Prof. Ryan received the CU Boulder Outreach Award for the following Project: Assessing Drinking Water Quality on Colorado's Western Slope
The goal of this project is to assist in a new study of risks to private drinking water wells in six counties on the Colorado's Western Slope. The study, just funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), is directed by Kenneth Nordstrom, the director of Environmental Health at the Health Department of Delta County. The six counties, which include
Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel, are part of the West Central Public Health Partnership (WCPHP).
The risks to private drinking water wells will be evaluated by creating an inventory of private wells, evaluating potential hazards and exposures via groundwater, and developing an outreach plan to encourage testing of private wells. The graduate research assistant at the University of Colorado Boulder will be engaged in all three of
these tasks. The goal of the graduate research assistant's participation would be a geographic information system (GIS)-based "groundwater risk map" that would be used to assemble, analyze, and convey the risks to private drinking water wells in these counties. Just over 50% of the residents of these counties use private wells for drinking water.