Knox County Well Surveillance and Education Program
Thank you for participating Knox County Health Department’s program to identify residents of Knox County who rely on well water for their drinking water. Through your cooperation, we have had more than 1,000 survey responses and have identified over 500 wells, at little cost to taxpayers. When we began this program, we intended the data to be used for emergency preparedness. The recent flooding in Nashville and other parts of western Tennessee provide an excellent example:
The floods created a health threat that didn’t get much TV coverage, as it wasn’t as gripping as shots of cars washed off roadways or submerged buildings. Floodwater can pose a threat to drinking water wells if the wells are submerged. That is what happened to many rural households. Unfortunately, the records of who uses well water in the affected areas was incomplete, and as a result there was an effort to identify these residents after the fact -- at the same time emergency workers and public health officials were dealing with many other flood-related problems. Should such a situation ever happen in Knox County, there is now a means to inform registered well owners quickly about how to test your well after the flood to make sure your water is safe, and what repairs to make if necessary.
Please encourage friends or neighbors in Knox County who also use well water (one-third of you said you did on the survey to date) but who haven’t yet registered their well, to take the survey. Again, thank you for your participation in this project to protect the public’s health and make our community safer and more resilient should accident or disaster strike. We couldn’t do it without you.
Links to websites for more information on well water
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/
Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/privatewells/index2.html
Tennessee Department of Conservation and Energy, Tennessee Healthy Well Manual:
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/dws/pdf/TnHealthyWell.pdf
United States Geologic Service: http://water.usgs.gov/owq/topics.htm
