Drinking Water Quality in Rural Pennsylvania and the Effect of Management Practices

This research was sponsored by a grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania is a bipartisan, bicameral legislative agency that serves as a resource for rural policy within the Pennsylvania General Assembly. It was created in 1987 under Act 16, the Rural Revitalization Act, to promote and sustain the vitality of Pennsylvania's rural and small communities. Information contained in this report does not necessarily reflect the views of individual board members or the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 The Center for Rural Pennsylvania Millions of rural and suburban Pennsylvania residents rely on private wells for drinking water, and, each year, 20,000 new wells are drilled. While research has shown that many private wells in the state have failed at least one drinking water standard, Pennsylvania remains one of the few states without any private well regulations. This study was conducted to better understand the prevalence and causes of private well contamination and to evaluate the role of regulatory versus voluntary management of private wells. It set out to determine if specific indicators, including natural factors, well construction features, and nearby land uses, could be correlated with water quality parameters in private wells. To complete the study, the researchers enlisted the help of more than 170 Master Well Owner Network (MWON) volunteers to collect samples from 701 private wells statewide. The findings indicated that bedrock geology was statistically significant in explaining variations in all of the water quality parameters , with the exception of arsenic. Soil moisture, at the time of sampling, was the most important factor in explaining the occurrence of bacteria in wells. Individual well construction features were not statistically important in explaining well water quality but combinations of well construction components were statistically significant in explaining both coliform and E. coli bacterial contamination. No specific land activities were correlated with bacterial contamination, but DNA fingerprinting of E. coli bacteria from wells found that the majority were from animal sources. Nitrate concentrations in wells were statistically correlated with the distance to the nearest cornfield and other crop fields. Lead contamination was found to be largely from metal plumbing components that were exposed to acidic and soft raw groundwater. About half of the homeowner participants in this study had never had their water tested properly, which resulted in low awareness of water quality problems. MWON …