Well water

[Fishaholic]

Hey I like some input on drinking well water. I been living in the country for 30 years and my well is 85feet deep 2nd water. My neighbor has 2 wells,the first ones probably 75 ft. From mine it to is 85 deep 2nd water and used for drinking and house water.his second water well is Probably 300ft east of is first one. It’s used for a small fishing pond, it to is 85ft deep.it has 2 in pipe filling line.the problem is he overfills it . It doesn’t have a check valve on the end. Water gets above line,and he shuts off when he realize Overflowing. I told him that water siphon back down the well. The ponds has had toxic alge on it before.hes always spraying chemicals on the weeds and gets back in pond. ? I going to have my water checked what should I have them check for?

[chartist]

Even a check valve is insufficient to protect the well because it can allow transfer of contaminants before it fully closes. A gravity check valve will likely be less effective than a spring actuated check valve because it keeps constant pressure on the check, but both can potentially let contaminants slip by. There should be some type of backflow protection such as an atmospheric vacuum breaker to effectively protect the well from contamination

As far as what to test for, what weed killers is he spraying as that would be a good starting point to look for those specific chemicals.

A multistage filtration system on your well output is fairly standard and should be changed out on a regular schedule.

Art

[MBAnderson in reply to chartist]

Art,

When you got a minute, would you explain M-theory (a.k.a. string theory) and why it has replaced particle physics as the leading candidate for The Explanation of Everything?

[chartist in reply to MBAnderson]

Lol!!!

[faridaro]

If there is a chance of contamination with "toxic algae" which you mentioned, it would be good to check water for BMAA which is a neurotoxin produced by cyanobacteria. There is a documentary about it titled "The Toxic Puzzle".

[Fishaholic in reply to faridaro]

I like that I deal!

[pvw2]

You could get a water pitcher with a filter for an immediate short term fix for your drinking water.

[Rosenmu in reply to pvw2]

I use a Berkeley filter for our well water, much better than a pitcher. I think all well water should be filtered, ours was high in nitrates from the nearby farms.

[pvw2 in reply to Rosenmu]

Agreed. That's why a pitcher is short term. Pitcher filters aren't good for salts, such as nitrates from fertilizers.

[bassofspades]

You have 85 feet of filtration on top of the well so I don't know how much algae and flora would be in there, but have you had it tested for heavy metals?

[chartist in reply to bassofspades]

I think the concern is that when the pond is filled, it has no automatic shut off once the pond fills to the proper level and consequently keeps filling until the fill line is below the surface of the pond, Since the owner is manually turning the fill valve on and off himself, he sometimes forgets to turn it off until after the waterline that fills the pond is under water, causing the issue of potential contamination of the whole well beneath both properties. Because the fill line is a 2" pipe, it has the potential to contaminate all of the water in the fill line (which could be very substantial) and in turn the well that is located 85' below the ground surface of both properties. A properly mounted atmospheric vacuum breaker on the pond fill line will prevent any contaminants from the fill line from getting back into the well or into the pond owners home water supply and this would be much less expensive than an automatic fill system that operates similarly to a standard toilet that has a builtin anti siphon valve to prevent toilet water from back flowing into the home water plumbing system. A vacuum breaker on the 2" fill line would likely be the cheapest fix and should be shielded to prevent contamination potential when the neighbor sprays for weeds.

Since it is a 2" fill line, this would suggest a large pond and with such a pond, the chances for the pond water to be contaminated when the owner sprays the property for weeds, is very likely.

A 2" vacuum breaker needs to be installed at the correct height in order to function properly and looks similar to this:

zoro.com/zurn-wilkins-vacuu...

This would be the absolute minimal amount of protection against contamination.

Art

[LAJ12345]

Anything dissolved in the water from the land above could be in your water unless it is from a sealed aquifer including pesticides, nitrates. If there are residues from some of those very toxic old pesticides that used to be in common use they could be very harmful. Can you get a deioniser system put on your drinking water at least?

[Fishaholic in reply to LAJ12345]

I haven’t been drinking it for 2 years. I drink bottle water. I just notice that it drys it leaves more water spots.

[bassofspades in reply to Fishaholic]

Thats minerals in the water. A softener system can eliminate that.

[Fishaholic in reply to bassofspades]

Hey there where people coming out about 3 years ago and filling 5 gallon jugs. The water was really good, I wash my car and you wouldn’t see water spots wants it dried . I live in really sandy soil I helped drilling water wells.around here they say the best water comes from sand formations I believe it is contaminated water, over filling the pond.