Protect Your Well and Solve One Coliform Problem-$100

My Well

I received a comment/question on my blog that said: “There is a hole in the half moon well plate thru which one can pour Clorox if needed. It is (usually) plugged, but the plug on my well plate was missing and (apparently, from the smell) an animal crawled in and died... (I tried) 2 heavy treatments with pool chlorine (10%), (but it just) stopped the smell for 6 days. “

What the writer describes is not a well cap appropriate for a drinking water well. It may be a well seal also known as a split caps and are used for venting a well, with the hole he refers to is not for putting chlorine in a well, but is an air vent. These types of caps are not suitable for outdoor use if it is even a sanitary well cap. A sanitary split cap is only appropriate for indoor use in an enclosed well house or basement. Sanitary split caps are usually equipped with a threaded hole, instead of a plug where an air vent should be installed. However, the writer describes his well cap as having a “half-moon well pate.” A properly sealed well does not have any kind of half-moon well plate. There is a type of well cap used on monitoring well with a port, but these were never intended for drinking water well. Also, a long time ago, there were wells where they used to drip oil or lubricant into the well, but that has not been done in decades. The caps on those wells were just ports.

I was very sorry to read the writer’s story because fixing the problem is going to cost thousands of dollars. To restore drinkable water the writer is going to have to clean out the well or if cleaning proves ineffective, the well will have to be replaced to restore drinkable water to the home. It is much simpler to install a sanitary well cap than to fix a problem like the one described by the writer. For want of a $100 sanitary well cap the well was probably ruined. A “well professional” he called said that in his twenty years of experience it was the worst smelling water he had ever come across. That comment convinced me it wasn't hydrogen sulfide, but indeed dead animal(s), though chlorination will alleviate a hydrogen sulfide smell for a while it is not always easy to diagnose a problem by email or even smell, testing the well water to be certain can be expensive, also . It is much simpler to maintain your well and cap then resolve a problem like the one the writer described.

example of a sanitary well cap

A sanitary well cap is also called a vermin proof cap for good reason. Standard well caps usually have screws around the side that hold a one-piece cap onto the top of the well casing (pipe). This allows insects, small animals like mice or surface water to enter the well. If you a single piece cap or any kind of cap with a plug or plate, replace it now! If the well cap does not properly seal the well, insects or vermin can crawl through gaps around the casing or through unscreened vents or open holes and build a nest inside the well casing and cap in the wire tangle at the top. Bacteria can reach unhealthy levels when enough droppings or dead bodies fall into the well water- long before the water smells or tastes bad. Once the smell is really noticeable the well may be beyond repair. In case you do not know, groundwater fills the spaces between rocks, sand and dirt. It is hardly ever a flowing body of water. The well is drilled into the ground and generally lined with pipe for the first 50 feet. Below that, it is a borehole in the rocks that fills with water from fractures which are way too small to allow dead bodies (even insect bodies) to flow through. The dead animal or animals came down from the top of the well and that is the only way to clear a well.

There are two basic methods for cleaning a well—mechanical and chemical. Generally a combination of the two is the most effective approach and the trick is finding a company qualified and with the equipment to perform the work. The universe of “well professionals” is a mixed one. Someone who understands pumps, piping and pressure tanks may have limited knowledge of geology and water chemistry or simply not have access to the right equipment. In many places anyone can call themselves a well professional. Even licensed well drillers and water system professionals have a limited range of knowledge and it can be tough to find someone who specializes in well restoration. In addition, if a well is too old and the steel casing is corroded it may not survive cleaning and you may end up replacing the well anyway. A water well system contractor who has both the training and equipment can help you decide which methods to use, depending on the condition of the well.

• Mechanical processes for and removing debris from the well include: pressurized air, steam or water; wire brushes or scrapers; agitation of water in the well; and sonic waves.
• Chemical cleaning often involves the use of various acids to loosen or dissolve debris so that it can be pumped out of the well. Depending on the nature of the cleaning job, there are also polymers and “caustic” chemicals (like chlorine) to remove debris. Chlorine is great for disinfecting, but not necessarily for cleaning or ridding a well of a dead animal or animals.

The age, condition and construction of a well will determine which methods can be used to clean it. If a well’s water intake areas or the well casing have corroded significantly over time, they may be damaged or destroyed by more aggressive cleaning practices. In such cases, it is probably best to save your money and proceed directly to drilling a new well. Well cleaning should be followed immediately by a thorough disinfection of the well system and should be completed by the water well contractor to ensure that it is done properly. Make sure you work with a qualified water well system contractor/driller who is licensed and qualified and has experience cleaning wells (or drilling new ones) in your area. Knowledge of local geology is important.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates public water systems. However, the responsibility for ensuring the safety and consistent supply of water from the 21 million private wells belongs to the well owner. A properly sealed well cap protects against all types of contamination. It is the first line of protection against pollution and contamination of your well. If you drill a well or own one, make sure your well has a sanitary well cap, which is a two piece cap with a rubber gasket seal between the two pieces. The rubber seal is the key component for keeping vermin, bug and environmental pollutants out of the well. A Sanitary well cap also has a vent screen, or more likely two vented screens between the gasket and the electrical wiring (conduit) port. A vented screen is necessary to equalize the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the well as the water is pumped, so you do not create a vacuum and draw dirt and contaminants into the well.

