Purdue News
Purdue News
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June 4, 1999
Purdue can help protect your ground waterWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- When summer heat sends you to the kitchen tap for a cold glass of water, Purdue University's Jane Frankenberger doesn't want you to take a single sip for granted. Frankenberger, an agricultural engineer, offers several programs to help homeowners and communities protect the drinking water they draw from wells."More than 800 Indiana communities and most rural homeowners drink water from wells," Frankenberger says. "If the ground water they draw from gets contaminated, it's hard to clean up. Everyone can take steps to protect their home and community wells." Earth filters water as it moves down through the ground, but it can't filter out everything. Some common hazards that have contaminated wells in Indiana include oil and gasoline spills, septic systems, animal manure, excess fertilizer applications and industrial solvent spills, Frankenberger said. Communities planning wellhead protection programs for their public water supplies can also call Purdue for help. Barbara Cooper, a Purdue wellhead protection specialist working with Frankenberger, offers programs that help identify potential sources of community well contamination. In one session, she offers a one-hour overview of Indiana's Wellhead Protection Rule, which went into effect in March 1997. In a second session she trains community volunteers to recognize and inventory potential sources of contamination. A third, one-hour program outlines options for managing wellhead protection areas. Cooper also offers educational water quality programs for adult groups and for K-12 classes in schools. To learn more about wellhead protection in your community, contact Cooper at (765) 496-6331 or bccooper@purdue.edu. Purdue water quality specialist Brent Ladd, who also works with Frankenberger, plans to help citizens' groups, Purdue Cooperative Extension Service educators, vocational agriculture students, 4-H members and Soil and Water Conservation Service staff coordinate local efforts to protect private wells. Ladd offers two separate 30- to 60-minute programs called Farm*A*Syst and Home*A*Syst. Both programs include discussions of activities around the home or farm that put well water at risk of contamination, as well as a description of state and federal rules and regulations. Ladd also tells participants how they can follow up with a voluntary and confidential evaluation of risks to their own wells. To set up a Farm*A*Syst or Home*A*Syst presentation for your community group, contact Brent Ladd at (765) 496-6331 or laddb@ecn.purdue.edu In addition to protecting working wells from contamination, Purdue specialists can help homeowners figure out how to plug abandoned wells. "Abandoned wells are direct pipelines for surface contamination to move into ground water," says John Peverly, a Purdue water quality specialist who has helped plug wells across Indiana. To set up a presentation about well plugging for your community group before July 1, contact Peverly at (765) 494-6134. After July 1, contact Cooper at (765) 496-6331.
Source: Barbara Cooper, (765) 496-6331; bccooper@purdue.edu Jane Frankenberger, (765) 494-1194; frankenb@ecn.purdue.edu Brent Ladd; (765) 496-6331; laddb@ecn.purdue.edu John Peverly, (765) 494-6134; jpeverly@dept.agry.purdue.edu Writer: Rebecca Goetz, (765) 494-0461; rjg@aes.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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