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Courtesy of The Washington Post, August 25, 2007
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
Dig Deep to See If You Are Ready for a Well
To Ensure Water Quality and Safety, Schedule Testing and Maintenance
By Ann Cameron Siegal
Special to The Washington Post
You found your dream house -- the perfect size in the perfect location, with plenty of outdoor room for kids and dogs to run.
However, the property also has a private well. Is that a deal-breaker?
"I've had it go both ways. Some people get a little panicky," said Mary Wharton, a real estate agent with Long & Foster in Virginia. "I grew up on well water, so for me, it's not a big deal."
Mort Libarkin, who has had a basically trouble-free well for 31 years, said, "The water tastes better because there's no chlorine in it." Libarkin and his wife are thinking of downsizing from their six-acre property in Loudoun county, but, he said, "One thing holding us back is the idea of giving up our well."
Not everyone is so comfortable with wells. Vince Eberlein, a filtration technician with Northern Virginia Drilling, said some people, accustomed to the reliability of public water, are shocked to find out how temperamental wells can be, with service varying depending on the weather, geological features, power failures , and the quality of construction or materials used in the well itself.
The Washington area has numerous residents who rely on municipal or private wells. There are about 16,000 wells in Fairfax County, 50,000 in Montgomery County and about 12,000 in Loudoun. Prince George's County has about 13,000. Nearly half of the 90,000 residents of Calvert County get their water from private wells.
Bored wells, like their older, picturesque equivalent -- hand-dug wells with large openings, hand cranks and a water bucket -- are becoming obsolete. Their shallowness, about 60 to 80 feet deep, makes them more susceptible to contamination.
Today, drilled wells are more common. Only about six inches wide, such wells have a minimum depth of 75 feet; 150 feet or more is preferable.
The well is surrounded by a casing at least 50 feet deep, with the area between the casing and the sides of the hole usually filled with concrete grout.
Regardless of the style, all wells draw from underground water sources called aquifers. The most common aquifers locally are porous soil and rock layers below the water table through which ground water can freely travel.
In western Loudoun County however, ground water wends its way through fractured rock -- a network of cracks in non-porous rock. Both forms offer a natural purification process, though not a foolproof one.
Before You Buy
What do you need to know about wells before buying a home with one?
Most mortgage lenders require a water potability test before closing a loan on a property. After that, unless the home is licensed for a business such as a day care or a group home, it is up to the homeowner whether further inspection or testing is done.
To find out more about the well serving a home you are considering, check out the "well log" or "drilling report" from the county health department or environmental services office.
Such logs include information like construction date, contractor's name, drilling method and materials used, depth of the well, geological formations encountered, gallons per minute drawn, and distances from structures or septic fields when the well was built. These logs will also include any servicing or repair work done.
Wells built today must meet strict placement, construction, water-quality and flow criteria, all of which are documented. However, many older wells are grandfathered in until there is a substantive change to the structures or land on the property, so you will not find logs for all wells.
Do not rely completely on such reports. Look around the property. Ideally, the well should be higher than the surrounding ground, which reduces the chance of contamination. Look for signs of surface water pooling around the well, which could signal drainage problems.
Activities beyond the property's boundaries can also affect your well. Are any potential contamination sources, such as agricultural sites, barnyards, septic systems or ponds, uphill from the well? Do any neighbors have underground oil or gasoline tanks? If these tanks leak, your well could be affected. Fertilizer and pesticides can also affect water quality, especially in shallow wells.
Keep Things Flowing
Wells need regular checkups. "It's your water supply. Inspect it once or twice a year," said Hanna Willmert, an inspector with the Fairfax County Health Department. Her office inspects about 30 wells a week, but most of those are new wells.
Inspection services vary by jurisdiction. Some counties provide a list of licensed companies; others do their own inspections.
Fairfax County will check homeowners' well systems and run a series of water-quality tests for $20. Loudoun County offers well inspection and coliform bacteria testing for $110. Testing for iron, nitrates or fluoride cost $25 each.
However, if a doctor has reason to believe someone's illness is caused by water contamination, testing is usually free.
For a routine well inspection, local private contractors charge about $200. The National Ground Water Association or your local health department will guide you to licensed contractors. In the yellow pages, look under "well drilling and services." Word of mouth might also help you find reliable contractors familiar with your area.
Make sure the contractor is certified. A CWD is a certified well driller; a CPI is a certified pump installer. Those with more rigorous testing might have an MGWC, which stands for master groundwater contractor.
Periodic checking should include a visual check of the above-ground casing and well cap. Are there any holes or loose-fitting bolts? Dog urine and fertilizer can eat away at the casing and create holes, primarily at the ground level.
Check the pump motor, in-house plumbing, pressure tanks, switches and valves. Water testing should be done from a metal faucet after sterilizing it to prevent cross-contamination, and samples should be sent to a state-certified laboratory.
Treating Trouble
Usually, the first sign that something is amiss with the water is a change in color, taste or smell. "The human nose is about as accurate as anything," Libarkin said.
Other indications of trouble can include discoloration in the laundry or on fixtures, cloudy water, or an unexplained illness in the household.
Technology has spurred the development of numerous aids for well owners. Some contaminants can be removed by whole-house filtration systems or ultraviolet sterilizers.
Another common concern is fluctuation or decline in water pressure. Water pressure is regulated by a tank inside the house and may be lower than you're used to. Public water systems often produce 70 pounds per square inch, while well water often fluctuates from 40 psi to 60 psi, Eberlein said.
Running a load of laundry can slow an upstairs shower to a trickle. If such troubles begin to plague your home, you may want to install a "constant pressure system" to help equalize water pressure throughout the house.
Water flow can also fluctuate over time, especially in response to heavy irrigation, such as by a golf course. Recently, more than 120 shallow wells on Maryland's Eastern Shore ran dry. The culprits appeared to be a sod farm and a nearby prison where water usage ran 10 times the permitted allotment. Water was being drawn out of the aquifer faster than it could be replenished, a process called "mining."
If your water flow starts dropping, an investigation will be needed to find the cause. Besides changes in the water table, flow can also be affected by clogs in the well screen, a filtering device at the bottom of the well. Chemical treatments can dissolve such buildups, as can brush cleaning with a drilling rig.
Some low-yield wells can be rehabilitated by digging deeper. In bedrock, hydrofracturing -- the use of high-pressure water treatments -- can be used to crack rock formations so the ground water has more paths to the well.
However, if a well is deemed unusable, if a new structure or addition to the property does not fall within prescribed setbacks or if public water becomes available, then the existing well must be officially decommissioned via a stringent set of procedures.
Do not, however, hide your well. Disguising it with landscaping can make access for repairs more difficult. Piling dirt or mulch around the casing can increase the risk of contamination.
Some folks have used hollowed-out statues or fake rocks to hide a well's protrusion. However, Mary Wharton cautions, "If you work too hard to hide something, you could cause a problem later." She imagined a scene where a household emergency sends folks racing around the property, frantically looking under rocks or statues, trying to remember where the well was hidden.
In that case, perhaps it's better to leave well enough alone.