Reaching Out to Well Owners - Best Practices for Raising Awareness About Private Well Issues

Presented on Thursday, December 11, 2014

Public health officials, drillers, and other stakeholders who are concerned about private well issues report difficulty in raising awareness among well owners to test their wells regularly and properly maintain their private wells. To identify and evaluate effective approaches that promote well testing and maintenance, a survey of local, state, and national well testing programs was conducted, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Effective approaches were evaluated to help determine when certain approaches work better than others. The result is a set of approaches that are proven to influence well owners and a set of parameters to help determine which approaches might be more effective in specific situations. In this workshop, the results of the survey will be discussed, as well as barriers and motivations that influence well owners to test and become engaged in protecting their well and well water. A number of examples of successful and novel approaches will be discussed to provide attendees with ideas and best practices that they can use in their work with private well owners. The goal of the workshop is to provide tools that drillers, health professionals, and other stakeholders who work directly with well owners can use to increase well owner awareness and action regarding the protection of their wells, drinking water, and aquifers.

Presenters:
Steven D. Wilson
Illinois State Water Survey at the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
Steve Wilson is a groundwater hydrologist at the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois. Wilson has been involved in numerous groundwater assessment projects dealing with both groundwater quantity and quality issues. He manages WaterOperator.org, which provides free resources and support for small water and wastewater system operators, and PrivateWellClass.org, a free online class and education program for private well owners and very small water systems. Wilson holds and MS in Civil Engineering and a BS in Ag Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Lucinda Morris
Illinois State Water Survey at the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
Lucinda Morris is a data and information specialist at the Illinois State Water Survey. She earned her bachelor's degree in Earth Systems, Environments, and Societies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a focus in earth and atmospheric sciences. Her duties include assisting with a study of public health programs for private well owners to determine best practices for outreach, and assisting with maintaining SmallWaterSupply.org, a website for water and wastewater operators at small systems.
Jennifer Wilson
Illinois Water Resources Center, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Jennifer Wilson is the lead for WaterOperator.org and PrivateWellClass.org's online communication and social media marketing activities, as well as supporting the website's content development. She brings expertise in developing programs for sustainable small systems with the U.S. EPA's drinking water program as well as experience in marketing public programs, Internet education, and project management. Wilson holds an M.S. in soil and water science from the University of California, Riverside.

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