The Washington state Department of Ecology plans to revise its rules governing what are called injection wells, including about 10,000 of themmostly storm-water dry wellsin the Spokane metropolitan area.


The rule changes still are in the early draft stage, so specifics have yet to emerge. They shouldnt have a major effect here, though, because Spokane County already has more stringent regulations in place, says Stan Miller, who manages the countys water-quality program. However, they could place additional permitting requirements on some businessesperhaps a couple of hundredthat use such wells for getting rid of fluid other than storm water.


Ecology is expected to conduct a more extensive inventory of the wells than has occurred in the past, and, There are a lot of commercial and industrial activities that are dumping into injection wells that probably have not been looked at very closely, says Miller.


If there are some businesses still dumping things into holes in the ground that are potentially harmful, theyre going to end up in the permitting arena, he says.


For most affected businesses, though, he adds, I dont think its going to be a problem in the long run. Youre going to have to jump through some hoops, youre going to have to show youre not misusing the suckers.


The rule changes likely wont result in any harsh crackdown on those businesses found to be using injection wells improperly, he says, and should be welcomed because theyll help us keep the aquifer from becoming contaminated.


Under the regulatory definition, injection wells are man-made or improved holes in the ground, deeper than they are wide at the ground surface, or an improved sinkhole or a subsurface fluid-distribution system. Theyre simple devices, used to dispose of fluids underground through the force of gravity. Examples include dry wells, sumps, drain fields, and infiltration trenches that contain perforated pipe.


Old-fashioned storm-water dry wells are the most common type here. Theyre the steel-lidded ones located along streets and parking lots that dont connect into any treatment system.


Probably 80 percent of the injection wells here that would fall under the anticipated rule revisions are government owned, and virtually all of them are decades old, Miller says. The county adopted regulations in 1980 prohibiting the use of injection wells for disposal of untreated storm water, but the states rules have been less restrictive, he says.


Ecology must change its rules to mirror more rigid rules that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Ecology administers those federal rules in this state.


Melissa Gildersleeve, manager of Ecologys watershed-management section, says, Its really a program where we keep track of these wells and make sure that waste is staying out of the drinking water. Its a (voluntary) registration program.


The likely general effect of the rule revisions, she says, will be to spell out more clearly what well owners can and cannot do, so that can be a good thing or a bad thing in the eyes of those being regulated.


Ecology probably will begin holding workshops to discuss draft rule changes within the next few months, Gildersleeve says. Formal hearings could occur as early as this summer, with rule changes possibly being implemented by mid-2005.


We do understand that Spokane is an area where there are drinking water (and) ground-water concerns, and we definitely will be targeting that community when we do these informal workshops as well as the hearings. Its a big issue, Gildersleeve says.