At a recent symposium sponsored by the Monroe County Penn State Cooperative Extension, attended by Jean and Michelle Llewellyn and Wes Shirk, we learned more about what we should do to assure safe drinking water from private wells.
Between 60% and 70% of all private wells in Pennsylvania do not meet all of the EPA and DEP drinking water safety standards and there are about one million wells in our state serving three million people. Compliance to safety standards for private wells is voluntary, but home owners should be aware of what can go wrong and how to test for potential problems.
Deep well ground water is not always pristine and it generally moves very slowly, about one to ten feet per day. Possible contamination depends on proximity to contaminant sources. If a well is close to farm land, nitrates, nitrites, pesticides and coliform are possible contaminants. If it is close to an industrial site, volatile organic compounds (VOCs)- TCE, PCB, gasoline- are of concern; if it is close to septic systems (yours or your neighbor's) coliform can be a problem.
Where a well is drilled also can introduce contaminants. Some soils contain high levels of iron and iron bacteria or manganese, none of which represent a health hazard but all are capable of causing aesthetic problems. Hardness can be an aesthetic problem but correcting it with a water softener should be done only if the homeowner is not on a low salt diet since water softeners generally add about 7.5 milligrams of sodium per quart for each grain per gallon of hardness removed.
Low pH is a problem because it can attack pipes not only causing leaks but leaching out lead from solder joints which can cause a health problem. In order to obtain a mortgage, certain lenders require that the pH be above 6.5.
Some underground water supplies contain high levels of radon. There are, at present, no EPA or DEP standards for radon contamination but according to George Prosser, head of Prosser Labs, Inc., a certified water testing lab, he has never seen levels of radon in water in Monroe County higher than 8000 picoCuries per liter (pCi/l). The EPA standard for air is four pCi/l but for water the rule of thumb ratio is 10,000 to one. In other words, it would take a concentration of 40,000 pCi/l to equal the same health hazard level as four pCi/l for radon in air. Radon in water should not be a problem in our area. Most contaminants can be removed at a lower cost than drilling a new well.
When considering a water treatment system it is desirable to have your water tested by a certified laboratory and then discuss the results with an expert from your local Cooperative Extension Office. Be cautious of salesmen who offer free water testing using portable kits. Every well should be tested at least once per year for total coliform and every three years for nitrates, nitrites and total dissolved solids (TDS). The TDS test is an indicator of pollutants from road runoff or a slowly collapsing well wall. It is not necessarily serious in its own right but comparisons between tests indicate whether or not a problem is developing. Tests should also be run for VOCs if the well is within a mile of an industrial site or gas station. If a drinking water supply depends on surface water, additional tests should be considered for giardia and cryptosporidium, serious bacteria contaminants not destroyed by normal chlorine treatment.
Your local Cooperative Extension Office has additional educational pamphlets which are available at no charge.
