 years has shaped the present-day landscape and underlying 
hydrostratigraphy of the island and are host to the aquifers on 
Bainbridge Island. The aquifer system is vulnerable to contamination 
from potential seawater intrusion, accidental spills, petroleum 
projects, small hazardous waste generators, household hazardous waste 
disposal, leachate from the closed island landfill, leachate from the 
Wyckoff Superfund site in Eagle Harbor, failing septic systems, 
fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and improperly abandoned wells. 
Bainbridge Island's hydrogeologic characteristics are similar to the 
following Puget Sound islands whose aquifers have already been 
designated as SSA's by EPA: Camano, Whidbey, Marrowstone, Guemes and 
Vashon-Maury. Please see the Support Document for a more detailed 
hydrogeologic description.

IV. Information Utilized in Determination

    The information utilized in this determination include the 
petition; U.S. Geological Survey, 2011, Conceptual Model and Numerical 
Simulation of the Groundwater-Flow system of Bainbridge Island, 
Washington, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5021, 96 pages; 
Washington Department of Ecology, 2011a, Confirmed and Suspected 
Contaminated Sites List, Bainbridge Island City Strawberry Plant Site, 
August 16; EPA guidance documents and the City of Bainbridge Water 
Resource Study (2000). For a complete list of references used by the 
petitioner see the Support Document.

V. Project Review

    Publication of this determination requires that EPA review proposed 
projects with Federal financial assistance in order to ensure that such 
projects do not have the potential to contaminate the Bainbridge Island 
SSA so as to create a significant hazard to public health. Proposed 
projects that are funded entirely by state, local, or private concerns 
are not subject to SSA review by EPA. EPA does not review all possible 
Federal financially-assisted projects but tries to focus on those 
projects which pose the greatest risk to public health. Memorandums of 
Understanding between EPA and various Federal funding agencies help 
identify, coordinate and evaluate projects.

VI. Summary

    Today's action affects the Bainbridge Island Aquifer System located 
on Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County, Washington. Projects with federal 
financial assistance proposed within the Bainbridge Island Aquifer 
System will be reviewed to ensure that their activities will not 
endanger public health through contamination of the aquifer. A public 
notice regarding the SSA designation request was published in the 
Bainbridge Islander newspaper on April 20, 2012. Seven comments were 
received all in general support of the designation of the Bainbridge 
Island Aquifer System.

    Authority:  Section 1424(e) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
U.S.C. 300h3(e), Pub. L. 93-523 of December 16, 1974

    Dated: March 21, 2013.
Rick Albright,
Acting Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2013-07409 Filed 3-28-13; 8:45 am]
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