The McHenry County Health Department concurs – you should have your private well water tested annually

If you check out the McHenry County Health Department
Website, you'll see they agree; you should have your well
water tested annually.

In this blog site, we’ve tried to warn about the importance of maintaining your well. Private well maintenance is important because, as a private well, you can’t count on a city or village public works department to take care of your well. It’s your well and it’s your problem.

If you don’t take care of your private well the well equipment – the well pump, the well motor, the well tank – these and other parts of the equipment can breakdown and leave you without access to fresh water. Additionally, without private well maintenance, you may find that you and your family, and your children, are drinking and bathing in unhealthy water.

Well, we’re not the only ones passing along these warnings. The McHenry County Health Department’s (MCHD) website echoes our warnings. The website points out that you should “Have your water tested annually.”

The MCHD warns about checking that your well cap is tightly secured and sealed to avoid contaminants, such as “surface water, vermin …, fertilizers, herbicides, pets.”

As the MCHD points out, “Contaminated drinking water many not always look, taste or smell differently than safe drinking water.” And, as the website continues, if your private well is contaminated, a cleanup is not an easy, or inexpensive, proposition.

Though contaminated water doesn’t always smell, taste or look bad, when water has a strange odor, taste or appearance, that is a sign that there might be a problem with your well water. If you see “particles in water,” have it checked. But, really, you shouldn’t wait until a problem is apparent.

The best bet is to have your water checked, as mentioned above and in the MCHD website, annually.

Testing your well water will look for bacteria, nitrates, and inorganic and organic materials in the water. As the MCHD website states in its “DO’S AND DON’TS …’ section, “DON’T assume your well water is safe to drink.”

There are laboratories that will test your private well water at reasonable prices. The MCHD will also test your water. You can contact the following government offices in McHenry County where you can bring samples of your private well water for testing:

• Algonquin Township Office, 3702 Route 14, Crystal Lake (847) 639-2329
• Door Township Office, 1039 Lake Street, Woodstock (815) 338-0125
• McHenry County Dept of Health, 2200 N Seminary Ave, Woodstock (815) 334-4585
• McHenry County Dept of Health, 100 N Virginia St, Crystal Lake (815) 459-5151
• McHenry Township Office, 3703 Richmond Road, McHenry (815) 385-5605
• Nunda Township Office, 3703 Richmond Road, McHenry (815) 459-4011
• City of Marengo, City Hall, 134 E. Prairie Street, Marengo (815) 568-7112
• Harvard Police Department, 201 W Front Street, Harvard (815) 943-4431
• Richmond Township Office, 7812 South Route 31, Richmond (815) 678-0077
• Grafton Township Office, 10109 Vine Street, Huntley (847) 669-3328
• McHenry Analytical Water Laboratory, 4314 W Crystal Lake Rd A, McHenry (815) 344-4044

The MCHD website is located at: https://www.co.mchenry.il.us/county-government/departments-a-i/health-department/environmental-health/private-water-supply

Why does her Johnsburg well water taste metallic?

It looks clear but the water from that Johnsburg water tastes metallic.

The water at Heidi’s house in Johnsburg tastes great. She’s occasionally bragged about that to friends who live where they have city water. Heidi’s water comes from a private well out back. So, when she brags, she usually says something along the line of, “Our Johnsburg water tastes wonderful and, the best part is, we don’t have to pay a water bill every month.” But, lately, Heidi’s water has tasted a little funny.

In fact, if you pressed Heidi, her husband or the children about it, they’d probably say that the water has kind of a metallic taste to it.

What would make the water from Heidi’s well taste metallic? One likely culprit is iron. That may explain why, when she uses the water to make tea or coffee, the metallic flavor overpowers the beverage and gives it a kind of inky appearance.

Her water could also have a metallic taste because it has low pH (potential Hydrogen) levels.

The good news about the prior potential problem is that iron is not necessarily bad for your health. As humans, we actually require some iron in our bodies to maintain our health. The EPA guideline is 0.3 milligrams of iron per liter of water but that’s only a guideline. Even with more, you’re probably okay. But, too much iron in your water can cause problems, such as:

• Buildup of iron can lead to clogged water pipes
• Too much iron in the water can stain dishes, sinks, laundry and other household items that come into regular contact with the water
• Along with an offensive metallic flavor in water, it can also present an unappetizing dark appearance to food

The question, of course, is how did the iron get there?

One way contaminated water may get into the well is through seepage. A key component to prevent seepage is the well cap. This is the part at the top of the well you see in your backyard. If sealed properly, the well cap keeps ground water out of the well. A particular threat is melting snow that can build up around the well cap. But, if the well cap is good the melting snow won’t get into the well.

If the well cap is bad, seepage isn’t the only potential problem. For instance, with a bad seal, a well cap can allow bugs, such as earwigs, to make themselves at home in your well. And who wants to drink a glass of water that served as a swimming pool, and more, for a colony of earwigs?

Another way for iron to get into the well is through corrosion. Frankly, in this case, the well is susceptible to rust. The pipes are exposed to air and water and that makes them rust. Over time, the rust begins to build up and flake off. Falling into the well water, the rust dissolves and is carried into your home as tiny metallic molecules in your water.

What can you do about iron in your well water? The most common solution is a water softener. A water softener removes minerals, including iron, from the water. If operating correctly, a water softener can eliminate your problem with metallic-tasting water.

Chlorinating your well can also remove the iron bacteria from your water. This is one reason you should chlorinate your well each year. But, iron bacteria in the water is only one reason to chlorinate your well; you also want to chlorinate your well to remove other bacteria and micro-organisms from your well water.

If the pH levels of your Johnsburg well water are low, there are also treatments that will neutralize this problem.