A Texas Well Owner Network, TWON, training is scheduled for May 4 in Cleburne. Well owners should bring a sample of their well water the day before the training if they’d like to have it tested.
Water well sample drop-off will be May 3, the day before the event, from 8:30-10 a.m. at the same locations as container pick-up.
The “Well Educated” program training, which is free and open to the public, will be from 1:30-5:30 p.m. at the Prairielands Groundwater Conservation District office, 208 Kimberly Drive, Cleburne. The training is presented by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Water Resources Institute, TWRI.
Attendees can register at https://tx.ag/TWONTrainings, by visiting the Texas Well Owner Network website, or by calling 979-845-1461.
Well water testing instructions
For a cost of $10 per sample, owners may have their well water tested on May 3. The May 4 meeting will include information explaining the results. Samples will be screened for nitrates, total dissolved solids and bacteria.
Pick up two sample containers and collection instructions within the week before the event from the Prairielands Groundwater Conservation District Office, 208 Kimberly Drive, Cleburne; or the AgriLife Extension offices for Hill County, 126 S. Covington St., Hillsboro; Ellis County, 701 S. Interstate 35 East, Waxahachie; Johnson County, 109 W. Chambers St., Cleburne; or Somervell County, 1405 Texas Drive, Glen Rose.
Texas Well Owner Network program
More than a million private water wells in Texas provide water to citizens in rural areas and increasingly to those living on small acreages at the growing rural-urban interface.
Joel Pigg, AgriLife Extension program specialist and TWON coordinator, Bryan-College Station, said the TWON program is for Texas residents who depend on household wells for their water needs.
“The program was established to help well owners become familiar with Texas groundwater resources, septic system maintenance, well maintenance and construction, and water quality and treatment,” he said. “It allows them to learn more about how to improve and protect their community water resources.”
Pigg said private well owners are independently responsible for all aspects of ensuring their drinking water system is safe — testing, inspecting, maintaining it for monitoring the quality of their wells.
“This training will help private well owners to understand and care for their wells,” he said.
Pigg said the training is one of several being conducted statewide through the Texas Well Owner Network project.
“The core content of this program is the same as other trainings, but the information is tailored to local water quality issues and aquifers,” he said.
Funding for the Texas Well Owner Network is through a Clean Water Act nonpoint source grant provided by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The project is managed by the TWRI, part of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, AgriLife Extension and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University.
Call Pigg at 979-845-1461 or email him at j-pigg@tamu.edu for additional information or questions.
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