Water Well Maintenance Seminar on December 3rd at Hillsboro Library

 

Grazia Apolinares, Coordinator of the Pocahontas County Water Resources Task Force announces a Well Water Clinic will be held at the Hillsboro Library from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 3rd.

Grazia explained why the seminar is important. A source of clean drinking water is key for human health. Many rural residents obtain their drinking water from a well, thus must manage to protect their water from contamination. Location and management of pollution leaching into to groundwater can be daunting. In addition, living in a complex topography called karst topography can make the task of protecting your ground water a challenge. Karst topography is a landscape created by groundwater dissolving sedimentary rock like limestone and creating land forms such as shafts, tunnels, caves, and sinkholes. Groundwater seeps into and through these land forms resulting in a beautiful scenic landscape, but fragile, and vulnerable to erosion and pollution.

To educate the public about general well water management, the Pocahontas County Water Resources Coordination and the Pocahontas WVU Extension Service Office will host the Third Pocahontas County Well Water Clinic on Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 at the Hillsboro Public Library.  Since February of this year, this free event has been providing private well owners with an educational opportunity to learn how to evaluate the quality and healthiness of their well water.  Three speakers will share their expertise on topics such as: well head management, well head management in agricultural land, water quality tests, and how to read laboratory analysis among others.

One of the speakers at the Water clinic, Tom Basden, Extension Specialist, Nutrient Management and Extension Clinical Associate Professor at WVU, explains the purpose of the clinic.

“Bring people in and describe how to take care of their home wells, and how to protect their drinking water and how to protect their drinking water from a number of different potential issues” said Tom, “whether it’s how the site around the well is cared for, what kind of activities occur close to the well and some of the characteristics of the well such as depth and how much you use it (or)wWhat your surrounding neighbors might be doing.”

Tom describes the speakers and topics you will hear at the clinic.

“We have speakers that will cover what well water drinking standards are; how your well functions and how it should be set up” said Tom. “I’m going to cover some of the agricultural issues about well head management on farms such as farming practices and how they might impact well water and then we are going to get into the nuts and bolts of how to take a good (water) sample and what are the elements of concern or the things to be looking for in seeing if your drinking water is up to standard.”

Tom says that there is no charge to attend the clinic, but there is a charge to have your drinking water sampled to cover the WVU lab costs, and he recommends that many attendees should plan on picking up a sampling kit.

“It’s a good practice to periodically sample (your water)” said Tom. “And it’s required when you purchase a property, the lender typically wants to have a clean bill of health on a property, whether it’s an engineering inspection for the structure and also now the septic and the private well needs to meet the current guidelines and well water needs to pass a standard test for the lender to make that loan, so periodically –five to ten years – or if you have a change in your tap water, whether it’s sedimentation or taste or odor- that would trigger a reason to test your water.”

Grazia points out that the WVU NRCEE Analytical Laboratory will provide water sample kits at the clinic and will offer to test your water for biological contaminates and metals for a cost of $50.00.  Of course having your water tested is optional for clinic attendees. She also asks that you RSVP the clinic by calling either the WVU Extension Service Office at 304-799-4852 or the Water Resources Coordination office at 304-653-4845. Again, the Well water Clinic will be held from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 3rd at the Hillsboro Library.

 

Story By

Tim Walker

Tim is the WVMR News Reporter. Tim is a native of Maryland who started coming to Pocahontas County in the 1970’s as a caver. He bought land on Droop Mountain off Jacox Road in 1976 and built a small house there in the early 80’s. While still working in Maryland, Tim spent much time at his place which is located on the Friars Hole Cave Preserve. Retiring in 2011 as a Lieutenant with the Anne Arundel County Police Department in Maryland, Tim finally took the plunge and moved from Maryland to his real home on Droop Mountain. He began working as the Pocahontas County Reporter for Allegheny Mountain Radio in January of 2015.

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