Thirty years ago in Milwaukee, one of the city’s water treatment plants was contaminated with Cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes stomach cramps, fever and diarrhea. More than 400,000 people became sick and 69 people died. This incident points out how important it is to understand how to keep a private water well clean and healthy.
Every person, every household needs a constant supply of clean, uncontaminated water. Cryptosporidium is only one of a long list of contaminants that can cause illness. Maintaining that healthy water supply starts with understanding the necessity of a regular schedule of well water testing and is followed by knowing how to eliminate microorganisms or toxins that cause illness or even death.
Disease-Causing Contaminants Found in Private Wells
- Microorganisms: These include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Some people may just suffer from self-limiting symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain. More serious illnesses can also occur, such as giardiasis, dysentery, typhoid fever, E. Coli infection, polio, hepatitis A, and salmonellosis.
- Nitrate and nitrite: These chemicals often come from animal and human waste and fertilizers. Infants can develop methemoglobinemia or “blue baby syndrome” because these substances impair the ability of their blood to carry oxygen.
- Heavy metals: Various heavy metals can enter water supplies from industrial operations, mines, petroleum refineries, cement plants, municipal waste disposal and electronics manufacturing. The arsenic, antimony, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and selenium released from these facilities can cause anemia, liver, kidney and intestinal damage, and cancer.
- Industrial chemicals: Chemicals such as solvents, petroleum products, sealants, disinfectants and dyes can contaminate private water wells. When they make their way into drinking water, they can cause organ damage, reproductive harm, and cancer.
How Do Dangerous Contaminants Get Into Your Well Water?
If the well is not properly sealed, it’s easy for bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and chemical toxins to be carried into a private water well. A well cap in good repair should be sufficient to keep contaminants from the surface out of your well. But problems may come up that let these contaminants in.
- Aging can damage the well cap’s seals that keep out water. Surface water from storms, snowmelt or floods can enter the well and introduce bacteria, fungi, parasites or toxins.
- If the seals are compromised, insects or small animals can crawl into the well and bring bacteria and fungi along with them.
- The well cap can be damaged if it is hit during landscaping or by falling debris.
- Erosion around the well cap or improper grading can direct surface water toward the well, increasing the chance of contamination.
- Rust or corrosion can harm the integrity of a well cap and permit contaminated surface water or animals to enter.
A damaged well casing also permits surface water to enter the well before it has had a chance to be filtered by soil and rock. If water testing shows that your well has been contaminated, it is wise to have your well inspected for damage.
Surface Water from Big Storms Can Carry Industrial Toxins a Long Distance
When rain falls on grass, soil or agricultural crops, the water soaks into the ground and is filtered before it reaches groundwater. Rain falling on roads or sidewalks does not receive the same filtering. During a big storm, stormwater runoff picks up a multitude of contaminants that can be carried for miles until they reach your well site, such as:
- Animal waste from kennels or livestock operations
- Human waste from water treatment systems or malfunctioning septic systems
- Pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers from agricultural operations or golf courses
- Industrial chemicals such as heavy metals, gasoline, diesel or volatile organic compounds
Determining the Source of Contamination May Not Be Easy
Your first task is to determine what is contaminating your well. You need to know if it’s bacteria, heavy metals or something else because the solutions for these problems are completely different. A comprehensive water test from ETR Laboratories provides the data you need to plan a solution.
Once you have these test results, if you need to know the exact type of bacteria, fungi or other microorganisms present, ETR Laboratories can help again with a scanning electron microscope examination of your water. That highly detailed examination of your water’s contamination can help direct you to the exact source of contamination.