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Precautions urged for well owners in Midwest U.S. flood areas
WaterWebster Staff Report
June 11, 2008
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Homeowners whose drinking water wells are flooded need to be careful both during the flood and afterward, groundwater safety experts warned Wednesday.
Flooding from Nebraska to Indiana has potentially contaminated wells used for drinking water, said Cliff Treyens, public awareness director for the National Ground Water Assn. (NGAWA).
The National Weather Service said Wednesday the floods in some parts of the Midwest are worse than those in 1993 and damage appears likely to reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Roads and bridges have been shut down, crops have been damaged (and) thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses have been flooded with numerous evacuations, countless roads are flooded and closed, road damage is extensive, and many levees and earthen dams have failed or are in jeopardy of failing,” the Weather Service reported.
“An obvious concern is that flood water loaded with bacteria, chemicals or other pollutants may have gotten into the well if water tops the well cap,” said Treyens. “If your well has been flooded, boil your water or use bottled water until a qualified water well system contractor can check out your well system.”
Some safety tips seem obvious, but in the crush of work as homeowners try to protect their homes, they simply may forget.
For example, said Treyens, everyone should “stay away from a well pump while it is flooded to avoid electrical shock.”
Don’t drink water from a flooded well or even bathe in it, he warned. To do so is to risk illness.
After a flood, he advised homeowners to call a qualified well contractor or pump installer to clean and turn on the pump, flush and disinfect the well and make any other needed repairs.
Fixing the pump and making sure the water is safe to drink “is not something a homeowner can do very well,” said Treyens. “It’s more than pouring a bottle of bleach down the well.”
And, he said, if a well isn’t flushed and disinfected properly, a homeowner could face weeks of turbid water.
Well owners can learn more about water well maintenance and water quality at NGWA’s Web site, www.wellowner.org.
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