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Time to Test Your Well

Whether you've lived in rural Virginia all your life or just moved there last month, you probably get your drinking water from a private well.

Well contractors and health officials urge private well owners to test their ground water once a year, since it's up to owners to ensure their water is safe.

While people have been digging wells for centuries, improved technology has gone a long way toward preventing contamination problems. Modern wells use concrete casings, impervious well covers and multiple layers of protection, according to Robert Royall, owner of Royall Pump and Well Co. in Powhatan.

"With a modern, properly constructed well, we really see very few if any contamination issues with surface contamination reaching into the ground water strata," Royall said. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, in 2000 more than 1.7 million Virginia residents got their home or farm drinking water from privately owned wells. Together they accounted for 42 percent of the ground water used in the state.

National Ground water Awareness Week is March 9-15 this year, and Royall said an annual water test is an important part of owning a well. The typical test checks for bacteria or fertilizer pollution problems, and each test costs about $130 each if conducted by a professional. Home owners- can conduct the test  themselves and save money.

"You don't want to park your lawn mower or put your storage shed near your well. You may have a leaking fuel tank or an oil spill. So always try to keep a physical separation from your well to any source of contamination there may be," Royall said. Over-applying lawn fertilizers is another way to risk contamination well water, he said. In that respect, rural home owners are much like their farmer neighbors, said Keith Burgess, conservation specialist with the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District. "You need to be thinking about what's going into your septic system," Burgess said, "because if you're dumping chemicals down there or overfertilizing your yard, those nutrients and chemicals will be getting into your ground water that you could be drinking. Or if not getting into your ground water, they're going to be getting into adjacent streams and wetlands and eventually into the rivers and the Chesapeake Bay."

For more information on ground water quality and National Ground Water Awareness Week, visit www.wellowner.org.

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