According to the Illinois State Water Survey, poor well construction is the leading cause of contaminated or unsafe water wells. Your first defense against contaminated or unsafe drinking water is a properly constructed well. If you already have an old well, then you need to bring it up to code to ensure that it is safe. There is a difference between trying to fix your existing water supply and deciding to buy a home on a well.
If you are buying a home you need to make sure that the well is constructed properly and that the groundwater that is drawn into the home is safe to drink. Though there are many treatment options to fix contaminated water, you might not want to buy problematic water. If you are buying a house, you need to make sure that you will have an adequate and safe water supply. This is not the same thing as strategies to live with diminished well yield or fixing your existing water quality problems. This is your one chance to make sure the water supply to the home is acceptable before you buy the home. Wells issues are buyer beware, there is no recourse after you buy the home.
In Virginia the local Health District, a branch office of the Virginia Department of Health administers the health related laws throughout the state including the well laws. The current sate wide well construction regulations and standards were implemented in 1992 and are still in effect today. When a well is drilled in Virginia the only water testing that takes place is for a coliform bacteria. This is fairly typical, but inadequate.There are many chemicals and naturally occurring contaminants that could make water unpalatable or unhealthy. None of these are tested for under well regulations.
When the well regulations were implemented in 1992, all existing wells were grandfathered. So in Virginia you do not want to buy a home with a well built before 1992. If the well was drilled before 1992 don’t buy the house unless you have factored well replacement into the price; and are sure there is another location acceptable to the Health District to drill a new well. If a property has a well and septic system and has less than 2-3 acres, do not buy it. This is simple there will not be enough room for a replacement well and septic system when the time comes (all systems fail eventually) and the well is likely to be too close to the home’s own or the neighbors’ and will probably have climbing levels of nitrate/nitrite. The health impacts of nitrate/ nitrite are just beginning to be fully understood. Also, be aware that not every hole drilled yields a viable well.
Most states require a permit to drill a well and well drillers to be licensed. Make sure you know what that means in your location. In Virginia that is a decent standard, but in Pennsylvania anyone with $60 can get a well driller license, there are no minimum training or knowledge required there. There are still a few locations where a shallow dug well does not require a permit or license. Know these things when you go looking for a house with a well.
Do not ever buy a house with a shallow dug well. This type of well is the first to dry out in a drought and very susceptible to pollution. In the old days those types of wells could be hand dug. Also, they were sometimes used where there was not an easily accessible aquifer to serve as a collector of shallow groundwater. All modern drilled wells should have a well log on file with the local regulators. In Virginia that is the local Health District.
The log will have various details like depth; the types of soil encountered and water zones, the static water level at the time of completion and yield. Depth of the casing and screens are also reported. A knowledgeable person should be able to tell you a lot about your well from the log. Look at the well’s location. The area of the well should be up-gradient of and far away from any potential nearby sources of pollution like a septic field and water should flow away from the well head and comply with regulatory separation requirements for things like property lines, septic systems, foundations, etc.
You need to have all the components of a well examined. The well casing should extend at least 12 inches above the ground surface and should not have any cracks or holes. The well should have a sanitary well cap that is securely attached to the well casing. The pump should be submerged in the well. Make sure you know the age of the pump- submersible pumps are designed to last about 17 years with normal household use. The pressure tank and wiring should be examined for age and damage. It is also very important to know what household water treatment equipment is installed in the house. You need to know what is the quality of the groundwater and the household drinking water.
You must test the water quality and no, the coliform bacteria test mortgage companies typically require are not even close to enough. In Virginia the Rural Household Water Quality program operated by Extension Offices holds water clinics and tests for: iron, manganese, nitrate, lead, arsenic, fluoride, sulfate, pH, total dissolved solids, hardness, sodium, copper, total coliform bacteria and E. Coli bacteria. This is a good list for ongoing testing,but for purchase you might want to look for other contaminants, too. At purchase you might want to test for contaminates of a potential local concern, but that is hard to know if you are moving. So instead you might want a water test that looks at all the primary and secondary contaminants regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as pesticides. These chemicals and substances were included in the Safe Drinking Water Act because they were found to be a widespread concern for public drinking water.
Test kits for this suite of contaminants exist, and can be easily purchased on-line. An example is the WaterCheck Deluxe plus pesticides test kit from National Testing Laboratories which is an EPA certified laboratory. Buying a package reduces the cost though the drawback is these packages are performed at a lower sensitivity then is used by the public utility. If there is water treatment equipment in the house you will need two test kits to test both before and after the treatment equipment to understand the quality of the groundwater, the quality of the drinking water, if treatment is necessary, and if the water treatment equipment is working properly. You need all this information to make a fully informed decision. Though just about any contamination problem can be managed with enough equipment and effort, this may not be what you want to purchase- someone else’s problems and the resulting water may not be to your liking. When I purchased my home with a well, I made sure that the untreated water directly from the well was acceptable to me.
