Volunteer Nitrate Monitoring Network: Methods and Results

Document
Description
Drinking water quality is a concern across southeastern Minnesota, where nitrate loading to the subsurface can be significant and hydrogeologic sensitivity varies between low and very high. Yet there are few services available for domestic supply well owners who are concerned about their drinking water quality. In 2008, the Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board (SEMNWRB), and several partners (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, MPCA; Minnesota Department of Agriculture, MDA; Minnesota Department of Health, MDH) began collecting data from the "volunteer nitrate monitoring network" (VNMN). This network of 675 domestic drinking water wells, representing a stratified-random distribution across nine counties (Figure 1) and several aquifers, was designed to provide nitrate concentration data to answer the question "what is the quality of water that people are drinking?" Before data collection began, well network coordinators (county staff) enrolled volunteers (well owners) into the program by collecting detailed information about well location, well construction, and nearby nitrate sources. Volunteers collected six rounds of samples, from February 2008 to August 2011 (funding remains for a seventh and final sampling round in August 2012). This report summarizes project results to-date, and consists of two sections: 1) a summary of the method MDH used to assess wells brought into the network, and 2) an assessment of nitrate results to-date. Some material discussed below was previously presented in the SEMNWRB report (2009).
Date Issued
2012-04
Number of Pages
21
Decade
Associated Organization
Rights Holder
Minnesota Water Research Digital Library
Rights Management
Creative Commons