Does your Spring Grove well need some extra maintenance? It depends …

A little extra well maintenance can save
you from costly well repairs in the future.

The well outside your Spring Grove home requires maintenance. It’s an amazingly reliable piece of equipment but, if you don’t maintain it, it will break down, the water quality will deteriorate and it will cost you more in the long run.

It’s a good idea to have maintenance performed on your Spring Grove well at least once each year. This should include a visual inspection of key components, adjustment of the air pressure in your water well tank, and chlorination of the well. Do these processes every year, or have a professional come in and do them for you, and it’s far-less likely that your well will ever break down and leave you without water. And you’re more certain to drink water that’s clean, pure and healthy. However, your well may require even more maintenance.

Why would your Spring Grove well require more maintenance that a neighbor’s well? First of all, it’s a question of how the well was installed. When drilling a well, and installing the well equipment, there is a right way to do it and a wrong way. You need to ask how good of a job the well company did when they installed your well.

When a well is installed it’s essential that it’s set in an area where the ground slopes away from the well, not toward it. Surface-runoff water is not something you want mixing with the water that you drink and use in your Spring Grove home. Even if the water was pure enough falling from the clouds one rainy day in Spring Grove, water runoff will carry elements on the ground when it enters your well. These elements could include natural and man-made toxins, fertilizers, pesticides, fuels, degreasers, paints, motor oil and other pollutants.

Then there is always the question of how you protect the integrity of you well. Don’t mix any of those pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, degreasers, paints, motor oil, fuels and other elements near your well. When you dispose of solvents, do so properly. If you pour them out on the ground, they’ll soak into the ground and you might just find them coming back into your home through your water supply. Bring hazardous waste to a collection facility that handles these chemicals.

When you inspect your well, you may, for instance, look inside the well cap for signs of insects. Earwigs look for these kinds of moist, dark places to breed and setup house. If you see insects inside your well, you’ll know that you have to do something to get them to move along. But, if there are toxins, pesticides, bacteria or other hazardous chemicals in your well, chances are, you’ll only find out by sending a sample of the water out for testing. That beats finding out because someone in your home is sick.