Strategic Groundwater Management a Tool for Building Community Trust Weyerhaeuser Company Springfield, Oregon, 1997 Environmental Conference Proceedings

The Weyerhaeuser Company is taking a cooperative and proactive approach to groundwater management at the company’s Springfield, Oregon manufacturing site. As part of this approach, Weyerhaeuser is working in partnership with State of Oregon regulatory agencies and public water suppliers to solve groundwater problems. This paper examines the process Weyerhaeuser has used to develop a technically sound, efficient groundwater management program and concurrently build community trust. The Springfield mill is located in close proximity to the McKenzie River and a municipal water supply well field is located between the mill and the river. The well field supplies about 15 percent of the drinking water to the residents of Springfield. The McKenzie River provides the water supply for the neighboring city of Eugene. In 1990, Weyerhaeuser anticipated that an evaluation of groundwater characteristics at the mill complex would be required as part of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit renewal process. The company also recognized that an evaluation of groundwater quality was appropriate given the proximity of the municipal well field and other potential groundwater users. In response to these issues, and consistent with the company’s corporate citizenship value and “good neighbor” policy, Weyerhaeuser voluntarily initiated a groundwater evaluation at the mill site. Since 1991, Weyerhaeuser has expanded the groundwater evaluation and funded the construction of a treatment system for the nearby municipal well field. The expansion of the groundwater assessment program has…