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Cooperative Extension - Logan County

Water Quality

Jan Nixon
jnixon@coop.ext.colostate.edu

Phone: (970)522-3200
FAX: (970)522-7856

Well•A•Syst

Colorado’s Well Assessment System

A voluntary program to assist private drinking water well users evaluate and modify practices to protect their drinking water supply

TO THE PRIVATE WELL OWNERS IN LOGAN COUNTY:

According to state records, Logan County has 221 household wells and 1884 domestic wells (private wells).  Household wells are water only in the house, no outside use.  Domestic wells allow outside use ( i.e. watering lawns, washing the car).  As more people build in rural areas, more people are finding they no longer receive a bill from the municipal water utility; instead the water from the tap comes from a well on their own property, which means the quality of their water is now their direct responsibility.

Most ground water contamination results from human activities.  These sources of potential pollution include agricultural activities and failing septic tanks (nitrates and bacteria); mining (sulfates); and abandoned hazardous waste sites and landfills (organic and inorganic chemicals).  You can help protect your water supply by learning to recognize potential sources of pollution and working to reduce or eliminate them.  The Well•A•Syst program is designed to help you do this.

Well•A•Syst in Colorado is based on voluntary pollution prevention and is designed to:

Create an awareness of potential risks to water quality on your property. Encourage voluntary solutions to alleviate pollution risks; and Promote management practices to protect and enhance your drinking water supply.

The assessments are completely voluntary and confidential.  The well owner decides whether to go through the worksheets, and whether to share the results with anyone.  No government agency or consultant will be collecting the results for enforcement actions or sales pitches.  At the same time, however, well owners are provided valuable information, and are able to make informed decisions to protect not only their drinking water, but the health and financial security of their families as well.

The project incorporates three levels of information, beginning with a series of worksheets, which are designed to be a “first look” at your individual situation.  The worksheets provide a set of questions intended to get you  thinking about your drinking water well, where it is located relative to the other facilities on your property, and how your current activities may impact its quality.  After you have reviewed the questions in these worksheets, you may find your well is already protected to the best extent possible.  More than likely, however, you will conclude that small changes could increase the level of protection you can provide to your drinking water.

The worksheets give you an idea of who to contact for more information, and provide phone numbers for agencies and organizations that can help you.   The contacts will often be able to give you the name of a person in your own community who can provide you with information in managing the activities around your well, information usually geared to your specific need.  Many of the agencies have detailed booklets or brochures that cover several of the same topics as the Well•A•Syst worksheets.

The next level of information in Well•A•Syst are reprints for the workbook Home•A•Syst:  An Environmental Risk-Assessment Guide for the Home.  The chapters are Site Assessment; Drinking Water Well Management; Household Wastewater, Septic Systems and Other Treatment Methods; and Managing Household Waste.  These chapters go into considerable detail in describing what to look for, how to develop, and how to implement a plan of action to protect your drinking water well.

The third level is for those individuals who want an entire home environment assessment package in addition to water quality, including things like indoor air quality and energy conservation; for that, the entire Home•A•Syst workbook will be available for purchase at a modest cost.

 

This page was last updated 02/24/06