POPLARVILLE, Miss. -- A free workshop for water well owners originally scheduled for Feb. 23 has been rescheduled for Feb. 29 because of predicted bad weather.

South Mississippi homeowners in small communities and rural areas without public water supplies can learn how to better manage, operate and protect their private wells during a program in Pearl River County.

The Water Quality and Private Wells workshop, from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 29, will help Mississippi well owners understand groundwater basics, learn best practices for well care and know where to look for assistance.

“The program will teach well owners about their private wells, how to sample their wells, how to interpret sample results, and what they can do to protect their well and its source water from contamination,” said Jason R. Barrett, an assistant Extension professor with the Mississippi State University Extension Center for Government and Community Development.

To register and learn more about the workshop, go to http://gcd.msucares.com/register. At the registration page, look for “Water Quality and Private Well Workshop.” The program will be at the Pearl River County office of the MSU Extension Service in Poplarville. Additional information is available by calling 662-325-3141.

Steve Wilson, a groundwater hydrologist with the Illinois State Water Survey, and Clinton Dunn, a well construction technology instructor with the Southwest Mississippi Community College, will join Barrett in presenting the workshop.

The University of Illinois and Southwest Mississippi Community College are helping MSU Extension educate Mississippians with private wells about managing their water supplies.

“The majority of Mississippians get their water from municipal supplies or rural water associations, but there are thousands of homes in rural areas that depend on private wells,” Barrett said. “In fact, an average of 12 percent of households in the state’s 82 counties rely on private wells. In four of those counties, more than 40 percent of homes have private wells.”

For additional information on private wells in Mississippi, see Extension Publication 2775, “Mississippi Private Well Populations.”