Determining the Well Yield/Flow to verify that the water supply is adequate and in late summer you will be able to do laundry and shower on the same day. The rule of thumb is 5 gallons/minute is an adequate yield to supply on-demand water for a typical household. Do not buy a house with a cistern, which is a water storage tank usually installed because the well is very low yielding. Be aware that over time the yield of most wells fall and what was an adequate well 20 years ago may not be now. In addition, a low yielding well may be drying out after 20 years. Have a licensed well driller test the yield of the well.
The next best proxy to pulling the pump and measuring the well yield is to turn on the outside hoses (away from the house-Do not use a sink because you will flood your septic system) and run them for a few hours. The flow rate of a hose is dependent on the diameter (there is more than one), the pressure most pressure tanks provide 30-40 psi and the length of the hose (the pressure falls in a longer hose). So use a 5 gallon bucket and see how long it takes to fill. My 50 foot hose flows at about 4 gallons a minute. So every hour that the hose runs represents about 150 feet of storage depth in the well. Basically, after a few hours you know that the well is recharging faster than the hose is running. This simple test will tell you if the well yield is adequate to support a household. Most households can live easily on a well that recharges at 5-6 gallons a minute. Ten gallons a minute is the typical pump rate. Do not mistake the pump rate for the well recharge rate. If the recharge rate is faster than the pump rate, you can run the hoses all night and not notice any change in water supply to the house.
You need to have all the components of a well examined. The well casing should extend at least 12 inches above the ground surface and should not have any cracks or holes. The well should have a sanitary well cap that is securely attached to the well casing. The pump should be submerged in the well. Make sure you know the age of the pump- submersible pumps are designed to last about 17 years with normal household use. The pressure tank and wiring should be examined for age and damage. It is also very important to know what household water treatment equipment is installed in the house. You need to know what is the quality of the groundwater and the household drinking water.
You must test the water quality and no, the coliform bacteria test mortgage companies typically require are not even close to enough. In Virginia the Rural Household Water Quality program operated by Extension Offices holds water clinics and tests for: iron, manganese, nitrate, lead, arsenic, fluoride, sulfate, pH, total dissolved solids, hardness, sodium, copper, total coliform bacteria and E. Coli bacteria. This is a good list for ongoing testing,but for purchase you might want to look for other contaminants, too. At purchase you might want to test for contaminates of a potential local concern, but that is hard to know if you are moving. So instead you might want a water test that looks at all the primary and secondary contaminants regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as pesticides. These chemicals and substances were included in the Safe Drinking Water Act because they were found to be a widespread concern for public drinking water.
Test kits for this suite of contaminants exist, and can be easily purchased on-line. An example is the WaterCheck Deluxe plus pesticides test kit from National Testing Laboratories which is an EPA certified laboratory. Buying a package reduces the cost though the drawback is these packages are performed at a lower sensitivity then is used by the public utility. If there is water treatment equipment in the house you will need two test kits to test both before and after the treatment equipment to understand the quality of the groundwater, the quality of the drinking water, if treatment is necessary, and if the water treatment equipment is working properly. You need all this information to make a fully informed decision. Though just about any contamination problem can be managed with enough equipment and effort, this may not be what you want to purchase- someone else’s problems and the resulting water may not be to your liking. When I purchased my home with a well, I made sure that the untreated water directly from the well was acceptable to me.
Determining the Well Yield/Flow to verify that the water supply is adequate and in late summer you will be able to do laundry and shower on the same day. The rule of thumb is 5 gallons/minute is an adequate yield to supply on-demand water for a typical household. Do not buy a house with a cistern, which is a water storage tank usually installed because the well is very low yielding. Be aware that over time the yield of most wells fall and what was an adequate well 20 years ago may not be now. In addition, a low yielding well may be drying out after 20 years. Have a licensed well driller test the yield of the well.
The next best proxy to pulling the pump and measuring the well yield is to turn on the outside hoses (away from the house-Do not use a sink because you will flood your septic system) and run them for a few hours. The flow rate of a hose is dependent on the diameter (there is more than one), the pressure most pressure tanks provide 30-40 psi and the length of the hose (the pressure falls in a longer hose). So use a 5 gallon bucket and see how long it takes to fill. My 50 foot hose flows at about 4 gallons a minute. So every hour that the hose runs represents about 150 feet of storage depth in the well. Basically, after a few hours you know that the well is recharging faster than the hose is running. This simple test will tell you if the well yield is adequate to support a household. Most households can live easily on a well that recharges at 5-6 gallons a minute. Ten gallons a minute is the typical pump rate. Do not mistake the pump rate for the well recharge rate. If the recharge rate is faster than the pump rate, you can run the hoses all night and not notice any change in water supply to the house.
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