Thursday, June 30, 2016

Risk Communication and Wellhead Protection

By Cindy Kreifels, The Groundwater Foundation

Risks can be faced in just about any endeavor.  The risks may be perceived or real.  They may be big or small.  The important thing is how we deal with those risks. 

Wellhead protection is all about identifying the risks to a certain well or set of wells.  One of the first steps of the wellhead protection process is a contaminant source inventory or looking at what are the potential risks to a particular drinking water well.  Completing this step gives us the information to proactively protect our drinking water by mitigating the risk. 

Often times this requires the action of all citizens and as such we need to be able to communicate the potential risks in such a way that they understand that everyone needs to change their behaviors to protect their drinking water.  However, risk communication is a skill.  One that many of us have not learned.

The Groundwater Foundation will be providing a presentation on risk communication at its upcoming Wellhead Protection Network meeting on July 7th.  Join us for the meeting to learn how to inspire communities to get on board with wellhead protection and how to get citizens to understand the issues and take part in protection efforts.  Steven Wolf, Community Engagement Director with JEO Consulting Group will share his expertise around this topic.  If you are able to attend, please RSVP to Cindy at ckreifels@groundwater.org.  Attendance is free - lunch costs $10.

Share with us your ideas and thoughts concerning risk communication.



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