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Water Wells


About 15 percent of Americans rely on their own sources of drinking water, such as wells, cisterns, and springs. Although people have been using wells since ancient times, most are not familiar with how they work.

A water well is a hole, usually vertical, drilled into an underground source of water (aquifer) in order to bring that water to the surface from the water-saturated zone above the bedrock.

Ground Water - The Source
Ground water accounts for 90% of all the fresh water in the world (excluding polar ice caps).

Ground water is the water that soaks into the soil from rain or other precipitation and moves downward to fill cracks and other openings in beds of rocks and sand.

An aquifer is a geologic unit (sand and gravel, sandstone, limestone, or other rock) where the amount of water is sufficient to yield usable amounts to a well or spring.

  The Mechanicals  (Pumps/ Pressure Tanks/ Filters/ Treatment)
Once the well has been drilled, the water in the well is available for use, but it must be extracted from the well and delivered under pressure to the building.

This is accomplished by means of a well pump and a pressurized tank. The pump pressurizes the system as it extracts the water from the well and conveys it to the tank. The tank acts as a pressure regulator to the system by maintaining a constant outlet pressure.

Those living outside a municipality or in an area not served by public water, will typically get their water from a private well. Water wells are usually installed by professional well-drillers, with the plumbing handled by a plumbing contractor.

There are two basic types of wells - shallow and deep.

 
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