Private water well education for adult residents of Oklahoma

Abstract

The scope of this study involved an investigation into the education of the adult residents of Oklahoma regarding private water wells. The groundwater supply for the private resident is directly connected to a shared water source. This source of water can become contaminated by simple lack of education and proper maintenance of the well. Without knowing the possibility of how a water source may be contaminated, there is a possible health threat to that private resident and those residents downstream who use the same water (USEPA, 2010a).

The methods used examined the comparison of groups after presentation of Programs 1 or 2. The control group received Program 1 which included Oklahoma DEQ fact sheets on private water wells currently offered. The experimental groups received Program 2 which included the booklet written and illustrated by the researcher.

Validity of the instrument used in this research was provided through use of an expert jury: members of the expert jury were employed in DEQ and work with education program related to private water wells for a pretest and posttest experiment. Data from this instrument were collected, examined, and analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey HSD post hoc test, and Cronbach's alpha.

This investigation revealed that a field study was difficult to gather the numbers of participants needed to reach the statistical power required to reject the null hypothesis. The results did indicate that the participants benefitted from the Power Point presentation created by the researcher regardless of the programs added to the presentation. The experimental groups that received the Program 2 did score higher on the post testing mean score than the control group that received Program 1.

The basic goal of this researcher was to reach private well owners and those who have access to private wells. Water is vital to all life. Education was a tool used in this study to provide the information to adult participants needed to protect groundwater and to provide safe water for their own home.