We Bought a House

The best way to inspect for leaks around your house is to wait for a rain storm. Well, Clinton County, has it rained enough for you yet?

My wife and I moved back to the area in October/November 2018. From all accounts that was one of the wettest summers on record for the county. Heck – I remember there was a late start to the school year here because of mold from all of the rain!

The way I look at it: it keeps the aquifer that my well is pulling water from nice and full! I actually enjoy the rain much more now than before. I have more of a greater reason to. Despite the sulfur smell, we have good water in Woodward Township.

As we explore more ways to get rid of, or treat, the sulfur-smelling water we have in our house (our mini Yellowstone), I thought I would dive into how private water wells work (frankly because I had no idea)!

These parts of Pennsylvania are known to have more shale underground than limestone, but there are parts of the state where there may be gravel, sandstone, or other materials underground. The water is stored and travels in aquifers that can be anywhere from 30 feet to hundreds of feet underground. I believe the well at our house is 150′ feet deep.

The way the well works is pretty elementary – a hole is drilled deep underground. In most cases, when water is found, a pipe casing is installed into the hole and water travels through the casing via a well pump. The entire well system is then “capped off” above ground.

Water then travels from a pipe connected between the well casing and a pressure tank, which is usually blue in color and is in the basement. If you do not know where the water enters your home and you have your own well, chances are it is somewhere in the vicinity of the blue well pump.

There are many more things involved here as well, such as a submersible pump that is inside the wall casing actually in the water, and some sort of a screen, most likely gravel, which acts as a filter.

Well water is not pure!

Well water travels through the ground every time it rains. Here is an explanation.

When it rains, the water hits the ground and begins to be absorbed by the soil. It travels through the earth and anything that can be in it – buried metal shards, deteriorating plastic, old building materials, glass, trash (yes people used to bury, or burn, their trash). The elements that the rainwater travels through underground can have an effect on the pipes in your home, your clothes when they are washed, our skin, and our general health.

We opted to not have our home inspector do a test on our water because we knew that we needed a water softener to be installed anyway, and the technician ran the test to also test for dangerous Coliform bacteria, chlorine, manganese, iron, nitrates, arsenic, and a whole host of other nasty contaminants!

Thankfully, except for the sulfur smell, our water is pretty good and only needed a softener. We opted for an RO (Reverse Osmosis) purification system to be installed as well.

The average homeowner can spend thousands of dollars on “perfecting” their drinking water, and they have every right to. Without water, our most needed element, we wouldn’t survive.

So if you are on a private well, or if your water is derived from a city or municipal authority, clean, healthy drinking water is a necessity, not a luxury.

As for our sulfur problem – it isn’t terrible, but we are working with water professionals to correct it.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Yellowstone National Park and all of the geysers and the gigantic volcanic caldera underground, I just don’t care for the sulfur byproduct that comes with it.

Not at my house.

I raise a glass (of water) to you, good reader.