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This is a full transcript of the online presentation. For the presentation itself, go here.

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Hello, my name is Brett Anderson, and today I’ll show you the basics of how the Well Surveillance Program’s well survey request process works. The target audience for this presentation is new local county health department staff who will be performing well surveys and also for veterans of the program who would like a refresher and be able to view the various changes in the program over the last couple of years.

First of all, let’s go over the basics of this presentation. We will go over what a well survey is and the goals of the well surveys. We will also go over all the steps involved in completing a well survey. A large portion of that process is devoted to the use of WebLaserfiche, which will also be discussed at length.

So first things first…what is a well survey? In short, it’s a means to determine whether or not potable wells are contaminated due to a number of factors including: Underground petroleum storage tanks (covered by the Super Act program), drycleaner solvents (covered by the DSCP program), or virtually a grab-bag of any other dangerous chemicals (covered by the Toxics program). We determine whether or not this contamination exists by sampling the potable wells close to the source of the contamination.

When you go out to perform a well survey, the following goals should be met: First of all, you should GPS the risk source, which will be provided to you. Next, you should attempt to GPS and sample ALL wells within 500 feet of that risk source. Next, you should attempt to GPS and sample up to ten wells within ¼ mile of that risk source (including the ones you already GPS’d within 500 feet). Finally, you should attempt to sample any large public wells that fall within ½ mile of the risk source. Now that you are aware of the basic goals of a well survey, let’s explain the process of a well survey from A to Z on the next slide.

Typically, we receive a batch of sites from DEP that have had known or potential spills of harmful chemicals (what we refer to as “Requests”). We import these requests into a tracking database so we can monitor at what stages the various requests are at in the process. We then break these requests up by which county they’re located in, and email them to the CHD’s in the form of a weekly report that typically goes out on Mondays.

The weekly report is made up of the four sections listed. We will only discuss the first three sections listed for this presentation. However, if you have any questions regarding the fourth section listed entitled “Current resample requests”, please feel free to either contact Lee Skornia or I and we’ll be glad to provide you with any information you need.

This is section one of the weekly report. This shows you the requests for your county that still need you to go out and perform the field work within the area. This section provides you with the address of the facility, the facility ID, the project ID and analysis associated with the request, and a due date. This is the date that all of the field work (i.e. the GPSing and sampling) need to be completed by or else it will be considered late and counted against you. Sections two and three of the weekly report will be discussed later in the presentation, but for now let’s move back the process of completing a well survey.

For every request that is listed in section, you will first want to research the facility. This refers not only to the location of the facility, but also to the groundwater flow direction in the area, and the locations of the spill or tank pit. The basics of how to obtain this information are not covered in this presentation, but feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding that process. Next you want to perform the field work. As stated earlier, this is GPSing the risk source and attempting to GPS and sample up to ten wells within ¼ mile of that risk source. Finally, you want to send the GPS data you collected up to us here in Tallahassee at the following email address: HSE_GPSData@doh.state.fl.us.

Remember to attach both the text file containing the data and UDF file as well

Once that data is received here in Tallahassee, we will import it into our database. We will then use that data to create a draft survey and map of the area. This draft will contain a survey showing information on the risk source as well as the associated wells in the area that you GPS’d as well as a map of the area based off the same data. The two following slides will give a closer look at both the survey and the map.

This is a closer look at the draft survey. The top left section contains information on the request such as the address, facility ID, and due date for the request. The top right section has location information for the request such as its latitude and longitude, the GPS date, the number of wells that were in the area, and an investigator signature line. The rest of the survey below is dedicated to the wells that are located in the area. Each well will have a record listed below showing its FLUWID, it’s address information, and a section asking for information regarding the sampling of the well.

This is a closer look at the draft map. The information at the top is similar to the information at the top of the draft survey. It has address information, latitude and longitude, a well count, as well as an investigator signature line. The map below that will show the risk source, the wells, and a ¼ mile and a ½ mile buffer shown in red.

Counties will have to fill out these surveys, provide us with any information that needs to be changed on the surveys, and sign these surveys. In the past, this was done via email and the fax machine, but that method is now obsolete. We now complete this process via Laserfiche.

Well, what is Laserfiche? It’s an electronic document management software that allows you to archive all sorts of electronic documents. I like to think of it as a giant electronic file cabinet that can be easily organized and accessed. We have recently purchased a web component of the software that will allow users to access Laserfiche via a web browser. This web component is the key to integrating Laserfiche into the well survey request process. We can make the draft surveys and maps, place them into Laserfiche, and the counties can then access them via a web browser and fill them out by adding annotation to the surveys. This process will be described in detail over the next several slides

The first thing you will see when accessing Laserfiche via a web browser is the login screen. This is where you will put in your username and password. These usernames and passwords are unique to Laserfiche and are NOT you network username and password. If you don’t have a login, contact me and I will set one up for you.

Once you are logged in, you will be at the main page. You should see a series of folders listed on both sides of the divider. This is the basic folder structure. It works just like Windows Explorer does. If you click on a folder on the left side, the contents of that folder will show up on the right side. You will see a number of folders listed, but for this presentation we will mainly deal the “County Working Files” folder.

