The Department of Environmental Protection this week helped celebrate National Groundwater Awareness Week – March 12-18- by making recommendations on how to protect groundwater quality.

“A significant portion of the water used in homes, restaurants, schools, hospitals, office buildings and churches across Pennsylvania comes from groundwater systems --- making the protection everyone’s responsibility,” Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said.

About half of Pennsylvanians use groundwater as their source for drinking water and many of the state’s industries, farms and electric plants relying on the resource for production.

The health of groundwater resources can be threatened by a variety of contaminants, but there are also threats residents can help to prevent. Protective measures include:

· Don’t pour any toxic or hazardous substances (including paints, varnishes, thinners, waste oils, pesticides and herbicides) down the drain or into the toilet;

· If you change the oil in a car, recycle the used oil; and

· When using fertilizers or pesticides, follow the directions. Use only the amount recommended by the product label.

Knowing about groundwater is especially important to Pennsylvania well owners. According to the National Groundwater Association, Pennsylvania has more private water wells then any other state in the nation. It is estimated there are nearly 1 million private wells in the commonwealth, and they are the sole source of drinking water for most rural populations. As such, groundwater is key to the state’s economic future.

Approximately 97 percent of all the available fresh water on the earth is groundwater. At any given moment, there is 30 times more groundwater then surface water.

For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Groundwater Association website and the DEP Groundwater Protection webpage.

3/17/2006