GeoTracker Reporting Requirements

What are the State Water Board electronic data submittal requirements?

The Electronic Reporting Regulations (Chapter 30, Division 3 of Title 23 & Division 3 of Title 27, CCR) require electronic submission of any report or data required by a regulatory agency from a cleanup site. Submission dates are set by a Regional Water Board or by a regulatory agency. Once a report/data is successfully uploaded, as required, you have met the reporting requirement (i.e. the compliance measure for electronic submittals is the actual upload itself). The upload date should be on or prior to the regulatory due date.

What this means:

• Lab Data:
  Analytical data (including geochemical data) for all soil, vapor and water samples that are collected for the purpose of subsurface investigation or remediation are required to be submitted in specified EDF format to a regulatory agency. These data are required to be submitted in electronic format to the State Water Board's Geotracker system via the Internet. Groundwater, soil and vapor samples include: monitor well samples, borehole samples, gas and vapor samples, groundwater grab samples, piezometer samples, stockpile samples and samples from drinking water wells.
• Boring Logs and Well Screen Intervals:
  Boring logs must be prepared by an appropriate registered professional and need to be submitted in PDF format. If a monitor well is installed, the screen depth and interval must be reported.
• Depth to Water Data:
  Monitor wells need to have the depth-to-water information reported in the GEO_WELL file whenever the data is collected, even if the well is not actually sampled during the sampling event. Drinking water wells generally do not need to have the depth to water reported unless they are surveyed as permanent sampling points. A permanent sampling point is defined as a point that is sampled for more than a 30-day period.
• Locational Data:
  The locational data can be either professionally surveyed “Permanent Monitoring Well” locations (i.e. Surveyed Data) or other sample locations that have not been surveyed by a licensed professional (i.e. Non-Surveyed Data) and do not meet the definition of a Permanent Monitoring Well.
  
  Surveyed data are Permanent Monitoring Wells that are required to be surveyed by a professional Land Surveyor, Geologist, Civil Engineer, or Petroleum Engineer. A permanent monitoring well is defined as any artificial excavation by any method made for the purpose of monitoring fluctuations in groundwater levels, the quality of groundwater, or the concentration of contaminants in groundwater and which is used for at least thirty days (Title 23, California Code of Regs. § 3891). If samples from the permanent sampling locations are included in a regulatory report, these sampling points must be surveyed. This would typically include any groundwater or similar monitoring points at the site, or any drinking water wells that are included in the regulatory report. The surveyed locational information for these sampling points should be submitted using the GEO_XY file. Each permanent sampling location's longitude (X) and latitude (Y) should be reported only once for a site unless resurveyed.
  
  Non-Surveyed data may include gas/vapor probe locations, leachate sampling locations, a “transient sampling point” (a point that is sampled for less than 30 days) or one-time sampling points (e.g. soil boring, direct push technologies, piezometers, or grab samples often used for rapid site characterization, such as stockpile sampling points, etc.). Permanent influent/effluent sampling locations also fall under this category. Non-surveyed data may include latitude and longitude coordinates collected from an online-mapping tool, mobile/smart phone application, or a consumer GPS device.
• Elevation Data:
  Elevation measurements to the top of groundwater well casings are required for all groundwater monitoring wells (to be submitted as part of the GEO_Z file). Drinking water wells included in the report, do not need to have the elevation reported unless they are identified as permanent sampling points.
• Site Map:
  An electronic generalized site plan map is required to be submitted into the State database (GEO_MAP). Site map should display tank locations, streets bordering the facility, and sampling locations for all soil, water and vapor samples. The site map is a stand-alone document that may be submitted in various formats. Additional updated site map may be submitted at any time.
• Paperless Reporting Requirement:
  Starting on January 1, 2005, a complete copy of all clean-up and monitoring reports must be submitted to GeoTracker. This uploaded PDF report may includes the signed transmittal letter, professional certification and all data that are uploaded into the GeoTracker.

The survey data (latitude/longitude and elevation), depth-to-water, and site map information files must be submitted as required to the SWRCB’s GeoTracker database via the Internet in accordance with the Geotracker XYZ survey Guidelines and Restrictions.