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- Success Story -
This program is just one example of Extension programming that has positively impacted drinking water quality. Please check back periodically for other highlighted programs.
the Tex*A*Syst Mobile Lab Program: Screening Drinking Water Wells and Educating Citizens
By participating in the Tex*A*Syst Mobile Lab Program, well owners receive specific instructions about how to treat their wells to reduce contaminant levels and how to lessen the threat of contamination in the future.
Situation
The health and livelihood
of Americans depends on the availability of a safe drinking water
supply. Residents in rural areas of
Texas primarily rely upon private wells for their water needs.
Private
wells are a water source that is not regulated to the extent
that public drinking water supplies are. Private well owners are
responsible
for the quality of their own drinking water. They need to be
aware of potential contamination risks to their wells and how to
protect
against these risks. As a result, more private well owners are
demanding well water testing and water quality information.
Actions
In 1999, the Tex*A*Syst Mobile Lab Program was established with
technical assistance from the Blackland
Research Center 
and
an initial equipment investment from the Texas
Water Resources Institute ,
a unit of the Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station and Texas
Cooperative Extension .
This program, along with other Tex*A*Syst programs, are marketed
to communities which identify water resources as a high priority
in Extension’s annual Texas
Community Futures Forum .
Communities that choose to participate in the Mobile Lab Program
which is brought to them. Private well and small water system water
samples are routinely screened for bacteria, nitrate, and salinity.
Some counties have also chosen to screen for lead or arsenic. Typically,
the analysis of well water samples is followed by an educational
meeting where individual results are provided, county-wide water
quality trends are discussed, potential sources of ground water
contamination and possible remediation or treatment methods are
suggested, and Tex*A*Syst Wellhead Protection educational materials
are presented.
Impacts
The Tex*A*Syst Mobile Lab Program has screened over 4,500 water samples from rural drinking water wells in 46 counties in Texas. After participating in follow-up educational meetings within some of the individual counties, an average of 27% of participants declared that they gained knowledge on how they can improve their drinking water quality. For example, two well owners installed a chlorinator to provide continuous bacterial treatment of water while another chose to use bottled water for human consumption in their home.
In
Mills County, Texas where more than a third of the wells screened
were found to contain high levels of nitrate, the Tex*A*Syst Mobile
Lab Program led a special project in cooperation with the Texas
Water Resources Institute ,
the Mills County Extension office, and local civic leaders of the
City of Mullin.
26 reverse osmosis (RO) units were made available to homeowners
at substantial savings to remediate these problem wells. Mobile
Lab staff installed two RO units and trained local volunteers to
install other systems. The RO units significantly reduced the concentration
of both contaminants from levels above the US-EPA public drinking
water standards (10 ppm, nitrate and 500 ppm, salinity) to much
more safe levels below the EPA standards.
The Tex*A*Syst Mobile Lab Program and related projects were featured
in the Texas Water Resources Institute July
2003 Newsletter 
.
For more information on this project, contact Monty Dozier
Please visit the CSREES Drinking Water and Human Health theme page for more information.
page last modified on
May 21, 2008
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