Pillars of Governmental Environmental Public Health | A Guide to Scalable Environmental Public Health Programs
Part of ensuring a safe location for wells for many juris- dictions includes having a registry that identifies where these systems and onsite wastewater systems are in the jurisdiction. If the information is not housed locally, having access to state-level data of well locations and depths can be useful in constructing or decommissioning wells, if such data exists. Education for property owners, well drillers, builders, and other industry partners is an important activity for potable water programs. Strong relationships with associations for well drillers, building and safety, and onsite wastewater help EPH professionals serve as a resource for industry partners as they do their work. Often, government agen- cies that permit oil, gas, or mining industries are differ- ent from health agencies. In these cases, collaboration between health agencies and these industry partners pro- tects groundwater and prevents contamination of drinking water supplies.
Potable water program outcome measures should consider weather seasonality as contaminant levels are affected by rainfall, drought, and other weather-related incidents. Population density can affect the number of possible con- tamination sources and should be considered when devel- oping policies allowing new well construction and drilling. As a metric of the impact of consumer education, potable water programs could estimate the number of well water samples voluntarily submitted for contaminant testing by well owners per the number of known wells in the juris- diction per year.
Staffing
Meaningful Outcome Measures
PURPOSE
METRIC
Program effectiveness
• Percentage of well inspections completed within required timeframes per year * • Percentage of plan reviews completed within target timeframes per year. • Average number of potable water activities completed per staff member per week annually. • Percentage of water samples meeting all applicable quality standards per year. • Number of waterborne
Workload management
Potable water program responsibilities differ among agen- cies. Some agencies ensure the proposed site of a well is suitable, while some are more involved in siting, survey- ing, and maintenance. Staffing rate determination for this program mighty consider the level of involvement of EPH personnel from reviewing permits, ground surveying, sit- ing location, and construction oversight, to providing edu- cation and routine maintenance inspections. Research indicated that 3–4 potable water field activities per week were considered reasonable for EPH profession- als. Jurisdictions need to have a general understanding of how many annual field activities are anticipated to deter - mine the FTE needed for their potable water program. In addition to considering the potable water efforts of local departments, consideration should be given to what other agencies—such as state agencies and academic part- ners—are doing to support the protection of public health in this field.
Public health protection
illness cases associated with regulated water systems per 100,000 population per year * Partner engagement • Number of education events on water testing conducted per year. • Number of voluntary well
water samples submitted per 1,000 known wells per year *
* EPH professionals who participated in focus groups, key informant interviews, and/or the national field survey consistently identified this metric as moderately to extremely useful.
35
Powered by FlippingBook