Drinking Water Revolving Fund
Procedure for Collecting Well Data

The Drinking Water Revolving Fund can be used to finance new public water systems or public water system extensions. To be eligible for funding, a service area must consist of established homes and/or businesses that receive water from contaminated private wells, or from private wells that do not provide adequate quantities of water. This procedure addresses well contamination.

Well sampling must be conducted, documented, and the results forwarded to the department of health. When well contamination is used to justify installing a public water system, the sites with contaminated water should be connected to the new system when it becomes available.

The entity seeking a loan is responsible for conducting the sampling. Sample results and associated information are to be submitted with the request to place a project on the Drinking Water Revolving Fund Project Priority List. The cost for conducting the sampling can be reimbursed through the loan.

Sampling and reporting requirements

1. Water samples must be collected and analyzed within the previous three years prior to when the proposal is submitted to place a project on the Project Priority List.
2. Identify the number of sites (homes and businesses) located within the proposed service area.
3. Sample locations must adequately represent the proposed service area.
4. Collection procedures are to be appropriate for the analyses being performed. Confirmation samples may be required, especially when coliform bacteria have been detected.
5. Samples are to be analyzed by a laboratory certified by the Minnesota Department of Health to perform the analyses. Water is typically tested for nitrate (measured as nitrogen) and/or coliform bacteria. The choice of analysis rests with the system owner and should depend on potential contamination.
6. Provide a map that shows where samples are collected. The only sites that need to be shown are those where a sample does not meet a Safe Drinking Water Act Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) Standard. Link these sites to their respective sample analyses. The MCL standard for nitrate is greater than 10 parts per million, and for coliform bacteria it is whether the bacteria are detected.
7. The accompanying chart shows project priority list points that can be assigned to a project. Points are based on the number of sites with water not meeting a MCL standard. (Sites are counted, not the number of contaminated samples or number of MCL violations per sample.)

Sample requirements for contaminated private wells

Minnesota Rules, part 4720.9020 subpart 5.

* Round down for the number of samples that must exceed a MCL Standard when the number of community sites is between the numbers listed in the chart. (i.e., If there are 67 sites then 16 samples must exceed a MCL Standard for the project to receive 25 points and 8 samples must exceed a standard for 12.5 points.)