CITIZEN-SCIENCE APPROACH TO TEST PRIVATE WELL WATER QUALITY

Ensuring clean and stable water supply to all is one of the most important objectives of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Lack of proper monitoring and management of groundwater can deteriorate the drinking water quality and contaminated groundwater can pose a greater threat to the health of people. In Alabama, approximately 40% of the population relies on groundwater for drinking and agricultural purposes among which 11% extract drinking water from private wells. As private wells are under the well owner’s authority and they are responsible to ensure their water safety, it is often very difficult and costly to assess the water quality of domestic wells. The goal of our research is to imply the citizen science approach to evaluate the well water quality using a commercially available water testing kit.

In our study, first, we have down-selected 5 water testing kits from the pool and analyzed their efficacy by calibrating them against different concentration points. These testing kits can measure a wide range of water quality parameters including- nitrate, nitrite, lead, pH, iron, chloride, arsenic, and pesticides. The testing range of the kits was compared to the EPA maximum concentration level and the range of water quality results extracted from the National Water Quality Portal to ensure the usefulness and relevancy of the kits for water quality management. Then the most suitable kit was chosen based on its accuracy, reliability, and ease of use. We also verified the selected kit for 2 well water samples collected from Camp Hill, Alabama and the result showed that it works best for nitrate, nitrite, lead, pesticide, and bacteria. Now, we will distribute this kit to 50 well users in Mobile and Baldwin County, Alabama as a part of a two-year water quality study. Additionally, we will also collect routine water samples from participant’s wells every other month. Finally, the water quality data generated by local citizens will be statistically evaluated and correlated with the data produced in our lab by using statistical correlation and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). This participatory and collaborative approach will be helpful to educate and make the homeowners capable to detect primary water quality issues with their well water along with the assurance of continuous monitoring of the groundwater resources.