Addy the Environmentalist in Training

If you get your water from a private well, you may assume that your water is clean and safe to drink. However, in order for your well water to be suitable for you and your family, you need to do some things to protect your water supply:

Regularly Check the Well Casing

The well casing should always be intact. Inspecting it regularly from time to time will ensure that it is not corroding, cracking, or damaged in some way. However, if you have been mowing, shoveling or raking near the casing, you may have accidentally cracked it as you were working.

Make sure that you keep the area around the well casing clear of leaves and other debris so that you don't accidentally hit it, and so that contaminants have a lower chance of causing corrosion or infiltrating the casing even if it is cracked or damaged in some way. If the casing is damaged, you need to contact a water well drilling contractor to fix or replace it.

Test Your Water When You Have the Well Cleaned

Periodic tests of the water in your well will help you become aware of bacteria, nitrates and other things that could be harmful to your drinking water. Some people advocate putting hypochlorite granules or bleach into your well to disinfect the water, but that could be a mistake. That's because, at times, water tests can generate false positives for contaminants because the well itself is the problem. If you are constantly putting bleach into your well to clean the water and the well itself is dirty, you could be causing problems for your water supply.

Have a water well drilling contractor come out to clean the well and then test the water so that you get an accurate picture of how clean the water really is. The contractor can help you do the water tests, and if there is a problem with your water, they can suggest solutions to remedy the situation. In some cases, that will mean drilling a new well.

Avoid Using Contaminants Near the Well

As part of your daily life, you may use chemicals for different home projects. For example, you may mix paint or fertilize your lawn. However, these chemicals can infiltrate the soil and the well. Be careful to do all your work with chemicals far away from the well to avoid problems.

With the tips in this article, you can make sure that your water well supply is safe for your family. Talk to a local well water drilling contractor like Schneider Water Services about more ways to protect the quality of water that comes from your well.