This is what a $25,000 well looks like. Impressive, isn’t it?
The pipe goes down 310 feet. At the bottom there are screens and a stainless steel pump. About two feet from the surface a pipe extends towards the site of my future garage. It will eventually be connected to a booster pump, timer, filtration system, and storage tank at the back of the garage. Additional plumbing will carry the water from the pump room to the house.
My well passed the “Kitsap 5” water quality test. Kitsap County only requires private wells to be tested for five contaminants, and of those only one (bacteria) has to do with health. The other four have to do with the water’s appearance and taste.
The EPA requires municipal water systems to test for approximately two dozen contaminants. Although the local Poulsbo water supply meets federal requirements it tests above healthy levels for chromium and several other worrisome things, so I am going to run the EPA panel for my private well. I am also going to run an organochlorine pesticide panel, since my property used to be zoned for agriculture and organochlorine pesticides like DDT and Chlordane can take decades to break down. And, I am going to run a VOC (volatile organic compounds) panel. VOCs are usually an air quality issue, but I am curious. Then I will decide what type of filtration system I need.
I had planned to run these tests as soon as the well was completed but the driller pointed out that there would be false positives because he drilled to 370 feet before deciding that 310 feet was the best location for the well, and for a good portion of the additional drilling there was no piping. Contaminants on the drilling equipment were therefore left behind in the aquifer. I will wait until construction begins next year and the well has run for at least ten hours, to flush out the residue left by the drilling equipment.
Next step: Finding a contractor who has worked with a chemically sensitive person and is willing to do it again.