from Montana Water Quality District

Well caps keep out insects and vermin that prefer a dark, damp environment to nest and prevent surface pollutants from entering the well. Insects can cause major problems in a well. Bacteria levels of the water can rise from their droppings, and sometimes the bugs themselves can get trapped in the wells, die, and decompose in the well water. So, the first thing you should do as a well owner is make sure you have a sanitary well cap and the gasket and screens are in good condition, and the cap is properly bolted. Check your well a couple of times a year to make sure the cap remains sound.

My cast iron sanitary well cap was only nine years old when I decided to replace it with a cast aluminum well cap. The gasket had deteriorated and the rust on the well cap was preventing me from getting a good seal, so I replaced it.  The next thing you should do is make sure that the ground surface slopes sway from the well casing in all directions to keep surface water from flowing down the well pipe. The grouting does deteriorate over time (especially if you hit it with the lawn mower) and keeping water away from the well head helps prevent contamination. The well in the stone surround at the top is my well. The well is too close to the driveway. The stone surround and an adjustment to the driveway slope directs water from the drive down slope and the stone surround keeps people from backing into the well when they turn around.

A neighbor of mine had coliform bacteria (but not fecal coliform or E. coli) appear in their well. They replaced their well cap and repacked the soil around the well area so snow melt and rain would not flow to the well head. Though, their well had been grouted at construction, grout flaws and failure from damage (hitting the well with the lawn mower or the UPS truck backing up for instance) can undermine the seal that the grout provides. It is not possible to grout or re-grout an existing well. However, these two simple steps- a new well cap and packing the soil around the well area so water flows away from the well solved their problem, The continued effectiveness of the solution was confirmed at the county water clinic this past spring. Of course my neighbors knew they had a problem because they tested their well regularly to make sure the water was safe to drink. You are your own water supply company. You need to take care of your well and test your water – not once, but regularly.

Prince William County the Retirement Mecca that will Survive Climate Change

The climate of the earth is constantly changing. Scientific studies have indicated that over the past century the earth has warmed 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This warming is not particularly alarming in itself given our planetary history, but the speed of this temperature increase and the fact that the warming is projected to continue at an accelerated pace is worrisome. The planetary warming is forecast to cause sea levels to rise due to melting of sea ice in parts of the world, and changes in weather and patterns and precipitation. If carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere are the driving force in earth’s temperature that many scientists believe, then these trends are likely to continue. On a whole earth basis the climate models show at this point there is nothing that we can do to stop global warming and climate change.

As the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere increase, the warming produced by the greenhouse gas effect is strengthened. Computer modeling of the climate predicts that there will be feedbacks that significantly increase the impact from the increasing CO2. Even if the concentration of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere were to stabilize at this level, the changes in the climate of the earth in response to the atmospheric CO2 levels would continue for hundreds of years. In reality, the global emissions of CO2 will not stabilize or decrease any time soon and will continue to rise for at least a generation. What is going to happen will happen, so we need to plan for change and make decisions for the next 30-50 years based on likely outcomes.

It is my plan to live for another 40 years. My relatives do pretty well and I am an optimist and a “real food” and exercise devotee. So when it came time to select a place to live in retirement, climate change was one of the factors taken into consideration- water availability, distance from the coast, elevation, along with proximity to family, medical service and an airport and several other factors. Now, I find myself in northwest Prince William County a place that the Washington Post recently described as becoming “a regional retirement mecca, a small-scale version of Florida on the outskirts of Washington.” I made my choices based to a large extent on general projections of climate released by various groups, not having the tools or resources to do much more.

Now, however, the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB) has completed a study in water supply availability and the health of the Potomac Watershed for various climate scenarios. The focus of their study was the Potomac River, which supplies water to the Washington Aqueduct, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), and Fairfax Water who all funded the study. The Potomac River supplies 78% of the regions drinking water and the water utilities of the region must plan for the future. In addition, there must be adequate flow of the Potomac below Little Falls to ensure that the balance of saline and fresh water for the health of the Chesapeake Bay estuary. So, on the water rate payer’s nickel I get to see what the future might look like here in in Prince William County.

The National Research Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) actually performed the study using six of the global climate models and three atmospheric CO2 scenarios to create 18 separate possible scenarios. The USGS then “downscaled” the 18 global climate predictions to the Potomac River basin and to other areas as part of a separate project on climate change being conducted by the Chesapeake Bay Program Office and the USGS’s Virginia Water Science Center (your tax dollars at work). In addition, the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Phase 5 Watershed Model was used to estimate the impact of changing temperatures and precipitation on Potomac basin stream flows.

