Use of the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey to Assess the Safety of Private Drinking Water Supplies

Background and Need
Over 850,000 households in Wisconsin use a privately-owned well as a drinking water source. Unlike households supplied by municipal water, private wells are not regulated and therefore do not require regular testing. Testing of private water supplies may be limited by several factors such as household income and knowledge of testing procedures and water quality parameters. Despite the private well tracking efforts by the DNR’s Groundwater Retrieval Network (GRN), the Center for Watershed Science and Education, and DATCPs’ groundwater database, there are many data gaps. We know little about the households that are testing their well water and even less about those that are not. We are particularly
interested in learning more about wells used by infants, children, pregnant women and the elderly and hope to learn more about how they use their water and test it for safety, as well as about their perceptions of the quality of their well water.
Objectives
The intent of this research is to improve our understanding of the number and location of families that need assistance or information regarding drinking water safety and make it easier for public health care providers and water supply consultants to provide targeted outreach to this population. We hope findings will be useful to state and local agencies for the purpose of addressing data gaps and assessing the need
for educational, professional and financial resources to increase testing of private wells and minimize ongoing exposure to common groundwater contaminants.