"Drinking water quality should be a topic of great importance to all of America’s 15 million private well owners," says American Ground Water Trust water specialist, Andrew Stone.

Frequent questions include:

Generally, the ground water which enters a well has been filtered through the surronding soil so that disease-causing bacteria are not present in the well. This filtering, however, normally takes place only in the soil horizon and not in the fractures found in the crystalline bedrock. Chemical polluntants, such as salt or nitrate, are not filtered out and may pollute the water in a well. Ground water usually contains more dissolved minerals than does surface water. The deeper the water, the longer it has been in contact with the rocks and the more minerals it may contain. "Hardness" is a measure of the dissoloved mineral content of water.

Get Ready.
Bypass your water softener an do the water treatment equipment. At the same time, this is a good chance to clean your faucet screens and water softener system with Iron Out or a like product. Note: Do not use Iron Out if you have a zeolite-type water softener.

Add Chlorine (household bleach).
Loosen the set screws and remove your well cap. You may have to tap it off gently with a hammer. Run water into your well with a garden hose wide open and add 1-4 gallons of household bleach to your well. Also, add 5-8 tablets of 1" solid swimming pool chlorine (HTH).

Mix and Circulate.
Continue to run and circulate water into your well for about one hour. At this point, your water may appear red, black, or rust colored, which is a normal part of cleaning a well. Next, fill a series of 5 gallon pails with water; turn off the hose; wait 15 minutes; then pour the 5 gallon pails of water into the well to raise the head of the well and force chlorine out of the well and into the aquifer.

At the same time, remove faucet screen (aerators) and turn on each faucet individually; kitchen, bathroom, etc., cold water only, inside and outside of your house until you just smell bleach; then turn the faucet off and move on to the next one until you have done this throughout your house; don’t forget to flush the toilets. Try not to get too much chlorine into your septic tank.

Quiet Period.
Turn off all the water inside and outside your house; let the entire system sit quietly for 4-8 hours. Do not use any water if possible.

Purge The Well.
Obviously, you cannot drink water with bleach in it, get rid of the chlorine (bleach) by running water from an outside faucet for 1-8 hours or until the water clears up and the smell of chlorine disappears. Run the water onto your driveway, the ditch, or the road. Take care not to run bleach into lakes, rivers, or streams. Bleach will kill fish, grass, and the bacteria in your septic tank (a little is OK if you have to flush your toilet).

Test Your Water.
Test your water for bacteria, nitrates, and/or arsenic with a lab sample bottle. Test within one week after cleaning; then again in two weeks if your original water sample was found to be unsafe.