For safer water, maintain your well and leave the bottled water alone

Beverly asked her guests if they wanted something to drink. Two glasses of wine, one soda and one water: with their requests memorized, she soon returned with a tray full of drinks, including a plastic, store-bought bottle of water.

“Oh, tap water is fine,” said Judy.

“I’m sorry,” said Beverly, “We have really bad water.” In fact, Beverly and her family had been drinking bottled water for the last couple of years.

At first, they noticed an odor to the water. In time, they also noticed a cloudiness and, eventually, that the water had an unseemly color. After all, water is supposed to be clear.

Some might say it’s just as well that they drank bottled water. Presumptions that bottled water is better or safer, however, are erroneous. Actually, water that comes in a plastic bottle also comes with a serious risk of high levels of BPA or bisphenol A. BPA leaks into the water from the plastic when the bottle is stored in hot temperatures.

Of course, who leaves their bottles of water out in the sun? The problem is that you don’t know how long the bottled water was stored in a warehouse before it was sold, or what the temperature was in the warehouse.

If Beverly lived in the city, with city water, she could simply complain to the city about the condition of her water. She would probably have a lot of company as everyone’s water would have the same odor and the same obnoxious color. But Beverly and her family have a private well.

With a private well, ensuring the safety of the water is their own responsibility. And if the family really knew what was in their water, they might not even take showers in the water coming out of their well.

What they’ve got in their well is bacteria. The bacteria grew because Beverly and her husband never did anything to maintain their well. They had moved out from the city, where everyone had city water, and didn’t realize that their private well is not maintenance free.

The good news is that the solution to their water problem is fairly simple and relatively inexpensive. They need to chlorinate their well. And they need to chlorinate the well every year.

They could do the well chlorination themselves. It seems simple enough, according to what they might read on a bottle of chlorine at the home supply store; you just dump the chlorine into the well. What could be easier?

Actually, though they can do that, they really don’t want to. A better bet is to call a professional. The professional will add the chlorine while carefully avoiding the piping connections and electrical components in the well . Chlorine doesn’t play well with the pipes or electrical connections. It creates corrosion.

The corrosion isn’t a problem today. Rather, the next time their pump goes bad and requires replacement, they’ll discover that the connections are corroded together and very difficult to separate.

A professional will also recommend that they have the water tested to ensure that It’s safe to drink, or to shower in.