UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Should you be concerned about the quality of your groundwater? How can community action groups best keep the water supply safe from contamination? A new video from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences can help you answer these questions.
"The Groundwater Protection Action Group: A Roadtrip to Success" is the third educational video in a four-part series about protecting water resources. The video takes viewers on a road trip with the fictional Riley family as they learn four ways to make a groundwater protection action group successful.
"When groundwater contamination strikes, today's and tomorrow's users both suffer," says Paul Robillard, associate professor of agricultural engineering and a technical consultant for the video. "Communities need to protect groundwater and keep our water supplies safe."
The 23-minute video covers how action groups can develop useful maps, create land use and contaminant inventories, choose protection strategies, and monitor groundwater protection programs.
This video is aimed at water supply officials, public educators, cooperative extension personnel, municipal planning officials, school children and older students, and community special interest groups.
Technical advisers for the project included Robillard; William Sharpe, professor of forest hydrology; and Charles Abdalla, associate professor of agricultural economics and codirector of the Pennsylvania Groundwater Policy Education Project.
"The Case of the Mysterious Groundwater," the first video in the series, is a 16-minute Sherlock Holmes spoof. "It explores the mysteries of our hidden groundwater supplies and puts groundwater myths 'in the slammer,'" Robillard says.
"Groundwater Protection: Blazing a Healthy Trail," the second video, uses a Western theme to communicate three technical trail markers that protect groundwater. It covers physiographic regions and their aquifers, identifying land uses and contaminant flow paths that impact aquifers, and how to develop a community groundwater protection action group.
The final video in the series, "Private Well Construction in Pennsylvania: Setting the Standard," explores why proper well construction standards are essential to safeguarding private water supplies.
The video series is funded by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Production services were provided by ShelowPorterfield Productions of Boalsburg.
For an order form or more information about these videos or groundwater, contact the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 246 Agricultural Engineering Building, University Park, PA 16801; phone 814-865-7685; FAX 814-863-1031. People with Internet access can visit the department's site on the World Wide Web: http://server.age.psu.edu/
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EDITORS: For more information, contact Paul Robillard at 814-865-7158 or pdr1@email.psu.edu
Contacts: Eston Martz Eston_Martz@agcs.cas.psu.edu 814-863-3587 814-865-1068 fax