Water Well Questions

[Grimm]

I have been looking at a property that has a deep water well. Now I have questions since I have never had to deal with a water well before.

• Potential contaminants
• Testing water table depth
• How to find a licensed professional to do these tests
• And a lawyer when purchasing rural property

Any thing else I should know or find out before buying property with a water well? I am aware rural areas are notorious for having farm chemicals from long distances leeching into ponds, creeks, wells, rivers and the water table etc.

Books, website, etc are needed and most appreciated!

 

[Curmudgeon]

Any thing else I should know or find out before buying property with a water well?

One thing to consider is local government rules and regs whether it be state, county, township etc.. For instance, the next county over from us requires a certified well and septic inspection upon the sale of a property.

Potential contaminants

In some states you can send samples to the state and they will test them for you, it helps them track statewide contaminants.

 

[Caribou]

The owner will probably have the information for you. To test the depth of your well slowly drop a weight till you feel water, mark your line, lower the weight till you hit bottom, mark your line. Haul your line out and measure your well depth and water depth. You want to draw your water about 10 feet from the bottom.

If you use a realtor they have water testing arrangements made already. Expect them to find some biologicals on the first test. They will treat the well and it should pass. They probably dumped a couple gallons of bleach down the well. I think it is a scam to get to charge you double. The realtor will come up with all sorts of fees. Bleaching a well and waiting to run water for three days might be a good idea anyway.

 

[rice paddy daddy]

Ask around to find out who the best well & pump companies are. Then, along with the other very good suggestions above, ask them to come out and inspect your well and pump.
We have used the same company for 20 years whenever we had any problems.

Our well is 250 feet deep and goes into the Florida Aquafer, which is water actually flowing through the limestone like rivers.
Very good water, but loaded with iron. So we have one pump that sucks the water up and sends it over to a 200 gallon aerator which removes quite a bit of the iron. Then another pump sends it to the house, horse stables, chicken yard and garden.

A good well & pump company will be able to answer many of your questions and tell you how to get your water tested.

 

[Cascadian]

When we purchased our property we had a stipulation that the water had to meet state drinking water standards in the offer.

 

[jazzy]

i have a water well and when i bought this place i sent water sample to local extension office and they ran tests. came back very good. i added a Simple Pump hand pump on it. but one thing i started to do is run all cooking and drinking water thru a berkey filter after seeing a report that all US aquifirs are contaminated with one thing or another. .

best of luck with your endeavor

 

[Grimm]

i have a water well and when i bought this place i sent water sample to local extension office and they ran tests. came back very good. i added a Simple Pump hand pump on it. but one thing i started to do is run all cooking and drinking water thru a berkey filter after seeing a report that all US aquifirs are contaminated with one thing or another. .

best of luck with your endeavor

We already use a Berkey for drinking and cooking water.

 

[backlash]

I had my well tested by a local company. It came back OK. Contact the county extension off to find out who will test it.
I got the records from the county for my well and it listed who drilled it, how deep is it, and the water test at the time of drilling.
If you discover there is a problem after you buy it will be expensive to fix so do your research before.

 

[sonya123]

I would insist on taking a sample myself to a reputable testing lab. Our county tested our spring water for $50 once ( lab was about $200 and this was 6 years ago).

You have to make sure they test for chemicals and not just bacteria and minerals only ( which is what most standard tests will do). You need to know levels of things like arsenic or pesticide both of which can be found in groundwater sometimes ( arsenic can be natural, pesticide from farm runoff). A small amount of ecoli above government standards is ok ( ours tested at about 80, gov standard is less than 10, average river is 5000) but you most likely won't have any in groundwater
If you get it tested post the results and I can tell you what it means
( I used to be a engineer and mostly I did water related stuff, my PE was water resources so while I am now retired from that, I can still give you some idea what's bad in water)
Also get with a geotech company or at least the local county to see what groundwater levels are so you don't have a well that will dry up every time it doesn't rain a lot and levels go down
How deep is the well? What type of casing does it have? Diameter?

