There are two fundamental things I encounter as I speak with potential well owners for the first time- a misconception about what we call 'groundwater', and a a misunderstanding on the difference between an 'irrigation' or a potable water well.
I'll attempt to clear the air on these issues here as clearly and simply as possible.
Individual household water wells are the preferred source of safe drinking water for more than 15 million Americans. If you have a properly constructed, drilled well your water comes from deep in the bedrock and is naturally filtered and should be bacteria free. In the rregions we service (Southern Appalachia/ Georgia Piedmont), groundwater is located in fractures in consolidated rock. It occurs as water is slowly pulled through bedrock into cracks and crevices in the rock. It does not deplete the water table, and, except in extremely rare occasions, will not affect even your nearest neighbor’s well.
This type of system is one of the safest most reliable drinking water sources available.
As the average person in the US uses around 150 gallons per day, and the average household peak demand less than 10 gallons per minute (gpm), almost any hole in the ground will supply enough water to satisfy an individual's potable water needs.
An irrigation well is essentially a commercial well- the demands of an irrigation system are so much greater than regular home use:
Where a potable water system in a typical Atlanta home may have a peak demand of 8 gpm and average 500 gallons per day, that same residence may have an irrigation system which needs 20 or more gallons per minute and over 20,000 gallons in a single event. It is as if that one well is being asked to supply 20 or 30 homes.
That same ultra-purified water is pulled out of the bedrock in a much higher volume and at a much faster flow rate. Bigger pumps running on bigger wire, pushing water through bigger pipe, and controlled by extremely complex equipment make this kind of system work.
The irrigation system is usually already in place when we construct our wells, and the volume and flow rates don't always operate the same as our high-pressure municipal systems.
Sometimes, these systems are required to pump faster than the ground can yield water, and that deficit has to be made up in reserve- either inside the well or in storage tanks. It can also be made up in time, and the irrigation system has to be staged to allow the well to recharge its self. However it is done, these systems can easily double or triple the typical residential user's cost.
A water well is an investment in the commodity of the future. Well owners have their own private water system which they control. With proper maintenance, these systems should provide a lifetime of safe, reliable access to pure, fresh water.
No comments:
Post a Comment