SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE CASE 2

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CALIFORNIA NATURAL PROCTS • WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY Groundwater at the 17.6 acre land application area has been monitored by groundwater monitoring wells since 1988. Additional monitoring wells were installed in 2001, one well in the existing land application area and three wells in the proposed 16.0-acre land application area. The depth to groundwater is approximately 10 to 15 feet below ground surface and the groundwater gradient is reportedly to the west-northwest. Higher concentrations of dissolved solids have been reported in samples collected from the 17.6 acre land application area than in the proposed 16.0 acre land application area. Further evaluation of groundwater conditions, including better definition of groundwater quality upgradient of the land application areas is required to establish background groundwater concentrations and determine if the application of wastewater has impacted groundwater quality. The Discharger installed a reverse osmosis for the boiler feed water. The RO unit replaced regenerative water softening equipment. In addition, the Discharger uses potassium hydroxide as a caustic cleaning chemical and nitric or phosphoric acid as acidic cleaners. The neutralization of the acid caustic chemicals results in plant macro-nutrients that are more likely to be taken up by cropping activities rather than percolate to groundwater. These waste discharge requirements contain hydraulic, organic,and nutrient loading limits for the land application areas, a time schedule for preparation of an Operation and Maintenance Plan, a reporting requirement for completion of improvements to the land application areas, installation of additional groundwater monitoring wells, a groundwater quality evaluation, and if needed based on the results of additional groundwater characterization, a salinity reduction study. 0' mjxt Flns ita\Cal_Nat Pr&d NWDRs 0101\WFO.dec