CHAPTER 6 - ANALYSIS OF LAND-USE WITHIN ZOC FOR TOXIC AND HAZARDOUS MAT. 

 Cape Cod Aquifer Management Project Final Report Page 47 



should be covered by a particular program are actually regulated?). The 

 column labeled "time requirements" represents the actual time required to 

 gather and roughly verify the data. Verification efforts focused on the 

 facility locations so this information could be utilized by the Geographic 

 Information Systems (CIS) methodology. A discussion of these data for ZOC 

 #1 is presented elsewhere in two CCAMP CIS reports: "A Demonstration of 

 Geographic Information System for Groundwater Protection" (1988) and 

 "Assessing Risk to Water Quality at Public Water Supply Sites, Cape Cod, 

 Massachusetts", In Preparation by the U.S. Geological Survey. 



Several other data sources that should be examined in any wellhead 

 protection (WHP) inventory but which were not important in ZOC #1 include: 

 EPA's RCRA Interim Status Files (information on hazardous waste, transfer, 

 storage and disposal facilities), the NPDES permit program, the 

 Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, and the Superfund program. 



In order to organize and analyze information from these disparate pro- 

 gram files, a hierarchical set of dBase III files was utilized. A master 

 file was developed containing map, parcel, land-use numbers, business name 

 and address, sewer information and a column listing for each of the regu- 

 latory programs that were examined for regulating specific land-use activ- 

 ities on a particular parcel. Separate data bases contained specific pro- 

 gram information keyed again by map and parcel numbers and business name. 



6.3.2 Data Quality 



In general, the data in almost all of the programs as listed in Table 

 5.1 examined was of poor quality, time consuming to retrieve, not current, 

 and rarely spatially referenced. The reason for this deficiency seems to 

 be that these program files are seldom used by decision-makers in other 

 programs . A great deal of very useful information was uncovered 

 (particularly at the local level) that should be utilized on a routine 

 basis for decision making. Without a perceived use for the data, there is 

 little incentive to maintain readily usable files. Unfortunately, data 

 retrieval was frequently hampered by such problems as indecipherable hand 

 writing, forms without key information, and difficulty in retrieving 

 automated data. 



There is a critical need for coordinating data gathering requirements 

 at all levels of government with the goal of obtaining complete infor- 

 mation as a first step in the protection of any critical area. Where pos- 

 sible, for ease of access, key data should be standardized, spatially 

 displayed and automated. There should also be an increase in information 

 exchange across programs, and among federal, state and local levels of 

 government. Siting water supplies and other land uses, targeting 

 enforcement, and checking program compliance will all be facilitated by 

 easy access to shared information. 



6 .4 Findings 



CCAMP 's inventory of potential contamination sources provided an 

 extensive characterization of the use of hazardous materials and the risk 



