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Improving and Protecting Water Well Quality

Thousands of Kansans rely on nonpublic water wells for their household, including providing water for drinking, cooking, bathing, household pets, and cleaning purposes. While approximately 70,000 nonpublic wells are registered in the state of Kansas to provide household water, the quality of the water is not guaranteed and may be contaminated from a range of environmental, industrial, and agricultural contaminants. Contamination of nonpublic water wells is far too common, and most well users are unaware that their water is not safe.Well head sticking up out of ground

There are few protections at the state or local level to ensure that water from nonpublic water wells is safe. Explore our site for more information on how the project team helped develop recommendations that seek to address the problem by providing concrete steps that, if taken, would provide increased protections for Kansans relying on nonpublic water wells for household use.

Project Background

The recommendations included here were compiled as part of the Nonpublic Household Water Well Project, a three-year project led by the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita (KUSM-W), in partnership with the Public Health Law Center, and funded by the Kansas Health Foundation. The purpose was to identify promising practices that could protect Kansans relying on nonpublic water wells for household purposes. The project team included public health and legal professionals with experience working on groundwater quality issues impacting nonpublic water wells in Kansas.

Contact Us

For more information, contact:

Dr. Elizabeth Ablah
eablah@kumc.edu

Jack Brown
jbrown4@kumc.edu

316-293-2627

KU School of Medicine-Wichita

Department of Population Health
1010 North Kansas
Wichita, KS 67214-3199
316-293-2627
Fax: 316-293-2605