Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:This project targets 7 rural counties in southeast Oklahoma: Choctaw, Coal, McCurtain, Latimer, LeFlore, Pittsburg, and Haskell Counties.According to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, there are close to 3,500 wells in the 7 rural counties served by the SEOLS: Choctaw, Coal, McCurtain, Latimer, Le Flore, Pittsburg, and Haskell.The criteria for selecting this region is based on the interests, strengths, and service area of the partner organizations. The target audiences for this program are private well owners, the general public (including youth, families, and older adults), and rural healthcare workers. In the project area, there are 6 critical access hospitals and 7 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) designated rural health clinics in the project area.Results from the Community Needs Health Surveys conducted by the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health indicate that rural communities are concerned about water quality in their wells. There is a need to have accessible and affordable well water testing services for private well owners in rural Oklahoma. Additionally, there is limited local and state information available for households on how to test well water and maintain good quality drinking water from their wells. For many Oklahomans living in a rural setting, a private well is their primary, if not only, source of drinking water. However, there is no government oversight or testing of private well water - residents are "on their own" to monitor and maintain their well. In support of well owners, the Oklahoma Water Resources Center is partnersOklahoma State Cooperative Extension Services to provide free well water screening events and educational materials. The well-water screening events are a team effort: local community leaders (county educators, local libraries, etc.) lead out on publicizing and finding a venue and time that will work best for interested local well owners; university experts and students perform the actual water tests and deliver related educational materials.Events were hosted in coordination with Cooperative Extension and other community organizations (Blue Thumb, rural libraries, municipalities, and tribal nations) and events (telehealth pod openings and county free fairs). Changes/Problems:There is a clear demand for free household well screenings in the study region and across the state. The OWON program faces several challenges moving forward: Education events at libraries. There will not be mobile health units scheduled at the SEOLS libraries, as anticipated by SEOLS outrech manager during proposal planning. We will work to identify other community events to provide drinking water awareness and education programs. Awareness and recruitment prior to the screening events.Over the course of the project, the OWON program has extended their promotional communication within communities over time to include local newspapers/radio, libraries, tribal nations, and emergency management. At most screening events an informational session is provided, but well owners need to know prior to the event to bring a water sample. Advanced education and outreach opportunities would be ideal, but require additional staff and travel time. Locations for screening events.The first year allowed us to pilot come program in libraries and extension in 4 of th 7 counties. We gather far more samples from extension events than library events Through community-based evaluation, we have learned the strengths of our partners in community messaging & awareness. The rural library can offer long-term displays, reach broader audiences, and eager participate in public education abiout drinking water; whereas CooperativeExtension has variable interest bycounty educator,but ultimately are better at driving sample collection by reaching target well owners in the screening. Our approach in Year 2 promote and organize multi-site collection events across county extension officeand rural libraries. This will allow us time to coordinate with libraries for broad awareness and with Extension on increased sample collection. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Drs. Colston and Sader led the submission and acceptance of a panel session for Universities Council on Water Resources titled, "Exploring Program Design, Outputs, and Possibilities for Citizen Science Groundwater Quality Monitoring: Panel Discussion". The panel will consist of 6 speakers from US programs for domestic well water quality: Texas, Mississippi, Virginia, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Connecticut. The goal of the session was to identify the program designs and outputs that support participant involvement in groundwater monitoring programs. Dr. Sadler received theRural Health Association of Oklahoma's "Rural Health Educator of the Year" award for 2024 for his work with State Office of Rural Health on the OWON project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Several academic presentations/exhibits were offered related to the OWON programs for water professionals, faculty, and students at the annual conference for Universities Council on Water Resources, Oklahoma Governors Water Conference, Oklahoma Clean Lakes and Watersheds Association, Rural Renewal Institute, and Oklahoma Rural Health Association. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Task 1b. Develop cross-promotional media with the library system.OWRCwill continue to work with the library to advance cross-promotion with OSU Extension, OWON, and other community stakeholders. This is a process of increasing community awareness throughtrusted local community partners (i.e. library and Extensio educators).A graduate research assistant has been hired to help maintain consistent communication in planning and solicit feedback to improve processes. Task 1c.Develop or adapt resources to create a science-based, community-responsive curriculum.OWON team will continue to develop a Oklahoma-focused curriculum and set of resources for well water testing and management.The graduate research assistant will gather existing resources from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, Oklahoma Water Resources Board, Oklahoma Conservation Commission, Cooperative Extension, other related federal and national agencies.This task includes the development of Oklahoma-specific factsheets related to private well maintenance and well water quality concerns. Task 3b.Identify public health risks and create usable data visualizations. As more screening are conducted, Dr. Sadler and OWRC staffwill analyze the screening data and create heat maps indicating public health risks in each county. The goal of the visualizations is to share findings with participants and provide usable information for our partners to communicate about the presence and risk of contaminants.?

