Domestic Well Water Monitoring through Youth-Driven Participatory Science

Community Science/Research
Oral Presentation

Prepared by J. Duncan, D. Snow, S. Brock-Contraras
Nebraska Water Center, 1840 N 37th St, Lincoln, NE, 68503, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 402-472-8213

ABSTRACT

Domestic well water quality is unregulated, infrequently monitored, and increasingly impacted by contamination in the United States. Despite improvements in regulating well construction, nonpoint source contamination from nitrate, agrichemicals, and geogenic contaminants are affecting safe use of private well water for drinking, especially in intensively agricultural states such as Nebraska. Rural well owners and users are often unaware of well testing responsibilities and treatment choices, presenting an opportunity to share knowledge through local schools. Know Your Well is a youth-driven participatory science program providing training and materials for high school classrooms and their communities to examine domestic well water quality.

Students are trained in well construction, pollutant sources, selection of registered wells, proper sample collection, and use of commercial probes and test kits furnished through the program. This program fosters a collaborative relationship between schools and a university laboratory through student submission of split samples analyzed at the University of Nebraska Water Sciences Laboratory technicians. Well owners are provided with these results in exchange for participation. All observations and results are uploaded through a multi-platform web application to a secure database where students and teachers can access results to study trends in local domestic well water quality. Students independently collect and test for bacteria, ammonia, nitrate, copper, iron, manganese, chloride, hardness, pH, and electrical conductivity. Comparison to laboratory measurements helps convey differences in measurement quality, demonstrates analytical chemistry concepts and facilitates student learning and communication on local groundwater quality issues. Laboratory testing shows nitrate concentrations in approximately one-quarter of Nebraska domestic wells sampled are above safe levels for drinking water, and many wells have geogenic arsenic, manganese, and uranium above drinking water standards. Occurrence of geogenic contaminants provides opportunities to learn about real world applications of redox and equilibrium chemistry and prompts well owners to consider regular monitoring and treatment.