Partners in the celebration of the Allegheny River as Pennsylvania River of the Year will be helping people avoid polluting it while keeping their on-lot systems up to date.

Conewango Creek Watershed Association, Jamestown Audubon, and Penn State Cooperative Extension will offer workshops covering maintenance of private water and on-lot septic systems.

The two workshops cover the same material on the same day –Monday, May 8 — at different times in different locations.

The first will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Audubon Community Nature Center, 1600 Riverside Drive, Jamestown, N.Y., and the second from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Hawke Room at the Jefferson DeFrees Center, 207 Second Ave., Warren.

The workshops are free, but pre-registration through the Conewango Creek Watershed Association (CCWA) — www.conewangocreek.org, info@conewangocreek.org, or 814-726-1441 — is required.

“As private landowners in a rural area, the owners are responsible for the care and safety of their water and septic systems,” CCWA board director Elizabeth Dropp said. “This workshop will conduct information of the basic function of these systems, things owners can to do maintain the systems and ensure that they work properly.”

The first step in caring for equipment is knowing that it’s there.

“People who live in areas with municipal water supply and sewer systems often decide to move to the country without realizing when they buy that property they become responsible for their own water and septic systems,” Dropp said. “I’ve even met people who owned their property but had no idea where these systems were on their property. They didn’t even know that they weren’t on municipal systems.”

“That is a lot rarer than it used to be due to banks and other loaning institutions requiring these systems be inspected by a qualified technician before the loan is approved,” she said. “Owners still need more information to maintain their systems, keep them safe, make them last longer and know when to call a professional.”

“Only about 20 percent of all private water sources have been tested for safety in Pennsylvania,” Dropp said. “According to Penn State University, 40 percent of all private water supplies are estimated to have some kind of unsafe contaminant in them based on their studies.”

Those contaminants often come from sources on the property.

“For example, people will tie their dog to the well casing for long periods of time,” Dropp said. “That dog’s wastes will very likely end up in their own well water. The pesticides you are spraying on the flowerbed next to your spring house could also end up in your drinking water.”

“There are many things we can do protect our water sources and our health when it come to our water systems,” she said.

The guest speaker at the workshops will be Bryan Swistock, Water Resources Extension Specialist in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State University.

“Over the past ten years, Bryan has focused on projects related to the proper construction, testing and management of rural drinking water supplies,” Dropp said. “He has authored numerous journal articles and presented hundreds of educational programs on drinking water issues.”

Topics will include: description of wells, springs and cisterns; proper construction and protection of water supplies; testing and interpretation; water treatment and solving water problems; types of septic systems; typical regulations and maintenance; causes of failures; and fixing septic system problems.

“It’s easier to prevent contaminants from getting into the ground water than it is to get them back out,” Dropp said. “Once contaminated, pollutants tend to spread with the movement of the ground water and may eventually contaminate your neighbors well or the nearby springs or even the Allegheny River.”

“All water is essentially linked,” she said. “When water moves the pollutants move with it. Pollutants that end up in the ground water or a local stream eventually drain to a bigger water body like the Allegheny River for instance, and must be removed by water treatment plants down the River that supply nearly one million people with their drinking water downstream including Pittsburgh.”