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Recommendations
For Residential Well Testing | For
the State | for Towns and Municipalities | For Individuals
EHHI’s Recommendations for Residential Well Testing
Wells Should be Tested for:
- Bacteriological Quality: Total Coliform Organisms
- Physical Characteristics: Color, Turbidity, Odor,
pH
- Chemical Characteristics: Nitrate/Nitrite, Chloride,
Sodium, Iron, Hardness, Manganese
- Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs): As listed
in the Connecticut Department of Public Health Code 19-13-B102.
- Pesticides:
- Insecticides: carbaryl, chlordane, chlorpyrifos,
DDT-DDE, diazinon,dicofol, isenphenfos, lindane, malathion
and methoxychlor;
- Herbicides: dicamba, 2,4-D, dacthal (DCPA),
MCPA, MCPP and trifluralin;
- Fungicides: chlorothalonil.
- Additional Pesticides: if you live near
land used for agricultural purposes you might want to broaden
the list of pesticides you test for.
Recommendations for the State
- The State should conduct additional studies that look at private
residential wells to determine the magnitude of pesticide contamination
in private wells.
- The State should add commonly used lawn and tree care pesticides
to its present list of pesticides that are recommended for well water
testing.
- The State should adopt aquifer regulations to protect Connecticut’s
groundwater from chemical contamination.
Recommendations for Towns and Municipalities
- Towns and Municipalities should set the examples of projecting
their groundwater and residential wells by instituting organic methods
on town properties.
- Towns and municipalities should hold educational meetings for their
citizens where lawn and tree care pesticides can be discussed and
alternate pest control strategies can be explored openly. Pesticide
information should be disseminated along with the short- and long-term
health effects of these products.
- Communities as a whole should take responsibility for the preservation
of the purity of citizens’ drinking water. Citizens, as well
as town officials, need to understand that lawn and tree care pesticides
do travel down into groundwater, and that pesticides applied in one
part of a community may affect the groundwater in another part of
a community.Therefore, towns and municipalities need to be more involved
with this issue.
- Towns and municipalities need to involve their local health departments
in the preservation of the purity of drinking water wells. A town
does not have to wait until its contamination levels are above drinking
water standards to involve its health department. Communities should
start to plan pesticide reduction strategies as soon as possible
and solicit advice from their local health departments.
Recommendations for Individuals
- Wells should be maintained, including checking the well seal and
the well cap. Bacteria and nitrogen levels should be checked periodically,
as they are often a symptom of structural problems with the well
itself.
- Ask your town to provide educational meetings for its citizens
to discuss lawn and tree care pesticides. This issue is important
to the entire town as our study shows that pesticide practices in
one part of a community may affect the groundwater in another part
of the community, often in an unpredictable way. Communities as a
whole need to take more direct responsibility for the preservation
of the purity of their citizens’ drinking water.
- Ask your town if they would use organic methods, limit lawn and
tree care pesticide use on town grounds and buildings, and help the
community learn the importance of reducing pesticide uses. This study
shows the interdependency of us all.
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