How to Complete Groundwater Rule Corrective Action

A fecal-indicator-positive source sample is not the end of the Ground Water Rule. It is the start of corrective action. 40 CFR 141.403, in Subpart S, says you consult the primacy agency, carry out a state-approved option, and either finish the work or sit on an approved plan and schedule inside the state's clock. Typical options after a fecal-positive source are eliminate the source of contamination, provide an alternate source, or install treatment that reliably achieves 4-log treatment of viruses before or at the first customer.

This page is that fix. The triggered fecal-indicator sample itself is a different page: Groundwater Rule triggered source-water monitoring. Do not treat the 24-hour source bottle as the closeout. Confirm the option and the dates with your primacy agency. This isn't legal advice.

When 141.403 corrective action actually starts

Triggered monitoring under 141.402 is the 24-hour source sample after a routine total-coliform-positive. Corrective action under 141.403 starts when one of these is true:

• A ground water source sample collected as one of the five additional source samples under 141.402(a)(3) is fecal-indicator-positive, and the state has not invalidated it.
• The state directs corrective action after an initial fecal-indicator-positive source sample under 141.402(a)(2), a sample under 141.402(a)(4), or assessment monitoring under 141.402(b).
• The state identifies a significant deficiency (that path is related, and the survey closeout is its own page: How to correct a sanitary survey deficiency).

Write the date you received the lab's written notice, or the state's written direction, on the first line of the file. That date starts the consult clock and the completion clock. If you need the identifier for every email, use the PWSID on the lab report. If you need the number, use PWSID lookup.

Consult the state before you pick a fix

Unless the state already named the exact corrective action, 141.403(a)(4) says you consult the state regarding the appropriate action within 30 days of that written notice. A voicemail you never logged is not a consult. Send an email or a portal note with the PWSID, the source ID, the fecal indicator, the collection date, and the question: which option do you want us to run, and do you want interim measures while we plan?

The state can direct a specific action. If it does, that direction is the option. You do not get to swap in a cheaper well-house project because it feels close enough. Wyoming systems consult EPA Region 8. The District of Columbia and tribal systems consult the EPA region with primacy. States vary on plan review, well abandonment, and what counts as 4-log. Confirm before you bid the work.

The typical options after a fecal-positive source

141.403(a)(6) lists four alternatives. You implement one or more. After a fecal-positive source, operators usually land on one of the last three. The first one (correct all significant deficiencies) is the survey path when the state has named physical defects.

• Eliminate the source of contamination. Remove or redirect what is feeding the well: a failing septic, drainage onto the pad, an animal lot, a cross-connection at the wellhead. The state has to agree that the source you named caused the fecal indicator. A cleaned pad with the same septic still uphill is not elimination.
• Provide an alternate source of water. A new well, a connection to another public water system, or another state-approved source that can serve the first customer. Consecutive buyers still have their own PWSID. See consecutive and purchased-water obligations. Do not flip a valve onto an unapproved well and call it the alternate source.
• Install 4-log treatment of viruses before or at the first customer. 4-log means 99.99 percent inactivation, removal, or a state-approved combination of both. Chemical disinfection with a state-set residual and contact time is the common path. 4-log is not "we already chlorinate a little." It is treatment the state has evaluated, plus the compliance monitoring in 141.403(b).

Correcting significant deficiencies can be the whole answer when the fecal problem is a broken seal, an unscreened vent, or a well cap the survey already named. It can also be an interim step while you build 4-log or a new well. The state decides whether the physical repair is enough, or whether you still owe treatment or a new source.

The state clock: 120 days, or the approved plan

141.403(a)(5) gives you 120 days from the written notice, or earlier if the state directed a shorter date, to do one of two things:

• Have completed the corrective action, including any interim measures the state specified, under the state's plan-review process; or
• Be in compliance with a state-approved corrective action plan and schedule. Later changes to that plan also need state approval.

A contractor who cannot start for five months is not a plan. A plan has tasks, owners, dates, and the interim protections the state wants while you wait (bottled water, a boil notice, a temporary chlorinator, a well taken offline). Submit the plan before the 120-day mark. An approved schedule is compliance. An overdue email describing a future plan is a treatment-technique violation under 40 CFR 141.404.

If you install 4-log, you also start compliance monitoring: a daily residual (continuous if you serve more than 3,300 people), or the membrane or alternative-treatment monitoring the state specified. Failing to maintain 4-log, and not correcting that failure within four hours, is a treatment-technique violation. You cannot discontinue 4-log later unless the state writes that it is no longer necessary for that source.

Notice that rides along with the fix

A fecal-indicator-positive source sample has a public-notice clock of its own. Confirm the tier with the state. Many of these events are acute and use the 24-hour write. See SDWA public notice tiers and How to write a Tier 1 public notice. Failure to complete corrective action, or failure to maintain 4-log, is a treatment-technique violation that takes a Tier 2 notice under 141.203. See How to write a Tier 2 public notice.

Community ground water systems also owe the special notice in 141.403(a)(7): tell people served about the fecal-positive source sample, or about an uncorrected significant deficiency, and keep telling them at least annually until the state agrees it is corrected. That annual line often lands in the CCR. It does not replace the event notice. See What is a CCR.

What you send back, and what you keep

Ask the primacy contact what closes the item. A usable packet usually includes the option the state approved, the finish date, photos or as-builts, the plan-review letter, and (for 4-log) the residual or integrity logs. Put the PWSID on every page. Keep the lab notice, the consult, the approved plan, and the state's written determination that the contamination is corrected. See water system record retention.

The week the source sample comes back fecal-positive

• Write the notice date. Count 30 days to consult and 120 days to finish or to have an approved plan.
• Call and email the primacy contact. Ask which option they want and whether they want interim measures now.
• Do not take a well back online, or stop a boil, because a later distribution sample was clean. The source clock is independent.
• If 4-log is the path, ask what residual, contact time, and monitoring the state will require before you buy equipment.
• If a new well or a wholesale connection is the path, ask for the source-approval checklist the same week. Calendar the public-notice write on its own clock.

FAQ

Does every fecal-positive source sample require 4-log treatment?

No. 4-log is one of four alternatives. The state may accept elimination of the contamination source, an alternate source, correction of a significant deficiency, or a combination. Confirm the option with the primacy agency before you design treatment.

We already add chlorine. Are we already at 4-log?

Not unless the state has evaluated the process and you are running the 141.403(b) compliance monitoring for that source. Residual at the well house without approved contact time, or without the daily record the state specified, is not 4-log under Subpart S.

Check my system at /find-my-system.

Orevant provides compliance information tools. This page isn't legal advice. Confirm the corrective-action option, the 30-day consult, and the 120-day plan with your primacy agency.