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Treatment & Prevention

More resources for families with private drinking water to learn more about how to ensure they have clean drinking water and protect their water rights.

Inletkeeper strives to provide the communities it serves with relevant and useful information for protecting clean water, healthy salmon, and healthy families.  Below are a suite of links and other resources to learn more about treatment options for drinking water, construction, maintenance and protection of wells and other private drinking water sources, and other drinking water resources that may be useful.

Treating Your Drinking Water

NSF database of certified water treatment options, searchable by treatment claim and company/product type: http://www.nsf.org/Certified/dwtu/

“Land & Water” has detailed descriptions on pages 11-19 of how different treatment options work: http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/pdf_pubs/SAFEWTR.pdf

Page 16 of “Water on Tap” contains a useful table that outlines treatment devices and their uses: http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw000/wot/pdfs/book_waterontap_full.pdf

Water Testing and Interpreting Your Results: http://www.uas.alaska.edu/attac/dlfiles/results.pdf

Drinking Water Fact Kit: Tips for Selecting a Water Treatment System:
http://www.nsf.org/consumer/newsroom/pdf/fact_water_dwtu.pdf

Cornell University Cooperative Extension maintains a website with exhaustive resources on general water treatment and specific contaminants/treatment options:
http://waterquality.cce.cornell.edu/treatment.htm

Well Construction and Maintenance

“Private Water System Management”- contains information on proper well construction and where to locate:
http://resources.cas.psu.edu/WaterResources/MWON/pdfs/PennStateRecommends.pdf

“Private Water Systems” (Downloadable software program) - a complete minicourse in design and construction of private drinking water systems (wells and piping). Includes water quantities required, water pumps, systems controls, design considerations and piping:
http://www.epa.gov/seahome/private.html

Protecting Wells with Sanitary Well Caps and Grouting:
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/XH0011.pdf

Protecting Your Water Rights

You can obtain water rights in Alaska that can help protect your rights to use surface or groundwater.  Just being a landowner does not grant you automatic rights to the water on your property!  Find out more at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mining, Land & Water website on Water Rights in Alaska: http://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/water/wrfact.htm.

Emergency Drinking Water

Emergency Drinking Water Supplies:
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/emergwatersuppl.html

More Resources

Cook Inletkeeper can help answer questions regarding your private drinking water, and point you to valuable resources at the local, state, and national levels.   Call us or come by our office: 

Cook Inletkeeper
3734 Ben Walters Lane
Homer, Alaska  99603
tel. 907.235.4068 x29   
fax 907.235.4069
rachel@inletkeeper.org