CASSTOWN, Ohio — Is your home’s well more than 40 years old? Is it less than 50 feet deep? Has it been more than a year since the water was tested? If you answered yes to any of these questions, bring a well water sample so that in less than 30 minutes you can learn if there might be a hazardous level of nitrate in your drinking water. 

Monday, March 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Miami East High School cafeteria, 3925 North State Route 589, Casstown, Ohio, the Miami East FFA Chapter will host a Test Your Well Fair. It is a free, confidential nitrate screening of all self-contained wells for residents of Miami and surrounding counties. 

While you wait you can learn about well maintenance, nitrate prevention, and well education from several area drinking water and well professionals. There will be fun children activities and free coffee, hot cocoa, and cookies.

To properly collect your well water sample:

•Select any clean jar that seals tightly. Free sample bottles will be available in the Miami East High School office or via the Miami Soil and Water Conservation District on County Road 25A.

•Remove any screen or filter from your faucet.

•Run water for five minutes to clear the lines and bring in fresh

•Do not touch the lip of the jar, inside the jar, or inside the cap.

•Keep the sample refrigerated until the Test Your Well Fair. 

A fresh sample drawn the day of the fair is best.

Safe drinking water is important to human health. Groundwater provides drinking water for more than one-half of the nation’s population and is the sole source of drinking water for many rural residents. Shallow and/or poorly capped wells are most vulnerable to nitrate contamination.

Although there is not a widespread threat of contamination in Miami County, nitrate prevention and proper maintenance of self-contained wells is always necessary. 

Nitrate is a nutrient. Nitrates come from nitrogen which are great for plant growth but can be harmful to human ingestion. It is generally from human or animal waste and inorganic fertilizers. Nitrates can also be traced to residential and lawn fertilizers, septic systems, and airborne nitrogen compounds given off by industry and automobiles. Infant digestion systems cannot handle over ten parts per million (ppm), though adults can handle over 100ppm. Older or health-impaired people are more sensitive than healthy adults.

New this year two additional tests are being offered. For a much reduced price of $15 per test, samples can be tested for arsenic and/or bacteria. The first 30 participants will receive this reduced price. After 30, the test will be $25 per sample. Normal bacteria testing cost is $70 and arsenic $50. Further information will be offered at the Test Your Well Fair with payment due the night of the event. All tests will be provided by Belmont Labs in Englewood. This reduced cost is made possible from special funding through the Miami Conservancy District’s Aquifer Preservation Subdistrict.

For more information about the Test Your Well Fair on March 18th contact the Miami East FFA Chapter by calling 937-335-7070 ext. 3212.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Feb. 16, the Miami Trace FFA Agricultural Communications team and Food Science team competed at the state competition held at The Ohio State University. Members of the Ag Comm team are Katie Frost, Madison Hisey and Hannah Peterson. Members of the Food Science team are Sarah Boston, Jessica Little, Nicole Straathof, and Judith Straathof. To be qualified to compete at the state competitions, each team competed in the district nine competition on Jan. 30 at Felicity Franklin High School. At the district competition, the Ag Comm team placed second with Frost placing first, Peterson placing third, and Hisey placing fifth and the Food Science team placed second.

The Agricultural Communications contest requires the members to write a 15-page proposal on a scenario given to them by the State FFA Organization. When the team gets to the competition, they take an editing test, give a 15-minute presentation about their proposal and participate in individual events. The team wrote their proposal on ending hunger in our community and it was titled “Invest to fight hunger feeding the world – starting at home.”

At this year’s state competition, the individual events where writing a news release, creating a magazine layout and developing a social media plan. This year the Ag Comm team placed third at state and Frost was the high individual. 

The Food Science contest requires the members to participate in multiple activities. These activities include an online test about the basic principles of food science, a practicum about food safety and quality and sensory evaluation, and a team product development project. The team has to identify multiple foods and smells and determine if the food is safe. This year the Food Science team placed ninth at the state competition.