BRAZORIA — Anyone interested in private water-well management in the Bastrop Bayou watershed area is invited to a Texas Well Owner Network training July 18 in Brazoria.
The training, which is free and open to the public, will be from 10 a.m.–noon at the Friends of the River Community Center at 20450 County Road 510-B.
“The TWON program is for Texas residents who depend on household wells for their water needs, so they can learn about improving and protecting their community water resources,” said Drew Gholson, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program specialist and network coordinator in College Station. “The program was established to help well owners become familiar with Texas groundwater resources, well maintenance and construction, and water quality and treatment.”
Space is limited, so attendees are requested to register at http://twon.tamu.edu/training or call 979-845-1461 as soon as possible.
The training is one of 30 being conducted statewide through the Preventing Water Quality Contamination through the Texas Well Owner Network project.
“The core content of this program is the same as other trainings, but the information is tailored to local water quality issues and aquifers,” Gholson said.
He said more than 1 million private wells in Texas provide water to citizens in rural areas and increasingly to those living on small acreages at the growing rural-urban interface.
“Private well owners are independently responsible for monitoring the quality of their wells. They are responsible for ensuring their drinking water is safe. This means they are responsible for all aspects of the water system – testing, inspecting, maintaining – and this training will help private well owners understand and care for their wells.”
Funding for the Texas Well Owner Network is through a Clean Water Act nonpoint source grant provided by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The project is managed by the Texas Water Resources Institute, part of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, AgriLife Extension and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University.
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