Nitrate and Pesticides In Private Wells of Ohio: A State Atlas

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In 1988, the George Gund Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio provided a grant to the Heidelberg College Water Quality Laboratory to operate an "environmental extension program" in association with our studies of agrichemical contamination of private rural wells in Ohio. This atlas represents one of the products of that environmental extension program.

The data contained in this atlas were produced through the cooperative efforts of local organizations in 76 Ohio counties, more than 16,000 Ohio residents, and the Water Quality Laboratory of Heidelberg College. In particular, the efforts of state and county Farm Bureau staff, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and Cooperative Extension Agents in organizing the county well water testing programs were essential to this program. The efforts of individual participants in picking up and delivering their sampling materials at central locations in each county were also essential to the program. By accomplishing the sample collection portion of the study, each well owner contributed much more than just the $1.00 fee and a water sample.

Financial support to the Water Quality Laboratory for the analytical and interpretive portions of this program also reflected cooperative efforts. A 1986 grant received from the State of Ohio, and administered by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Soil and Water Conservation, provided the base support. Additional support to our program by industries (American Cyanamid, Ciba-Geigy, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Hoechst-Roussel, Monsanto, Proctor and Gamble, Rhone-Poulenc, and Terra International) and by foundations (The Anderson Foundation of Toledo and the Toledo Community Foundation) enabled us to expand these efforts from a local to a state level.

Valuable technical assistance during the design and operation of this program was offered by staff of Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the Ohio Environmental
Protection Agency (OEPA), the Ohio Department of Health, and the Ohio Department of
Agriculture. Martin Williams of the U. S. EPA, Office of Pesticide Programs provided
county-level DRASTIC indices for Ohio counties. Helpful review comments on partial
drafts of the atlas were received from numerous state agency personnel, including Jerry
Wager, Dan Kush, and Rebecca Petty from ODNR; Scott Golden from the Ohio Department
of Health; and Carl Wilhelm, Ed Armstrong, and Gary Martin from the OEPA. Additional
reviews were provided by Karen Mancl of The Ohio State University Cooperative Extension
Service; Bob Burris of the Soil Conservation Service; Callie Childress, Donna Myers, and
Mike Eberle of the U. S. Geological Survey; Bradley Ross of the Knox County Soil and
Water Conservation District; and Bob Bash of the Farm Bureau.
This work capitalized on the high capacity, efficient, and highly automated analytical
laboratory of the Water Quality Laboratory. This analytical laboratory has been developed
by Jack Kramer (Laboratory Manager) with assistance from Ellen Ewing (Chief Technician),
and Barbara Merryfield (Autoanalyzer Technician). The work of June Huss (WQL secretary)
in entering most of the data into the computer from the participant information sheets is also
greatly appreciated. Steve Eshelman, a geology graduate student from the University of
Toledo, helped in encoding well coordinates for several counties. Finally, numerous WQL
student assistants from Heidelberg College helped in various portions of this work.