Att B_UOI Online Assessment Results (ppp)

1. The Illinois State Water Survey has been on the U of I campus for over 100 years. A sister agency to the Illinois State Geological Survey, we have a public service lab that provides very low cost sample analyses for private well owners in Illinois and are the stewards of the state’s well logs. In my role, I support well owners through requests and research projects that involve aquifer assessment, water quality sampling, and support for ground water resources.

1. I used 5 geology students from ISU to inventory 1706 wells in 9 townships. The goal was to determine the number of active private wells, measure the water level in every well we could, and determine the well depth and pump setting.  With this information and an existing robust groundwater flow model of the aquifer, we could predict the number of wells that would go dry or need their pump lowered if a large regional water supply pumping 12MGD were to be developed in the area.  What we found is that there are many older wells not in our records.  

 

1. We were looking at the spatial variability of arsenic in a glacial aquifer where we had previously found that arsenic varied by several orders of magnitude.  We were hoping to see how variable it could be over short distances in wells of similar depth.  Most interesting was one well owner who said we could sample his well as long as we did it when he was not home and did not send him the results.  I asked why, he said because he was trying to sell his house and wanted to be able to fill out the disclosure information honestly.

 

1. This is Cook County (Chicago proper).  There are 3000 active private wells in Cook County.  Most people have no idea, but in the small unincorporated areas between municipalities, there are private wells.  The highlighted well was drilled in 1995 in a subdivision in one of these unincorporated areas.

 

1. Contrast that with where I grew up, on a small farm near Middletown Illinois. It’s the blue oval about a mile east of Middletown.  It was a hand dug, 4-foot diameter well that was 14 feet deep.  It was in a pasture and just above a pond on the landscape.  As a kid, if I left a hose in the horse tank, we would be without water for several days. We had an ice storm in 1976, and had no power for a week.  We actually had frogs get into our well, and my dad’s solution was to put a barb on a chimney rod and try to gig them out.  I was in college then and already working at the ISWS, so we pumped the well out and disinfected everything.

 

1. Many just don’t realize there are risks.  Growing up, even with all of the problems with our well, my dad always said how lucky we were to have well water and not city water where they added stuff to it.

1. Mention the private well class, how successful it has been nationwide, and how it has led to opportunities to meet and interact with others who work with well owners.

 

1. Engaging other stakeholders, like extension, gives us a chance to share our expertise with those they already have a good relationship with. It led to seeking funding from CDC to evaluate what others are doing to improve outreach to well owners.

1. The quick overview is that we proposed to ask programs around the country a series of questions about their programs to get at what makes them successful and what parts of the programs could be shared with others to help them reach more well owners.  We proposed to do that with a survey and then a forum to engage those that have experience with well owners.

1. The survey is complete, we are analyzing the data.  We are hosting a forum, just completed the first of two, it was mildly successful, but we had hoped that more folks to interact and share the novel ideas they use that have helped them reach well owners.  We have another one at the end of October.  We are putting all of that together, along with a literature review, in a final report to CDC that will hopefully provide useful insight to programs like your county environmental health programs, to help you reach more well owners. The report will be available by January 31, 2015.

1. 1 multi-state and 1 national program

 

1. The survey was voluntary, and no one was forced to answer any specific question.  We hope to include as much information about each participant program as we can, and we even asked permission as part of the survey process.  The idea is that the more we know about how each of us are approaching well owner outreach, the more we can learn from each other.

 

1. This was expected, and the question probably wasn’t asked as clearly as it could have been either.  But there are some interesting programs out there, one is funded by a company who offered testing within a certain radius of their facilities to any well owner.  We all wish corporate America were that interested in private wells.

 

1. For this question, we asked why or why not.  We are still evaluating those responses, but its clear those that participated feel they are making a difference, which is great to hear.

 

1. I think one of the obvious results we will find is that increasing the number of partners, generally increases your chances of success.  Some of the individual programs have used corporate partners, local businesses, and drillers.  Some of those things are hard to do for some programs because they can’t play favorites, or even appear to have any conflict of interest. But when you can, they can be advantageous.

