1 Title: Drinking water quality and well owner perceptions of quality in a rural watershed in British Columbia, Canada.

In rural areas individual well owners have little control over their drinking water quality, which can be influenced by geological factors and adjacent land use. Analysis of groundwater used for drinking in a rural watershed with mixed land use in British Columbia, Canada, showed that although most samples did not exceed guidelines designed to protect human health, those that did were concentrated in urbanising areas. With the help of local volunteers, 75 groundwater samples were collected in the Hatzic Valley, located in the Lower Fraser Valley area of British Columbia. Collection and analysis occurred twice, once in July 2002 and again in March 2003. A spatial database was created and the percentages of four predominant land uses were calculated within several radii of the wells sampled. Two wells exceeded the health standard for nitrate-N and 10 more had nitrate-N levels above 3 mg/L (considered indicative of land use impacts). All the wells with elevated NO3-N were shallow (less than 10 m deep). Percent forest cover surrounding the wells was negatively correlated with nitrate level, while percent urbanised land was positively related to nitrate. The cause of high nitrate in the urban areas is thought to be from septic systems. A questionnaire study revealed that the majority of local residents perceived their water quality to be good or excellent. The residents base their perceptions on tangible indicators rather than chemically determined ones. The negative perceptions were correlated with the presence of high levels of iron and manganese rather than nitrate