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1. To generate and disseminate educational materials for rural audiences on household well water contaminants, health impacts, water testing, and water quality improvement. Task 1a: Gather, brand, and disseminate educational materials for rural audiences. The OWON program produced essential media products for education and promotion: (1) Media packages for event partners and promotion including: a) Social Media Posts Captions - three options, b) Press Release, c) Twitter Social Media Post, d) Facebook Social Media Post, e) Flyer, and f) Mini-Flyer. (2) Printed Promotional Materials & Description a) Check in at events sheets, including laminated QR code sheets that lead to a Qualtrics survey allowing attendees to digitally check in at the events, b) Infosheets- About OWON Factsheet and Testing water is as easy as 1-2-3!, and c) Other- Banner stands, Library display, Event follow up, Flutter Flag, OWON graphic, Sample Screening Form, Small OWON handout (3) Non-printed Promotional Materials a) Website- A website page was created and routinely updated to provide more information and promotion of OWON events, b) Social Media- Routinely posted about events and education of OWON on social media, more information below, c) News releases- When necessary, news releases were developed and distributed, d) PowerPoints- Several PowerPoints were created to educate about groundwater at events, e) Videos- A video explaining how to collect a sample for use on social media and website, and f) Surveys- Surveys created to both check in people and check knowledge of groundwater information. Task 1b. Develop cross-promotional media with the library system. OWON met with library system leadership and developeda project specific information sheet to promote this regional 'community science' effort. Additionally, we co-designed and distributed to the library system for display: foam board, event flyers, and a water filter display. The library can also include program information on all digital displays across the library branches in the system. Task 1c: Develop or adapt resources to create a science-based, community-responsive curriculum. OWON developed several public presentations (with powerpoints), groundwater demos, and water quality acitvitiesto be used to raise awareness about drinking water quality. The distal goal isto train a network of private well-owners regarding best management practices for safeguarding private well water quality and aquifer integrity. Task 1d: Co-host webinars in coordination with the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health. In partnership with the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health, Dr. Jeff Sadlerrecorded a webinar to educate rural health providers about safe drinking water. The webinar resulted in 3 schedule events at rural healthcare facilities. The webinar is available on the Office of Rural Health YouTube channel. Goal 2. To host drinking water quality education programs that include free household well screening. Task 2a. Advertise and cross-promote for events OWRC marketing and communication staffassisted in cross-promotion with library, Extension, and health partners regarding,including social media, websites, listservs, newspapers, and health district offices. The events were broadly promoted on-line with social media (average 365 reached and 35 engaged per Facebook post) and across many news platforms, including 13 earned media credits. Task 2b. Plan and host safe drinking water awareness events with rural libraries In addition to screening events (described below), OWON exhibited and collected drinking water samples at three Health Fair programsin coordination with opening of Telehealth podsin rural libraries in southern Oklahoma. Task 2c. Plan and host screening events with County Extension offices. This project collected a total of 37samples at 6collection sitescovering 4counties (Coal, Pittsburg, Haskell, and LeFlore) in SE Oklahomabetween August 2023 to July2024. Events were hosted in coordination with Cooperative Extension and our partners at Southeast Oklahoma Library System (SEOLS). Additionally, Dr. Sadler discussed the availability of the free water screening and education events during the All Extension meeting in Summer 2024.In addition to co-piloting our programin several SEOLS libraries, OWON has collaborated with Country Extension on several modesfor 'community' programming: 1) hosting sample collections during free fair events, and 2) 'State of the Orange', a multi-county volunteer event collecting over 85 samples from 5 counties in one day. Goal 3. To assess community science program outcomes, including a regional water quality health assessment. Task 3a. Create and maintain a database of participants and results. The OWON team continued to streamline the workflow for sample collection, analysis, and communication of results. We also modified the intake form for digital entry, as well as added items to collect additional information about water quality concerns and interest in follow-up communication from the OWRC. Task 3b. Identify public health risks and create usable data visualizations 63% of surveyed household owners had not tested their well water. 26% of participating households use some type of water treatment device, ranging from household filtration systems to water pitchers. We reviewed the overall frequency and percentage of samples that exceeded primary or secondary drinking water standards set by the US Environmental Protection agency across all OWON events in the study area. For contaminated samples, the OWON testing results include information on how to complete a lab test and possible solutions for well remediation. The frequency of contaminated samples by collection site: (1)Bacteria. Presence of bacteria as total coliforms was found in 68% of collected samples, with samples testing for E. Coli. High rates of total coliforms were found in of 9 collection sites, (2)Nitrates. Nitrate contamination was not found in samples collected, and (3) Total dissolved solids. TDS was detected in 32% of samples collected. Task 3c. Engage community and partners in iterative and reflective program evaluation A feedback survey was administered via email to households that participated in the OWON well screening events. There were 44 completed surveys. (1)Satisfaction. The vast majority of survey respondents were Satisfied with the testing event (91%), instructions for collecting samples (95%), and communication of results (77%). Over time, OWON has improved the process of tracking and communicating the test results through improved coordination between the OWRC team and Dr. Jeff Sadler, water specialist for Cooperative Extension. (2) Attitudes/Behaviors. Of 37 respondents, 51% intend to adopt the annual well testing in the future. 64% ranked regular testing of drinking water quality as very to extremely important. 98% of respondents said they would be more likely to test their well annually if a free service was provided in their county. One-third of respondents remain undecided about future efforts to install a water filtration or pump their septic tank regularly.These results suggest topic areas for new or additional informational materials and possibly for follow support for homeowners with contaminated wells. (3) Recruitment. Most respondents reported learning about well screening events from social media/internet, newspapers, OSU/Extension communication, friend/family/neighbor, library, and emergence management updates. Over the course of the year, OWON extended their promotional communication within communities to include local newspapers/radio, libraries, tribal nations, and emergency management.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Colston, N., Sadler, J., Dietz, M., Krometis, L.A.H, Ling, E., Barrett, J., Pigg, J. & Snow, D. (2024, October 2). Exploring program design, outputs, and possibilities for citizen science groundwater quality monitoring. Panel presentation at the 2024 AWRA, UCOWR, NIWR Joint 60th Anniversary Conference, St. Louis, MO, United States
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Sadler, J. (2024, April 911). Well water education and testing in Oklahoma [Conference presentation]. 2024 Oklahoma Clean Lakes and Watersheds Association Annual Conference, Wes Watkins Center, Stillwater, OK