A frequently asked question we get is, “what should I
do to maintain my well system at home?”
Often many home owners move into a house with a well and are concerned
because they never had to deal with their own water supply.
In general wells are easy to maintain if you follow a few simple
guidelines.
First, you must know the condition of your water supply, i.e., have
access to a well analysis report or have one done to determine baseline
water quality. With this information, it is relatively easy to correct
most well problems just as municipal suppliers do.
The four most common well problems are:
- Coli form bacteria
- Low pH
- High iron
- Arsenic
There are of, course, many other contaminants that are
possibly present, but they are not routinely found.
The treatment for these common problems is straight forward.
Coli form bacteria is often found in wells because the well
screen, located at the bottom of the well shaft becomes contaminated,
either through the well installation itself, or leakage from some
outside source into the well shaft, such as a septic system located
close by the well.
Unfortunately the well screen material is a good media for growing this
bacterium.
The universally accepted treatment for this is a direct chlorination of
the well shaft with disinfectants such as common pool shock.
In fact, to maintain a healthy well with respect to all bacteria
problems it is recommended that this be done once a year.
A common complaint with wells is an unpleasant rotten egg smell. This is
primarily due to bacteria called sulfate reducing bacteria. Chlorination
also eliminates this.
A mistake is to listen to water treatment companies trying to sell
carbon filtration as a cure to remove ‘sulfur’. Carbon is a good food
source for bacteria so after a while the problem with odor is much
worse. Carbon is a great filtration material for chemical removal when
used properly.
Treatment for high iron is usually taken care of by a common water
softener. In most cases this is all that is needed. However there is a
slight catch. Iron comes in two forms—ferrous, and ferric.
Ferric is less common but more difficult to remove. Ferrous is easily
removed by the softener. Both forms of iron can cause those nasty rust
stains in fixtures. Ferric iron can be removed with a softener as well,
but it must have another device called an acid neutralizer placed inline
before it. The acid neutralizer’s main function is to raise pH and this
effect helps the softener become more efficient in iron removal.
Once the common problems with well water have been addressed, the well
owner may elect to have further inexpensive treatment measures installed
for purifying water, or as a safe guard against possible contamination
from outside sources.
One of the things we mentioned earlier was carbon filtration. There are
many inexpensive carbon filtration systems on the market which do an
excellent job of removing trace contaminants such as pesticides heavy
metals like lead, and volatile organic compounds, like benzene, which
have been linked to cancers. In fact with a point of use system
installed, you can actually produce water of a higher quality than
bottled water, at a price many times less per gallon.
People with well water should realize is that taking care of their water
supply is easy when you know what to do. Actually private wells can be
the best water supply simply because the owner can control the quality
of water more effectively than some municipal systems. Remember that
city water is distributed through a large network of water mains, which
often are quite old and may possibly be breached in places allowing
water to become contaminated after it leaves the treatment facility.
Without testing the water, the user does not know this. Also, municipal
supplies are sometimes contaminated with low levels of various materials
which are allowed to be in the supply at any given time.
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