The most advanced types of models currently being used to project future global climate are general circulation models (GCMs). A GCM is a numerical model which represents the important physical, chemical, and biological processes on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, and/or in oceanic systems that affect climate. The USGS used models from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (USA), Norway, Australia, Russia and Japan as listed in the chart below.

From ICPRB publication

In addition, the three CO2 emissions scenarios were based on IPCC’s Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (IPCC, 2007c). The USGS used relatively low emissions (B1), medium emissions (A1B), and high emissions (A2) temperature forecasts for each model to create the 18 scenarios.

IPCC Climate Change 2007

There is tremendous uncertainty in projecting the future climate of the earth, especially at the regional scale. Though global climate models are continually being refined and improved, they do not capture complexity of the interrelations of earth’s land, water, and atmospheric systems that we do not yet fully understand. Local nuisances can be lost in the broad sweeps of mathematical modeling of a living system. Scientific confidence in global model projections is higher for temperature than for precipitation, higher for global scales rather than small regional scales, and higher for longer time frames than shorter ones. Nonetheless, with all those disclaimers, the USGS did get some predictions out of their 18 scenarios.

Though it is predicted by the climate models that precipitation will increase on a global scale, when dealing with only the Potomac River basin, the models differed on whether precipitation will increase or decrease. The models project that the total annual precipitation varies from plus 9% to minus 9% or that the rainfall/ snowmelt that averaged 42.2 inches during the reference period (1988-1999) may stay within 4 inches of that average. Though, it is to be noted, that year to year weather variations in rainfall in the region are large, precipitation has varied from over 80 inches to below 20 inches in the past. Also, in the 18 climate scenarios, the increase in annual average temperature by 2040 increases for the area from 1.3 to 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit when compared with the reference period of 1988 to 1999. The average increase, over all scenarios is 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. (These temperature predictions were the basis of the energy savings and water savings projects for my home that were geared for a slightly warmer, drier climate, though I am still hoping for wetter.)

Though annual rainfall increases in half of the climate change scenarios, flow in the Potomac River falls in most scenarios. Changes in both temperature and precipitation affect stream flows. Changes in rain or snow affect the amount of water that runs off the land surface and enters streams during rainfall. Precipitation also affects the amount of water recharging groundwater aquifers, which are the primary source of stream flow during dry weather periods. Increasing temperatures will cause more rain to be lost to evaporation from the soil, streams, and will increase transpiration, the water released to the atmosphere by plants. These increases in evaporation and transpiration will tend to reduce flow in streams which in turn reduces flow in the Potomac. With rising population, this could require changes in water use and supply for the area and reduce groundwater availability for private well owners like me.

Average annual basin-wide evaporation and transpiration is predicted to increase by 6-8%. Groundwater recharge decreases under all but three of the climate scenarios, and as I watch the statistically low water level in the monitoring well up the road, I worry about my well water supply. According to study results, the seasonal pattern of groundwater recharge does not change significantly under climate change, with January, February, and March remaining the months of greatest recharge. However, the average annual amount of groundwater that provides base flow to streams and the water in my well, is predicted to decrease in 16 out of the 18 scenarios by as much as 34% in one case.

Results for the 18 climate scenarios fell into three categories: minor impact, moderate impact, and major impact. The biggest impact is the ability of the regional water utilities to continue to supply water on demand during droughts as the climate changes. Six of the scenarios are predicted to have little impact on the system during a moderate drought and the projected population of the region can be supplied with drinking water from the Potomac River and current systems and operations. Six of the climate change scenarios fall into the “moderate impact” category. Under these scenarios the region is predicted to experience more frequent and stricter water use restrictions, but no water supply shortages during a moderate drought. Reservoir levels are predicted to fall to significantly lower levels during a drought than would occur in the absence of climate change with the projected and assumed increase in population.

However, the remaining six climate change scenarios are scary. Under these dreadful six scenarios, unless we make changes in the water supply systems we run out of water. These scenarios predict that both mandatory and emergency water use restrictions would be imposed and most system reservoirs would become empty or close to empty during a moderate drought. In addition, these six scenarios predict on some days of the drought the Potomac River would fail to provide sufficient water to meet demand and environmental needs. Our regional water utilities: The Washington Aqueduct, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), and Fairfax Water working together with the ICPRB can make changes to the structure and operation of the water supply system to make it more robust. The Potomac River will continue to supply water to the region, we will have to use it more wisely to ensure adequate water supply in the future, but there will be water.  Clearly though, development in the groundwater recharge zones (mostly the Rural Crescent in Prince William County) and open areas needs to be limited to protect the groundwater and stream base flow that supplies our water.