Source Water Assessment and Protection

A critical step in assuring the quality of drinking water resources is to identify the cause of current or potential contamination problems. Once the causes of these threats to drinking water are identified, actions can be taken toward remediation of problem areas or prevention of future contamination. Biological threats to drinking water resources include bacteria and pathogens. Chemical threats can include toxic metals, nutrients, pesticides, fertilizers, petroleum products and industrial solvents. Numerous Extension programs are working with citizens to assess and prevent contaminant risks to drinking water resources around homes, businesses and farms.

water being poured from pitcher into glass General Public Water Quality Education

Educational programming is an essential component of the CSREES National Water Quality Program. Extension education takes research-based information developed at colleges, universities, and other sources throughout the world, interprets it and delivers it to youth and adult citizens. Educational information on drinking water and human health is available from Extension programs across the nation. Topics include:
· Water Contaminants - health and nuisance problems
· Reducing or eliminating potential contaminants in homes, farms, forests and businesses
· Protecting water resources
· Maintaining onsite wastewater treatment systems
Numerous water quality fact sheets, handbooks and other resources are available through the Cooperative Extension network.

Pollution Assessment and Prevention Programs

Throughout the U.S., CSREES is an integral part of Source Water Assessment and Protection Programs, including Farm*A*Syst and Home*A*Syst . Through the identification and removal of potential ground and surface water pollutants around the home and farm, citizens are helping to ensure high quality drinking water. CSREES has identified Pollution Assessment and Prevention as a topical theme to focus research, education and extension projects. In addition, there is a CSREES National Facilitation Project focusing on Pollution Assessment and Prevention .

group of people working to plant new shrubs Accomplishments:
According to the Farm*A*Syst(FAS)/Home*A*Syst (HAS) Program Impacts Update Focus 1999-2000 Report , all U.S. states and two U.S. territories have either FAS or HAS materials and programs or both. Oklahoma HAS activities recruited residents and assisted them to complete 116 HAS assessments and to collect 169 water samples for analysis of bacterial levels by the OK Dept. of Environmental Quality. Thirty-nine percent of the wells did not meet the Safe Drinking Water Standard for total coliform bacteria. Through personal instruction, participants learned to conduct shock chlorination and 67% of the contaminated wells were improved.
Through the Upper Mississippi Source Water Protection Project (UMRSWPP) , source water assessments have been completed for the surface water intakes that provide drinking water for the cities of St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. The UMRSWPP is the first attempt in Minnesota and a model approach to implement source water protection at a watershed level among several water suppliers who share a common source water resource.
Mass media campaigns (educational materials, website, television segments, and displays) and demonstration projects with the Healthy Landscapes Project at the University of Rhode Island has resulted the adoption of pollution prevention best management practices aimed at protecting drinking water quality within a local community that exemplifies southern New England’s mixed-use watersheds. Valuable partnerships between the Master Gardner Program and the local community were formed.

Southern Region Down-Well Camera Team -With a down-well camera, wellhead protection programs can go beyond traditional above-ground inspections, opening a new realm of information explaining water quality problems due to well construction. Objectives are to expand the information base of down-well videos beyond the geological and hydrological conditions and use this broader information to enhance regional efforts to educate well owners, and protect groundwater resources. Using this technology, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension (Fiedler, 2007)has collected specimens of an unidentified species of Caecidotea. This troglobiticisopod was discovered in a non-karst bored well in Putnam County, Georgia.

Onsite Wastewater Treatment

Demonstration of an alternative onsite wastewater treatment system Approximately 1/3 of the U.S. population uses septic systems to treat domestic wastewater. When these systems work improperly or fail, nitrogen, phosphorus and pathogens may be released into the groundwater; this contamination could pose a potential health threat in drinking water supplies. There are numerous CSREES programs, including the Ohio State University Soil Environment Technology Learning Lab , the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Water Quality Program (Miller, 2004), and the University of Minnesota Onsite Sewage Treatment Program that teach proper septic system operation, maintenance, design, installation and inspection through fact sheets and demonstrations to homeowners, professionals and commercial establishments. These programs even assist local communities with regulations and planning.

Accomplishment: The University of Rhode Island Onsite Wastewater Treatment Center has installed 56 demonstration systems (Loomis, 2003). More than 2,000 members of industry, local government officials, real estate professionals, CSREES Water Quality professionals from across the U.S., and the general public have been educated and trained at the Center which highlights 15 full-scale technologies. Thanks to the Center’s efforts, several municipalities have adopted risk-based wastewater management schemes which will help protect drinking water resources.

Training for Municipal Officials

Programs within the CSREES Water Quality Program cooperate with a variety of land stewards to apply research and technology to the natural resource decision-making process. By helping local officials make informed land use decisions, watersheds and water quality are protected and improved throughout the U.S.

Accomplishment: Catalyzed by Connecticut Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) educational programs and information, towns throughout the state have changed their land use plans, regulations, policies and procedures which will protect and improve water quality. Watershed plans have led to unprecedented inter-town cooperation. The National NEMO network is growing with 33 programs in 32 states. The CSREES National Facilitation Project of the Water Quality Coordination Initiative provides coordination, training and communication services to new and existing NEMO network projects led by Land Grant Universities. More accomplishments can be found in the National NEMO Network’s 2005 progress report .

Example: The Karst Campaign of the Wisconsin Water Resources Center helps local units of government build local capacity to educate agricultural audiences about farming impacts on surface and drinking water in the karst region of southeastern Minnesota, and voluntary ways of reducing these impact consistent with profitable farming.

A young volunteer water quality monitor records Secchi depth through a view tube Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring

Cooperative Extension sponsors or co-sponsors numerous volunteer water quality monitoring programs nation-wide. Volunteer water quality monitoring provides a unique opportunity to engage citizens in watershed protection and enhancement efforts. These programs capture the excitement of local communities and citizens to water quality issues and help communities make informed decisions and improve water quality. Drinking water quality can only improve with these efforts. More information on CE volunteer water quality monitoring can be found through the CSREES National Facilitation Project on Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring .

Accomplishment: “Snapshot Day” is a one-day citizen-based water quality-monitoring event led by the Truckee River Watershed Council. It provides baseline data that can be used to identify restoration and other improvement projects, and to create a large-scale collaborative effort to prevent further degradation of water quality.

Example: A Regional effort in the Upper Midwest is building the capacity of volunteer monitoring programs to understand and use the most appropriate bacteria testing protocols and watershed based sampling strategies with volunteers. This project ensure that properly trained volunteers can help meet public demands for increased water quality monitoring to ensure our waters are protects from elevated bacteria and pathogens.

Nutrient and Pesticide Management Education

Nutrients and pesticides are potential pollutants of both surface and ground water and may impact drinking water supplies. USDA CSREES has identified Nutrient and Pesticide Management as a topical theme to focus research, education and extension projects.

The intent of this page is not to catalogue all activities, but rather to indicate the types of extension activities in this theme across the U.S.