This 3-day introductory course is designed to provide participants with information concerning hydrogeological processes and the necessary elements of a sound groundwater site investigation. It is intended for personnel who are involved in groundwater contamination investigations but have little prior hydrogeological experience. This course is not designed for geologists or hydrologists.

Topics that are discussed include hydrogeological definitions and concepts; conceptual site models (CSM) and their role in groundwater investigations; discussion of aquifer types and regional hydrogeology; geophysics; drilling, construction, and placement of monitoring wells; groundwater sampling considerations; groundwater modeling; and vapor intrusion.

Instructional methods include lectures, group discussions, case studies, and class problem- solving exercises.

After completing the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the components of a groundwater system.
• List the primary hydrogeological parameters to be considered in a site investigation.
• Prepare and interpret geologic cross-sections.
• Construct a groundwater flow net and calculate hydraulic gradient at a site.
• Understand the sources of site hydrogeologic data and how that data is gathered and interpreted (for example aquifer stress tests). 
• Discuss common geophysical survey method.
• Describe monitoring well drilling and construction techniques.

This course is often presented in the same week as the Advanced Groundwater Investigations Course (AGWI), with AGWI presented on the day immediately following completion of the IGWI course.

Continuing Education Units: 2.0

Unless otherwise specified, THIS COURSE IS NOT OPEN TO CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS, OR ANY PRIVATE ENTITIES. 

*This course is offered free of charge to all registrants who are confirmed to attend*In compliance with Executive Order 13589 - Promoting Efficient Spending, Section 5; the ERTP will not be regularly printing or providing students hard copies of the course manual. Students may obtain an electronic copy of the student manual for personal printing or e-reading at 

https://ertpvu.org/ClassroomCourseDetail.aspx?id=6

IMPORTANT NOTICES – Applicable to all ERTP courses :

1. ERTP’s receipt of a Trainex course registration is a Registration Request, it is not a Guaranteed Enrollment in the Course. All ERTP training courses require applicant registration thru the Trainex system. Last minute course arrivals without prior ERTP Trainex course registration approval is not permitted. Before ERTP issues final approval to deliver any course and/or any EPA offices incurring expenses for the training event (including but not limited to EPA staff travel TA’s and/or ERTP training contractor expenses incurred), all EPA mandatory pre-approvals must all be met. The pre-approvals include (but are not limited to) the following:
   
   • Training location’s availability;
   • COVID status and/or other COVID Guidelines in effect for the location, as well as staff;
   • Agency limitations, scrutiny, and approvals of ‘Conference Spending Requirements (known as the “5170”)’ for the specific training course(s) scheduled delivery timeframe;
   • Weather (blizzard, hurricane, etc);
   • Contractual number of available course training slots;
   • EPA training location staff having priority registration over all other registrations; and/or
   • Hosting site Training Coordinator approval.
   
   In the event a course is subsequently postponed or canceled, or notification of registration cancellation is received, all EPA travel arrangements (airline/car rental/hotel) should be canceled in a timely manner. Registered students will receive a notification via email if/when a course is postponed and/or cancelled.
    
2. For in-person course deliveries, confirmed course registered participants must abide by all facility physical access requirements for the location (examples: check-in at the security gate, Federal ID, Government PIV/CAC cards, photo id’s, etc.). If applicable for the course or location, restrictions may apply to non-citizens and acceptable identification may be required for facility entry.
    

Entry Requirements to Federal Facilities - Training Exchange (trainex.org)

Region 1: EPA Region 1 (Boston, MA) course: EPA REGION 1 STAFF HAVE PRIORITY REGISTRATION FOR THIS COURSE.

Once a registration is approved, the applicant will receive a confirmed enrollment email notification (usually in the form of a confirmed Outlook email calendar event (that is not identified as “Hold the Date”).

IMPORTANT NOTICE – Actions required by EPA staff for the items that are specific to this training event/course:

3. Conference Spending Requirements (known as the “5170”) -Applicable to all ERTP in-person courses & training dates– All EPA staff travel spending will be closely monitored/scrutinized for 5170 cost-monitoring requirements. All EPA staff registering for the above course registration links are requested to notify the EPA/Region staff identified at the bottom of this webpage in advance and provide the preliminary cost estimate details in writing via email. The Region POC and/or other EPA staff are responsible for tracking EPA 5170 spending for this training event. Travel spending includes all funds to be paid for by EPA. The 5170 conference spending requirement is not applicable to participants external to EPA, where EPA is not funding travel.

EPA travel spending “Project Code for this training event: The unique project code for this training event is ME0101IG.****

****Participants are responsible for ensuring this code, once it is assigned, is used in the Site Project field under the Accounting tab in Concur. This code must be used for all travel authorizations, travel vouchers, and local travel vouchers related to this specific training course event. For the code shown as “TBD”, upon receipt of OCFO’s approval this webpage will be updated to add the approved code. For TA’s approved in advance, it is the traveler’s responsibility to ensure the TA is amended to add the correct project code(s) and/or MUST be added to the final Travel Voucher. For some back-to-back delivered courses, two different unique travel codes may be required. If needed, your FCO/Funds Certifying Official can provide assistance to ensure the code is entered correctly in Concur.

****Note: ERTP’s training contractors are NOT involved in EPA’s internal 5170 conference spending processes or approvals. All 5170 related questions are to be forwarded to the Region course POC, or Region Training Coordinator, and/or the EPA ERTP Contracting Officer Representatives (COR’s).