If your family gets drinking water from your own well, do you know if your water is safe to drink? What health risks could you and your family face?

Where can you go for help or advice? This article series helps answer these questions. It gives you general information about drinking water from home wells (also considered private drinking water sources).

It describes types of activities in your area that can create threats to your water supply. It also describes problems to look for and offers maintenance suggestions.

Watch out: in our photo above the well casing top was close to ground level and so loose that our inspection client could simply the whole well piping apparatus out of the ground, meaning that that there was also a risk of well water contamination.

Sources for more information and help are also listed. [Editing for clarity by DF are marked by brackets or italics] Initial Source: EPA 816-K-02-003 January 2002

Six Steps to Well Water Safety: What Should we Do to Make My Well Water Safe to Drink?

Listed below at CONTINUE READING or RECOMMENDED ARTICLES are the six basic steps you should take to maintain the safety of your drinking water.

[You'll notice that we have added additional sections to the original EPA information in between these 6 steps - I'd read them all --DF]

After the list you'll find "how to" suggestions for each point to help you protect your well and your drinking water.

Follow this well water safety advice by reading these steps in order, but also see our more detailed instructions on water testing and on correcting unsanitary water, shown at the left in these pages. Home buyers should beware of cheating on water tests as we've found this practice common in some areas.

There are ways to detect water test cheating, discussed

at CHEATING on WATER TESTS.

Don't panic if tests show that your water is contaminated. Most well contamination problems can be corrected, either by finding and preventing the problem source, or if that's too difficult, too costly, or too slow, water treatment and water purification equipment can be installed. Methods to fix water contamination problems are discussed in detail at beginning

at WATER TEST INTERPRETATION. - now Back to the EPA document: --DF]

Each of the links below describes the EPA-recommended water safety step.

 

...

Continue reading at PROTECT GROUND WATER from CONTAMINANTS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see this

Article series contents

• PROTECT GROUND WATER from CONTAMINANTS
• SIX STEPS to WELL WATER SAFETY
  • PROTECT GROUND WATER from CONTAMINANTS
  • 1. HOW TO FIND WELL CONTAMINATION PROBLEMS
  • 2. WELL WATER TESTING STRATEGY
  • 3. INTERPRET WATER TEST RESULTS
  • 4. WELL CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE
  • 5. CONSULT LOCAL WELL EXPERTS
  • 6. FIX WATER WELL CONTAMINATION SOURCES
• WATER POLLUTANT SOURCES
• WATER TREATMENT EQUIPMENT CHOICES
• WELL WATER CONTAMINATION: CAUSES, CURES - home

Suggested citation for this web page

SIX STEPS to WELL WATER SAFETY at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to WATER TESTING

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Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.

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