More than 18 months after my well was drilled I was finally able to take water samples to be tested. I had to wait for power to run the well pump and then I had to run the water for 10+ hours to purge the industrial residue left from drilling. But last week I got the results, and I am thrilled!
The county requires private wells to be tested for only five compounds, and only one of those is health related. My well passed that test when it was drilled but last month I did three more tests. I did the 24 element panel that municipal water systems are required to do annually, plus a 50 element pesticide panel, and a 55 element VOC panel. There were no pesticides or VOCs detected, and altogether there are only three contaminants I need to filter. There may be some other contaminants floating around down there for which I did not test, but my well water is significantly cleaner than the local municipal water supply. In fact, I believe this is the cleanest water to which I have ever had residential access.
This feels like compensation for my years in Belle Glade, Florida, where I worked in the 70s. It was just a few years after the Environmental Protection Agency was created, and I had almost no awareness of pesticide pollution issues. I drank and bathed in tap water drawn from Lake Okeechobee, which I later learned was one of the most polluted drinking water sources in the US.