RAPID CITY, S.D. (April 24, 2013) – A group of professors at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology are asking homeowners to participate in a study providing free water tests for the 100 private wells distributed across the central Black Hills from the Keystone to Hill City area. After collecting water samples on Sunday, May 5, and again on Sunday, May 12, professors will analyze for nitrates, hardness, iron, arsenic and bacteria, components which may affect public health or the functioning of water well systems.
Principal investigator of the study Alvis Lisenbee, Ph.D., stresses that the increasing urbanization of the area and abundance of water wells make it necessary to collect data on water quality. Moreover, he explains that “the quality and quantity of well water from sedimentary aquifers along the eastern flank of the Black Hills is generally well known and consistent within individual formations. Water wells in the central Black Hills, in contrast, are from rocks such as granite and quartzite and the quality of that water varies from place to place.”
Previous water samples have been taken at varying times of the year, in differing years, with conditions ranging from drought to heavy precipitation and without inclusion of some of the components of greatest interest to the investigators. Lisenbee’s intent is “to work with 100 home owners to determine the character of drinking water in the central Black Hills during a single season when conditions should be similar across the area.”
The samples will analyzed by Mid-Continent Testing of Rapid City. Lisenbee, along with principal investigators and Mines professors Arden Davis, Ph.D., and Maribeth Price, Ph.D., of the Department of Geology & Geological Engineering and graduate students Jennifer Bednar, geological engineering, Micheal Tekle, geological engineering, and Matthew Morton, geology, will then compile the results to obtain an understanding of the water quality and to determine any possible concerns.
The specific results of tests will be shared with the individual homeowners and compiled into an overview of water quality across the study area. No personal information or test results will be released to the public. The final results will be presented to the research sponsor, the West Dakota Water Development District and posted on the website aquifers.sdsmt.edu.
Individual homeowners may sign up for participation in this study by going online to http://geology.sdsmt.edu/224953/ and completing a form. They will then be instructed on where to pick up the water sampling bottles that are used in the tests, given a list of instructions on how to collect the samples and notified of the location in which to leave the samples when bottles are filled.