One of the first steps you should take is to change the display of the template fields. It will automatically default to “none” but if you go to Settings, then choose Display Template Fields, and choose Well Surveillance Form, it will now be set up properly.

Now let’s take a look at your County Working Files Folder. If you double click on the County Working Files on the left side, it should expand to show at least two folders: The county (or counties) you work in, and a trash can folder. Double click on your county folder, and the surveys contained within that folder should show up on the right.

If you double click on one of the draft surveys in your folder, it should open up in a NEW browser window. It will look just like the draft survey and map shown earlier in this presentation. The request information will be at the top, and there will be a record for each well within the area listed below that. Also, if you scroll through the pages, you will find the map. We will need you to review this survey, correct any changes that need to be made, and sign this survey. I’ll show you how to do this over the next few slides.

The fundamental way for you to convey information using this system is via the Sticky Note Tool. If you look at the top of browser window, you will see a number of buttons. Look for the one that looks like a 3M sticky note pad with a thumbtack on it. If you click this button, your mouse will turn into this same icon.

After you’ve clicked the sticky note tool, click on the first well record listed and two things should happen: First, you should see that it placed one of these sticky notes exactly where you clicked. Second, a text box should appear at the left of the browser window entitled “Sticky Note 1”. This text box will be where you type in the information. For every well record listed on the survey you need to place a sticky note stating the date that you sampled the well or a reason why you didn’t sample the well. For example, once you place a sticky note on the first well record, you could type either the date you sampled the well or a reason you didn’t (such as “Unable to obtain permission” or “Well was inactive”). Once again, we need at least one sticky note for every well listed. However, sticky notes are not limited to just providing sample information. You can use them if the address looks incorrect, or if the well type is incorrect, etc….Just make sure that if something is incorrect, let us know what we need to fix via the sticky note.

Once you’re done placing sticky notes on the survey, we need you to fill out the Fields section. You should see the word “Fields” right above the heading for the sticky note text boxes. Click there and a number of fields should pop up. These fields are basic fields associated with the request such as Facility ID, Facility Name, Address, etc… Fill out all of these fields.

The most important field out of all is the Status field. Once you are done placing the sticky notes and filling out the fields on the left, click directly onto the field and you should get a dropdown list. Choose “Completed by County” from that list. This lets us know which surveys have been reviewed and completed by the counties without having to open each one up and see if any work has been done.

The final step involved in completing a draft survey in Laserfiche is signing it. To do this, you will need to create an electronic signature for Laserfiche. I won’t go into how to do this in this presentation, however whenever you get a Laserfiche username and password from me I’ll also send you a document explaining how to create that signature. Once the signature is created, all you have to do is add it to the survey and to the map. To do this, click on the button just to the right of the sticky note button. This is the Stamp button. Once you click here, you should get a dialog box to pop up with a “Browse” button. Click on the Browse button.

You should now get a “Choose File” dialog box that opens. Use this dialog box to navigate to your electronic signature on your hard drive. Double click it and then if you click on the Investigator Signature line at the top of the draft survey, it will place your signature on the line. Once again, do this for both the survey and the map once you’re satisfied with all of the changes you have made.

You should now get a “Choose File” dialog box that opens. Use this dialog box to navigate to your electronic signature on your hard drive. Double click it and then if you click on the Investigator Signature line at the top of the draft survey, it will place your signature on the line. Once again, do this for both the survey and the map once you’re satisfied with all of the changes you have made.

The last thing you want to do is save all of your changes that you made. Do this by clicking the Save button at the top left of the survey. You can now close out this survey. It is now completed and will be moved out of your county folder within a couple of days.

Let’s go back to the weekly report we discussed earlier. We’ve already discussed section one of that report. Well section two of that report will show you which are currently in your County Working Files folder awaiting your review. If you’re positive that you’ve already completed a particular survey and it keeps showing up in the second section of this report, please contact me.

Although we only discussed the County Working Files Folder in Laserfiche, there are a number of other documents located there that are listed on the slide. Keep in mind that the Archived Draft Surveys are the surveys that you filled out and signed while the Archived Completed Surveys are the surveys that were generated based off of your changes and sent to DEP.

So let’s get back to the overall process of these requests. Once you fill out the surveys and mark them “Completed by County”, they are removed from your county folder and placed into our QA process. Once there, we perform a number of steps. First, we make the changes you suggested via the sticky notes. Then we add the sample data you collected to the surveys once we receive it from the lab and then generate a finalized survey and map showing your suggested changes and the sample data. Due to the fact that it may take a few weeks for us to receive sample data from the lab, these requests will typically sit in our QA process for some time. However, once the finalized survey and map are complete, it is sent off to DEP

Section three of the weekly report will show you which requests of yours are currently in our QA process. If we need your input on any of these requests, we will email you with the question and we might move the survey back into your county folder so you can provide us with any necessary information.

Once the survey is sent to DEP it is then archived in Laserfiche. Once again, the draft survey that you filled out and signed is placed in the Draft requests folder and is never sent to DEP. The survey we make based off of your changes and that shows the sample data is archived in the Facilities folder. That is the survey that goes to DEP. You can access that survey at anytime once it’s been sent through the Facilities folder and print it for your records.

Thank you for your time. If you have any questions feel free to email me or call me at 850-245-444 x2159 or Suncom 205-4444 x2159.