DEP PREPARES TO START COLLIER COUNTY GROUNDWATER MONITORING

Florida DEP Banner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 20, 2014

CONTACT: DEP Press Office, 850.245.2112, DEPNews@dep.state.fl.us

DEP PREPARES TO START COLLIER COUNTY GROUNDWATER MONITORING

Mobilizing

~Equipment and staff mobilizing to begin testing on Tuesday~

TALLAHASSEE Less than a week after committing to conduct groundwater sampling near the Collier-Hogan well, a team of experts from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today began preparing equipment and resources to install wells and sample groundwater resources in Collier County next week. The upcoming site work will supplement ongoing efforts and demonstrates DEP’s continued commitment to ensuring the health and safety of residents and Florida’s environment.

DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. said, “DEP is dispatching a team of experts to assess the water quality near the Collier-Hogan well. Our priority is to ensure that the families in Collier County have safe groundwater, and the information gathered by our experts will be shared with the public in a transparent and expeditious manner. We will not let litigation keep us from protecting citizens and the environment.”

Members of DEP’s Site Investigation Section team will depart for Collier County Monday and begin their environmental assessments Tuesday. Their site work, which is expected to be completed next week, will include the following:

  • Installing six shallow monitoring wells and collecting groundwater samples,
  • Sampling two wells at the Collier-Hogan site used for on-site operations, and
  • Collecting samples from the flowback process.

Once the site work has concluded, chemists with DEP’s laboratory will analyze the samples to assess whether groundwater resources were affected as a result of the workover procedure conducted by the Dan A. Hughes Company.

Broadcast-quality HD video and pictures of today’s preparations are available here.