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Focus on the Environment
Look after your well and your well will look after youMore than three million Ontarians, and many businesses, depend on groundwater for their water supply. But many are not doing the testing and maintenance necessary to ensure water qualityby MARY JANE CONBOY More than three million Ontarians depend on groundwater as their main source of domestic water. It is used extensively for irrigating crops and watering livestock, and in commercial and industrial facilities, including golf courses, aggregate pits and water bottling plants. Groundwater provides about 30 per cent of all water requirements in Ontario, but in rural areas of Ontario, closer to 95 per cent are dependent on private wells. Most of us understand that you need to do regular maintenance to keep our vehicles running. Even if we don't perform the routine maintenance, we know we should be changing our oil, rotating the tires and checking fluids regularly. But how many of us really understand what needs to be done to maintain our water supply? The Well Aware program, run by Green Communities Canada, found that 89 per cent of the wells observed were in need of some type of repair and many clients were not testing their water regularly for bacteria. In general, they were not testing for anything beyond the complimentary bacterial test provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health. Testing your water is an important step in managing your water supply. Your water quality can change without any noticeable changes in the taste, colour or smell. It is important to test your water regularly for bacteria and also for such things as nitrate, fluoride, metals, minerals and other chemicals that may be present because of the land use or history. The Ministry of Health offers complimentary bacterial tests, but these tests only assess bacteria; they do not screen for other impurities. You should test for bacteria at least three times a year because the water that supplies your well can change. And you should also test for metals and minerals every two years. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many wells were finished below ground. Some were finished in well pits; others were finished with an elbow joint and buried. The landowner may never even have identified where some of these buried wells are. It is important to keep your well accessible and regularly check the condition of the well, the cap and the area around the well. This area can have a direct impact on your water quality and it should be kept free of debris or anything that might encourage mice or insects to nest. You also need to ensure that the well is structurally sound and watertight. Older dug wells were often lined with fieldstones, brick or concrete tiles that were set one on top of the other. These casings do not keep surface water, soil or insects from entering your water supply. The water needs to come from the bottom of the well to allow the soil and rock an opportunity to filter impurities. A licensed well contractor can upgrade wells. Many well contractors concentrate mainly on constructing new wells, but there are a number who specialize in upgrading wells. Wells finished below ground can be raised to a finish above ground, and leaky casing and caps can be sealed or replaced. A new well cap that keeps insects from entering a drilled well has been on the market for about four years. If your well is older than this, you should replace your well cap. Now is a great time for farmers to do work on their well because there is funding through the Environmental Farm Plan program. In many areas, you can also top up with funding from the local conservation authority. It is estimated that $2 billion has been spent in the Prairie provinces alone in constructing approximately 400,000 wells since 1961. Ontario, with an estimated 750,000 wells constructed since the 1950s, would easily have made investments of a similar order. Water wells represent a significant investment for the average homeowner, but also an opportunity to live and farm in an area that is not serviced by municipal systems. Our reliance on a sustainable water supply is so great that we can't afford not to be proactive in managing our wells. If you are looking for further information on how to care for your well, two new resources to look at are “Well Wise: A comprehensive Consumer’s Guide for Private Water Wells” (www.wellwise.ca), and “The Sustainable Water Well Infrastructure Expert Panel Report” (www.oce-ontario.org/pages/PDF/SWWI_Final_Jan30.pdf).BF Mary Jane Conboy is an author and a hydrogeologist with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
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