 

[Spikedriver]

When I moved to an acreage some years ago, it had a shallow well (110 feet) with water under pressure naturally. The well had been inactive for about ten years. The water rose to about 6 feet below the surface. We dumped a pot full of bleach down the pipe and then pumped the entire column out, then pumped it out again. We took a sample to a private testing firm and found it had high quantities of iron and lime in it. It was in a limestone aquifer. However it was clear of chemical and biological contaminants. The testing firm was actually surprised at how clean it was and also not that hard. But the lime gave it a chalky taste and the iron stained anything you washed in it over time...

 

[Supervisor42]

I would insist on taking a sample myself to a reputable testing lab. Our county tested our spring water for $50 once (lab was about $200 and this was 6 years ago).

There's a lot to be said for that.
The county (guvment) will only test it to see if it is safe to drink (by 1962 standards).
A lab will tell you how much of what is in it.
Down here, well water is "safe" to drink...
People spent thousand$ on water-softener systems because the water was so hard, (fortified with 2 essential nutrients! ) that you couldn't even shower with it... And forget washing clothes in it too.

 

[Dani]

We have a well and the water has been tested as good, but I still boil just to be on the safe side when we use for human consumption, mainly when hurricanes/flooding happens here and our main water supply is not available. Other than that, it is mainly for the animals and we just turn on the faucets to refill. Cows have an automatic refill.

 

[montanabill]

What area are you in? The specs and cautions can vary widely.
We have a 100 ft well which I like since I can pump it with my 12 volt well pumps.

If you have children be very aware of nitrates....european limits are 3PPM and usa limits are 10ppm which if it is any higher babies are born blue from not breathing.

Our well has 5ppm and the mountain spring we get our drinking water from has .5ppm nitrates. By all means make sure your well is good before you buy property.......Most lending institutions won't lend money on property for a domicile that doesn't have a good water supply.

 

[Dani]

What area are you in? The specs and cautions can vary widely.
We have a 100 ft well which I like since I can pump it with my 12 volt well pumps.

If you have children be very aware of nitrates....european limits are 3PPM and usa limits are 10ppm which if it is any higher babies are born blue from not breathing.

Our well has 5ppm and the mountain spring we get our drinking water from has .5ppm nitrates. By all means make sure your well is good before you buy property.......Most lending institutions won't lend money on property for a domicile that doesn't have a good water supply.

Totally agree. You are apparently more inland that we are. We didn't have to drill 100 ft down.

 

[rice paddy daddy]

After 25 years of NE Florida well water, when I’m at work two towns down the line and drink city municipal water, I’m like “yuck!! This tastes like the south end of a northbound horse”.

 

[Solar Geek]

Here is the WI site. Look on your state and county sites. I also asked the testing labs for the list of all contaminants they could test for.

I worked in environmental law on hazardous waste issues. Worked on cases with Mercury, PCBs, and thousands of hazardous industrial chemicals in river systems, groundwater and fractured bedrock. Wished I had taken more science...

In WI the well information is public record and you should request it from the seller. We have our well tested annually.

For our well, We tested for about 10 hearvy metals, including arsenic, all the standard items, nitrites, nitrates, at least 10 farm related pesticides, herbicides, and such. Have your well tested for everything the Public Water Systems in your state must test for. I also looked up every "Superfund" site in WI (Federal and similarly listed State sites) to make sure I knew where they were in relation to our aquifer.
Here is a quote from a great WDNR site listing a ton of those we tested for.

"How can I find out if my water is safe to drink? All public water systems are required to notify consumers if any contaminant, including pesticides, is detected at concentrations above the maximum contaminant level (MCL). In addition, public water systems that serve residential populations are required to complete a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) each year. If you would like to view your community’s CCR, contact your local water supplier or visit the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) website at dnr.wi.gov.
Private well owners are responsible for the safety of their own water supply. As always, if you notice a change in taste, color or odor, you may want to use an alternate safe drinking water source until you can have your water tested. In addition, private well owners should have their water tested if they suspect pesticide contamination. There are a number of laboratories statewide that can provide drinking water sampling materials and instruction. A list of certified labs is available online at dnr.wi.gov or check your local yellow pages. What pesticides are most frequently found in contaminated drinking water? Based on Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection monitoring surveys, the most frequently detected pesticides in Wisconsin are: Chemical breakdown products of metolachlor (Dual). Atrazine and its chemical breakdown products. Chemical breakdown products of alachlor (Lasso)"

https://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/DG/DG0007.pdfHope this helps.

