Reaching out to well owners--best practices for raising awareness about private well issues

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.