 

1. I’m showing all of the partners that were listed because there are some surprising ones, and I am guessing that were will be a few on these lists that each of us hadn’t thought of before.

1. I mentioned I was involved in FFA.  In the 1996 I got funded to sample wells in the floodplains along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers that had flooded in 1993. My approach was to solicit FFA chapters in school districts in those areas to help.  We worked with 5 chapters, the students helped get sample bottles out to residents, advertised the program, and helped up get the samples collected on designated days.  They got $500 for their chapter, we got built in local support, and we collected almost 900 samples.  These were small rural school districts.  Very successful partnership.

1. If you aren’t close toy your farm bureau and extension folks in your county, you should be. They can be strong advocates for your programs and make great partners.

1. Lots of possibilities.  Partners can provide funding, in-kind services, pay for advertising.  Many times, all you have to do is ask.

1. Need to consider developing a “master list” of everyone organization that might have any stake in private wells, source water, groundwater protection, etc.

 

1. Some of the additional methods and answers we got from participants.  I was in Lincoln, IL recently, where my mom lives, and there was a billboard that said “Water – the original energy drink”, and it listed a website.  I looked it up and it was the Logan County Health Department Healthy Communities program encouraging drinking water instead of sugary drinks.

 

 

1. We asked if a local issue played a part in their program, and we got some commonly referred to answers.  These issues, and other similar ones, come up time and time again around the country.

 

1. This is a better description of the previous slide.

 

 

 

1. This is the forum we have set up and although the first “round” has past, we encourage anyone interested to contact me and we will get you a link to participate.  We plan to leave the entire forum open, even after October 31, so that our peers can stay engaged if they are interested.  You can still comment on the daily questions from Sept 15-19 as well.

 

1. This is a view of one of the questions I posed.  Those of you that know Todd, know how passionate he is about private well issues.

 

1. In regard to building relationships, that has been key for me.  I’ve spent 20 years working in Tazewell County on various projects, aquifer assessments, monitoring wells, arsenic sampling, and today I can honestly say that I have a number of friends in the area.  That matters, they know I care about their issues, and that they can call me anytime.  I can also rely on them for help.  Recently Columbia University approached us about testing a new drilling device in an area with known arsenic issues.  They need 3 locations to drill on private property.  I was able to make one phone call, explain the issue, and within a couple of days had the names of three land owners willing to talk with me. I was so grateful.

1. My co-author, Lucinda Morris has led this effort and has put an amazing dataset together.  We hope to also publish this information as a research paper, but it all will be in our report so that everyone can benefit from the information.

1. I mentioned I was involved in FFA.  In the 1996 I got funded to sample wells in the floodplains along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers that had flooded in 1993. My approach was to solicit FFA chapters in school districts in those areas to help.  We worked with 5 chapters, the students helped get sample bottles out to residents, advertised the program, and helped up get the samples collected on designated days.  They got $500 for their chapter, we got built in local support, and we collected almost 900 samples.  These were small rural school districts.  Very successful partnership.

1. Again, here are some key pieces that should be a part of every program. Keeping these things in mind and achieving them will make your program better and likely increase your ability to reach well owners.

1. Again, here are some key pieces that should be a part of every program. Keeping these things in mind and achieving them will make your program better and likely increase your ability to reach well owners.

1. This is one of the answers that came from the survey.  This person has obviously been working with well owners for some time, and understands the value of cooperation and actively managing their program from the view that they are here to serve the well owner and provide them some benefit as the most important goal of their program.

1. These are some of the main lessons we have learned so far.  They seem straightforward and simple, but its amazing how many times we get caught up in our responsibilities and deliverables, and neglect to do the simple things that in fact build those relationships and trust.  They have to be more of a priority.  I’m as guilty of that sometimes as anyone.

File Type	application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
File Title	PowerPoint Presentation
Author	Administratr
Last Modified By	Wilson, Steven D
File Modified	2014-12-11
File Created	2013-03-15

---

© 2024 OMB.report | Privacy Policy

---