 

[montanabill]

Totally agree. You are apparently more inland that we are. We didn't have to drill 100 ft down.

I guess 4K ft elevation just on the east side of the continental divide here in montana is a little inland.
The wells around us are more like 250 ft depth. When we bought this place it had about 25 mature trees......since the area only gets about 12 inches of percip a year I knew the well had to have some water in it.
When drilled the well produced 15 gallons a minute but those figures can be fictitious when you try to run an irrigation system and suck your well dry. We are replacing the well pump and pressure tank this year just to be safe.

 

[Heartbroken]

Well depth and pump setting are extremely dependent on local geology and aquifer conditions. A blanket statement regarding where to set a pump or what constitutes a shallow well is meaningless if you don't have that context.
First step is to get the well record, which is likely available at the local health department. That will tell you how deep it is, what the lithology is, whether it is a rock well or a screened drift well, and if it is grouted. Go to the website for your local health department or state department of environment and read up on the current well code. That will answer a lot of questions. For instance, here in Michigan the well casing must be at least 25' deep, grouted the full length of the casing, and a minimum of 50' from the septic system. If it's an older well, it may not meet current standards, but that doesn't mean anything is wrong with it. You'll just have to investigate it's depth and construction, and make sure it doesn't have an open casing, an unprotected suction line, things like that.
Around here we have hundreds of 4" steel cased wells that were spudded in during the 70s that are still just fine. Mine is a 5" PVC rock well that was put in with rotary rig and I expect it will be viable for many decades.
A properly constructed and sealed well will not have bacteria in it, as it will be sourcing water from water that is too cold for the bacteria, and will not be susceptible to surface water infiltration.
There are many tests available, but start simple. The basic tests are for coliform bacteria, and what is called a partial chem, which will test for things like iron, nitrates, nitrites, chlorides, etc. Coliform is an indicator organism, it is easy and cheap to test for, and if it's there, then the second test is done to check for E. coli. Coliform bacteria is everywhere in the environment, but if it is found in drinking water it indicates that the well is susceptible to contamination and further checks are needed. Nitrates also indicate that the well or the aquifer is contaminated by either sewage/manure or fertilizers, and further checks are needed. So start with the basics before spending money on testing for the VOCs, SOCs, etc. Nitrates don't cause babies to be born blue, they can cause "blue baby syndrome" if nitrate laden water is used to make baby formula. The nitrate compounds have a higher affinity to the red blood cells than oxygen, and infant's bodies can't compensate, so they end up oxygen deprived.
It's best to avoid government whenever possible, but in this case the local health department can be useful. Call up and talk to a sanitarian, they can be a wealth of knowledge as the the typical types of wells in the area, any known problems with aquifers, and can give you a list of experienced well drillers in the area. It's also a good place to start with getting water samples, they can either take them for you, or provide the bottles for you to pull the samples and send them to the lab. They don't have a stake in the results.
Beware of the likes of Culligan or other water treatment type places, they're in the business to sell systems, not advise you on the well or water quality. I've seen hundreds of over-sold, completely unnecessary treatment installations by them. The worse they can make your water seem to be, the more they can sell.

 

[Wingnut]

Another thing to consider, and a fairly important one, I reckon... I was thinking of buying an Arizona property on 20 acres a while back, in the next valley to the east from the San Pedro Valley (where Benson & Tombstone are located). I think it was the 'Sulphur Springs Valley'---not a very inspirational name when you're looking at being on a well, lol. Anyway, there were several ag operations going on full-bore nearby, including a large dairy farm & multiple farming & orchard operations. THOSE companies had wells with big ol' bores, casings, whatever... and they were sucking mondo water out of the aquifer, which was already getting low due to over-development by greedy home building outfits.

