How Seasons Change Well Water and What to Do About It

Households that rely on private water wells may notice that the smell, taste or color of their well water changes from season to season. Some of the reasons for these changes are relatively harmless. Other environmental factors make undesirable changes to the quality of well water. Unfortunately, in many cases, it may not be possible to detect these changes just by smelling, tasting or looking at your water. 

Every season offers unique challenges to a well water owner. It’s important to know what seasonal changes could be affecting your well water. 

Spring Changes

Heavy spring rains and snow melt can result in much higher levels of runoff than usual. This moving water often contains pollutants collected from the surface. Pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus can make their way into your well. 

  • Nitrates and phosphorus: Homeowners and farmers wanting to get their spring lawns and crops growing rapidly are likely to add fertilizers. When fertilizers make their way into your well water or a nearby water source, they can trigger excessive algae blooms, adding a musty, earthy taste and smell to your water. Drinking water high in nitrates can result in increased heart rate, nausea, headaches, and abdominal cramps. Phosphorus in drinking water can cause digestive upsets and harm to blood vessels.
  • Petroleum products: Stormwater runoff can carry gas or oil from streets through soil and loose rock until it reaches your well. Digestive upsets, dizziness, disorientation and confusion can result from drinking water contaminated with petroleum products. 
  • Salt: Salt used on roads during the winter can also percolate through soil or infiltrate a damaged wellhead and enter your well. Too much salt can be dangerous for a person on a low-sodium diet. It also makes the water in your plumbing system corrosive, which can damage your pipes. 

Summer Changes 

Summer brings higher temperatures and may also bring torrential rains. Plants around the wellhead may reach maximum growth rates. Farmers and gardeners add fertilizers and pesticides during this peak growing season. All these activities can affect your well water. 

  • Nitrates: If your well is near farms, large gardens or golf courses that are all heavily fertilized, your well may be contaminated by nitrates in summer as well as spring, depending on the composition of the soil, gravel or rock surrounding your well.
  • Bacteria: Levels of bacteria are at their highest levels in the summer, especially when temperatures top 90 degrees. If the well is near any source of contamination like a malfunctioning septic system or animal feedlots, the well may have a higher-than-normal level of bacteria. The problems caused by drinking water high in bacteria will vary depending on which bacteria are present, but diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, nausea and headaches are common. 
  • Higher concentration of all contaminants: If the summer is a very dry one, the water table will tend to drop. Any undesirable contaminants will be concentrated. The water may turn cloudy, have unpleasant odors or contain increased levels of bacteria. 

Fall Changes

A heavy load of falling autumn leaves can affect the color and odor of well water. To protect well water quality, it’s important to clear away leaf litter, branches and twigs from an area with a water well. 

  • Tannins: If an accumulation of leaf litter is allowed to decompose, it will add nutrients to a lawn, but can contaminate water wells. The tannins from these leaves can discolor well water and add an unpleasant, musty odor.  
  • Nitrates and phosphorus: These leaves can add nitrates and phosphorus to your well water as well. 

Winter Changes

In an area that alternates heavy snow with thaws, water quality problems can be similar to those in the spring: too much salt from de-icing roads and too many pollutants carried by snowmelt. 

Those areas that are dry in the winter, such as the American Southwest, can have summertime’s problems like a low water table. In Albuquerque, for example, water from supply wells is higher in arsenic during the drier winter months when the water table drops. 

How to Restore Your Well Water to a Fresh and Delicious Taste

To provide your family with the best quality water, you first need to know what contaminants might be in the water. This requires a professional water test. If your water changes seasonally, another test may be required when you notice a change.

Once you have this information, you can build the right filtration air water treatment system to correct your water. This is definitely a situation where knowledge is power. You can choose from our fast, reliable water tests here.