Water Quality Screening at North Dakota Field Days

An assessment of North Dakota county agent's knowledge base and comfort-levels in dealing with water quality issues was taken at the 2008 Spring Conference. While 70% agreed that water quality was very important only 17% were very confident and a full one-third were not confident in dealing with questions from the public. To understand water quality issues across the state and to increase consumer confidence, we offered a water quality screening in 2008 and 2009 at North Dakota Research Center's Field Days. While some areas of North Dakota have water provided through a rural water system, many rely on private wells as their only source of drinking water for themselves and their livestock. Samples were brought in from wells, dugouts, springs, public water supplies, slews, ponds and lakes. Over 200 samples were screened on site for pH, total dissolved salts, nitrates and hardness; with another 58 samples sent in for coliform and E. coli testing. Five samples tested higher than 10mg/L for nitrates and over 25% of the samples resulted in total dissolved salts over 2500mg/L. The pH in water across North Dakota was neutral at 7 to 8 and the majority of water samples rated very hard. This process allowed us to visit with the client on a face-to-face basis and many listened in to hear the concerns voiced by others and then asked questions themselves! We estimate we visited with over 500 people across the state. We have determined that more education is needed for private well users and for county staff in sampling and understanding results and treatment. We have kept samples to use for educational opportunities in the future and will share our findings with Extension Multi-County Programming Units (MPU's) to ensure increased understanding of water quality in their counties and areas.