My point here is this: if you're gonna buy a property with a well on it, you damned sure BETTER check the surrounding area and see who ELSE is sucking water out of that aquifer, AYE? I heard one corporate farming outfit had 16" casings or some such BS, I don't know that much about wells but I DO know that I don't wanna buy a property where corporate "neighbors" are sucking the aquifer DRY. Just my $.02 on the subject, I backed out of that home purchasing deal for that reason and a few others, lol. Good luck to ya! Joel Skousen mentions a website which lists all registered wells in every state? I'll try to find that info for ya manana, right now I'm on a priority mission to post up more shots from the White Mountains of Arizona, lol. CHEERS!!!

 

[montanabill]

My wife worked as a RN in neonatal intensive care and was involved with a lot of difficult births;
Here in montana the wells need to be registered. There also is a term called "call for water". Where if you have the oldest well and you can prove the water level is being drawn down by newer wells you can force the newer wells to lose their water right. I don't know of any current cases of this but the saying in montana is "Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over".
Their is also a term for a drink called "whiskey ditch" Meaning whiskey and some irrigation ditch water.
Nitrates bear on children's health and brain development as they mature. Here is a article about in utero affects.
https://publichealth.uic.edu/news-s...of nitrate in,the blood from carrying oxygen.

 

[Grimm]

What area are you in? The specs and cautions can vary widely.
We have a 100 ft well which I like since I can pump it with my 12 volt well pumps.

If you have children be very aware of nitrates....european limits are 3PPM and usa limits are 10ppm which if it is any higher babies are born blue from not breathing.

Our well has 5ppm and the mountain spring we get our drinking water from has .5ppm nitrates. By all means make sure your well is good before you buy property.......Most lending institutions won't lend money on property for a domicile that doesn't have a good water supply.

The property I am looking at is in NorthEast Texas. East of DFW area and close to the state border. It is close to a lake.

Where we are now is in SoCal and our water comes from a natural aquifer in the mountains. When we lived further up the mountain the water was pumped straight into the house. Now it goes to the water station and is "treated" before it gets to us. We filter it for cooking and drinking.

My dad has been pushing the idea of a RO system since that is what he and my mom use. They are 2 miles from the beach and I have no idea where their water comes from.

 

[montanabill]

The property I am looking at is in NorthEast Texas. East of DFW area and close to the state border. It is close to a lake.

Where we are now is in SoCal and our water comes from a natural aquifer in the mountains. When we lived further up the mountain the water was pumped straight into the house. Now it goes to the water station and is "treated" before it gets to us. We filter it for cooking and drinking.

My dad has been pushing the idea of a RO system since that is what he and my mom use. They are 2 miles from the beach and I have no idea where their water comes from.

There proba bly are lots of people from texas on this forum. Try to take advice from knowledgeable people who have lived in the area you are going to live in. Kind of like gardening advice.......the old timers know what works in their area.
RO systems need pressurized water to work. They also take many of the usefull minerals out of the water.....but that is better than getting sick.

 

[Grimm]

There proba bly are lots of people from texas on this forum. Try to take advice from knowledgeable people who have lived in the area you are going to live in. Kind of like gardening advice.......the old timers know what works in their area.
RO systems need pressurized water to work. They also take many of the usefull minerals out of the water.....but that is better than getting sick.

I am aware of the RO systems. I don't like them. The water at my folks place is tasteless. I end up drinking sparkling water when we visit. That is the only place I do. I like my Berkey to be honest.

I grew up near that part of Texas until 87. We were not on well water as the neighborhood was still being built up as a suburb of Dallas out by Rockwall.

 

[viking]

I had our spring water tested for nitrates, turned out to be free of them. Our water comes from cracks in the bedrock about two feet under the surface of the ground on the side of the mountain, the water tastes great and has a large amount of minerals in it, which really shows up when I make distilled water, after about six gallons made I have to use citric acid to clean out the accumulated minerals on the inside of the distiller. the distilled water is for our solar storage batteries and our friends' soap making.

 

[Mountain trapper]

My well is 650 feet deep in solid basalt. I dropped a 5hp pump down to the 625 foot level. It's got the best tasting water I've ever drank. No need to have it tested. The well is 1/4 mile from the house and is over a hill. I've got almost a half mile of buried water lines going to the house, garden and to several water troughs.
If there's any question as to the gpm, depth and quality of water have it tested before buying the property.