2013 Issue

35 approving Kennecott’s plan, thus avoiding Superfund listing. At the 2001 ROD signing, the USEPA Region 8 Assistant Administra- tor stated that “this is the most significant groundwater project in the country today.” 2004 Southwest Jordan Valley Groundwater Agreement During 2001-2004 the District and Kennecott held extensive ne- gotiations to define a groundwater cleanup project that the two entities could jointly construct. Dianne Nielsen, then Executive Director of UDEQ, was appointed as the Utah Natural Resource Trustee (Trustee). The Trustee participated in those negotiations. They resulted in two agreements executed in 2004: • The “Project Agreement,” executed by the District and Ken- necott, defining the project facilities for Zone A and Zone B, together with funding from the NRD Trust Fund; and • The “State Agreement,” executed by the District, Kennecott and the Trustee, defining releases of NRD Trust Fund components to Kennecott and the District during construction of the project. the District adopted the project name of Southwest Jordan Valley Groundwater Project (SWJVGP). The 2004 agreements provided for the District and Kennecott to share the Zones A and B trust fund amounts, and for the District to have full access to the Lost Use trust fund amount. The NRD Trust Fund appreciated, with interest earnings, from the original $37 million to $74 million. The District and Kennecott have used the NRD Trust Fund and their own additional funds to construct the SWJVGP. The following Funds have been spent: NRD Trust Fund $74 million District funds $37 million Kennecott funds $15 million TOTAL $126 million $15 million from the Lost Use portion of the Trust Fund will be released to the District during the period 2013-2017 to reimburse portions of its operation, maintenance and capital costs of the Lost Use facilities. During 2000-2005 Kennecott also pursued an exten- sive programof containing sources of contaminants togroundwater, at a cost of more than $169 million. The 2004 agreements called for Kennecott to construct the Zone A facilities, and for the District to construct the Zone B and Lost Use facilities. The Zone A facilities consisted four extraction wells, collection pipelines, a Zone A water treatment plant, treated water discharge pipeline to the District, and a by-product water disposal pipeline to its tailings impoundment in Magna. Kennecott has also completed and operated sulfate extraction wells from the most concentrated core of the Zone A plume, and has withdrawn significant quantities of sulfate contamination. Kennecott’s Zone A treatment plant, known as the BinghamCanyon Water Treatment Plant (BCWTP), uses a high-tech reverse osmosis process (Figure 2) for removal of sulfate and other contaminants. Figure 2 - BCWTP Reverse Osmosis Tubes A Case Study | continued on page 36