Who is in charge of Shelby County Groundwater? Groundwater is a locally-managed resource. While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces laws like the Clean Water Act of 1972 that deal largely with contamination, proactive management and conservation of groundwater is left to local entities.
Through a series of ordinances and contracts between 1987-1990, Shelby County, Memphis, Millington, Bartlett, Germantown, Arlington, and Collierville all agreed to expand the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) Water Quality Division and establish a public governing body: the Ground Water Quality Control Board. Their goal is to “secure, protect, and preserve the quality and quantity of groundwater.”
With permission from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the SCHD & Groundwater Board have four primary functions listed in the law:
In order to fulfill their function, permit fees were created at variable rates to support the septic, water well, and monitoring well program and a $0.55 per meter fee from the municipal utilities was levied. However, the meter fee has not changed since the early 1990s and permitting fees have rarely been updated, leading the division to become understaffed and underfunded.
Protect Our Aquifer has been recording all Groundwater Board meetings since we were founded. You can visit our YouTube channel and playlist for all the recorded meetings. The SCHD does not keep a recorded version of the meetings, nor do they livestream the event for meeting accessibility and transparency.
Two generations have gone by since the formation of the Groundwater Board - its goals and mission have slipped into the depths of bureaucracy, limited to appeals and permitting injection wells at remediation (contaminated) sites. To date, the SCHD only has capacity for the principal activities of #3: permitting wells and septic systems.
Please sign the petition here to ask the Groundwater Board & SCHD to equitably raise fees and establish an industrial conservation fee -- with this funding we can create more aquifer protection programs!
Curious what's on the agenda? Board Meeting documents and minutes can be found here.
The March 2024 Groundwater Board meeting was cancelled without a public notice. There are only four meetings scheduled this year, and cancelling one during the revision process of the Well Code is concerning. POA & our coalition partners sent a letter to the Board members and Shelby County leadership. You can read the letter and how they violated Shelby County statue here.
