Oklahoma Well Owner Network adding libraries to its mix
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
The Oklahoma Well Owner Network has expanded to libraries after receiving the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture Rural Health and Safety Education grant.
One in eight Americans get their drinking water from a private well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but privately owned wells are not regulated by federal or state governments. The Oklahoma Well Owner Network was created in 2022 as a way for county Extension educators to provide well water screening events and other educational materials to Oklahoma well owners.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Center is partnering with the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health, OSU Extension and the Southeast Oklahoma Library System to advance public health programming in southeast Oklahoma. With the implementation of this grant, the well owner program will host two water well screenings per year in each of the library system counties: Choctaw, Coal, McCurtain, Latimer, LeFlore, Pittsburg and Haskell.