Minnesota Department of Agriculture offers online video to help homeowners test private wells for atrazine

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ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) has created a video, educating homeowners on how to test private wells for atrazine. This video explains some of the ways a well could become contaminated, provides a step-by-step procedure for screening a well, and what to do if atrazine is detected. Information regarding other common contaminants is also provided.

The video is available online at www.mda.state.mn.us/privatewelltesting, where additional information on pesticides and well testing is also available.

In Minnesota, private well owners are responsible for testing their own wells. While state agencies periodically conduct surveys of water quality in private wells, it is ultimately the responsibility of the well owner to monitor for drinking water contaminants, including atrazine. Nitrates and Escherichia coli (E. coli) are perhaps the most common and important contamination concerns for private wells.

Atrazine concentrations in private wells are expected to be absent or below current health-based guidance of three parts per billion (ppb) set by the Minnesota Department of Health. Nevertheless, there is always a potential for atrazine contamination of drinking water in high atrazine use areas and geologically vulnerable areas.

Results from MDA groundwater monitoring over the last decade indicate significant declines in atrazine concentrations to levels well below health-based guidance.

Wells most at risk of pesticide contamination are:

- Dug, drive point and bored wells.

- Old wells improperly maintained, or built before 1974 when Minnesota adopted new well construction rules.

- Shallow wells that are less than or near to 50 feet in depth.

- Wells that have been damaged, or wells affected by flooding.

- Wells located near atrazine mixing and loading sites, or where atrazine spills have occurred.

- Wells located in geologically sensitive areas (e.g., sandy soil and limestone bedrock areas of central and southeastern Minnesota).

The atrazine private well screening video project was undertaken in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Health and in response to a recommendation of the special registration review of atrazine conducted by the MDA in 2009-2010.

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