Study to explore risks of private wells in Chester County

Thousands of families in southeastern Pennsylvania get their household water from private wells.

Environmental regulations protect public drinking water systems, but public safeguards don’t apply to these privately owned wells, where water quality testing is the responsibility of individual owners, and the prevalence of waterborne diseases can threaten residents’ health.

A new $3.6 million study by Temple University’s College of Public Health aims to explore illness-causing microbes in residential well-water in Chester County, as well as in Berks, Bucks, Lancaster, Lehigh and Montgomery counties.

It will give owners of private wells an opportunity to improve the cleanliness of the water their families use and participate in research aimed at making drinking water safer for everyone.

The multiyear study will equip more than 900 households with free whole-home ultraviolet well-water treatment systems, valued at $1,000 per installation. The project is currently recruiting families in the aforementioned counties that have children under four years of age.

Participating families will have a water treatment device installed in a basement or outside the home. Families will live as they normally do, and researchers will look at how often the children get sick. All participants will respond to weekly text messages and occasional questionnaires. Some will be asked to submit stool, saliva and water samples to be tested for specific microbes.

“It’s all remote and contactless,” Murphy says. Families will also receive up to $100 in gift cards, including $10 for submitting their children’s stool samples during the study. Participants will also be entered into a raffle to win a weekend trip to either Hershey Park or Dutch Wonderland for a family of four (a $2,000 value). You can even receive a $40 gift card for successfully enrolling a family, even if you’re not in the study yourself.

“Where else can you get $10 for changing a diaper?” said Murphy. Private well owners with a child under four can learn more at http://www.wettrial.org/.

“We’re hoping to better understand if drinking well water can cause illnesses in children that can include diarrhea, fever, even respiratory problems. We want to know if treating well water can prevent these illnesses,” says Heather Murphy, who is leading the study. Murphy is the director of Temple’s Water, Health and Applied Microbiology (WHAM) Lab.

The study, called the WET Trial, is funded by the National Institutes of Health and will run for the next four years. The whole home UV water treatment systems are being donated by Trojan Technologies, a leading manufacturer of ultraviolet systems for residential, industrial and municipal applications.

Temple’s WHAM Lab studies microbiological contamination of water supplies and the impact on public health. One focus has been on private well water, which is vulnerable to microbes in the environment. These microbes can travel to well water from a number of sources including agriculture and septic systems. Private wells are also not limited to rural areas — they are often used by families in suburban and rural subdivisions.