Is spring water safe to drink? How to make springwater potable.
What's the difference between a spring and a seep?
Types of wells and water supply systems and what to watch out for with each
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This article describes Use of Springs for Drinking Water. We provide advice about what to do when things go wrong.
Readers of this document should also see Water Tank Types and before assuming that a water problem is due to the
well itself, see Water pump and pressure tank repair diagnosis & cost an specific case which offers an example of diagnosis of loss of water pressure, loss of water, and analyzes the actual repair cost.
Open water springs, and similar containers have been used for centuries to
supply water to buildings.
If the water tank is located higher than the building it serves
the water supply can be fed by gravity.
If the open water tank is in the building or below it
the water may be moved to the point of use by a hand pump or an electrical pump.
In the page top photograph my client and we had found the water supply for his home: a spring-fed
in-ground cistern located uphill from the house and fed to the house by gravity.
What's Wrong Using a Spring to Supply Drinking Water to a Building?
Spring water can be delicious and clean if it is in a protected location. But most residential springs serving homes are not so carefully designed.
Springs and cisterns that are open to groundwater runoff like these are unlikely to
provide sanitary drinking water since they are easily contaminated by surface runoff. Where building security and personal security are a special concern, the water source needs to be protected from tampering; in these cases a spring could be deliberately contaminated or poisoned.
In the pictures of springs used as a home water supply shown above, the cover is unsafe or missing completely, and the springs remain vulnerable to surface contaminants such as animal waste, pesticides, fertilizers, or other surface chemicals. Even if a water spring passes a bacterial test we have these remaining concerns:
Other chemicals or contaminants may be present
The spring is so easily contaminated from surface water that we can't be sure that it will remain as a sanitary water source.
Sanitation Advice for Springs as a Drinking Water Source - Spring Water Contamination
OPINION: As we discussed Hand Dug Wells, at While 100 years ago or more surface water found in dug wells and springs was often of high quality and potable - at least in some areas of the world.
It is difficult to keep a ground water spring or seep sanitary - a typical residential water-source spring is open to both surface runoff and ground water runoff. When the author was a boy, our water was taken from a cool surface spring at our home in Dunnsville, Virginia.
Dad, helped by Ivory Washington, built a concrete enclosure to keep nearby surface runoff out of the spring. He also built a roof over the enclosure, to that to obtain water we had to dip it out of the springhouse. Later we added a small pump to send the springwater to our house.
The spring enclosure, combined with his observation that water was constantly rising to the surface of the spring from an underground source gave Dad confidence in the water quality - we doubt he ever had it tested. Water rose in the concrete enclosure, filling it to overflowing. We also kept our watermelons cool by tossing them into the springhouse.
But today it is very difficult to find sanitary drinking water where surface runoff and shallow subsurface water enter the water supply such as that provided by a residential spring or hand dug well. This is also true for other types shallow wells such as Driven Point Wells, and even drilled wells protected by a well casing in some cases.
Commercially sold bottled spring water is a different matter and is expected to be sanitary and thus safe to drink. Keep in mind that bottled water sold as "spring water" is typically not only taken from a protected source, but it is also constantly tested by the bottled water producer, and in at least some instances bottled spring water may also be sanitized or treated as well.
Shocking a spring water source (WELL CHLORINATION & SHOCKING) in an attempt to "fix" a bacteria problem in its drinking water is almost certainly unreliable.
You can shock the spring at its source - a momentary sanitizing step for spring water that is not durable, but if you are not going to drill a modern sanitary well (costly), in order to assure safe potable drinking water you will probably need to install water treatment equipment to sanitize the water - after testing to see what contaminants besides bacteria (Interpreting the Level of Bacteria) are present.
What is the Difference Between a Spring and a Seep as a Water Source?
Question:
I was wondering if you could tell me how I can tell the difference between a spring and a seep? What do I look for. I have what looks like the start of a small steam on my property. It is very small and moving slowly and there are a bunch of heavy rocks near by so I can't tell exactly where it is coming from. Someone had put a well on the property but apparently it is unusable according to the realtor. - J.S.
Reply:
A competent onsite inspection by an expert usually finds additional clues that help accurately diagnose a problem with your water supply. That said, here are some things to consider: a "seep" is essentially the same thing as a spring - both are sources of water at or near ground surface.
People use the word "seep" when the flow rate is small, and more importantly, to imply that the water arriving at the point where it is collected has passed through a length of soil near the ground surface, or perhaps even on the surface such as under leaves and moss. Neither source is reliably sanitary for drinking water in most U.S. locations.
To make use of seep water for watering grass or something similar:
You will want to do some exploring to see if you can follow the water course back on the ground surface to a source such as a rock face or rockfield.
The closer you can construct a water collecting cistern to the seep water source the less unsanitary surface materials will affect the water supply.
Keep your cost down by keeping things simple: if the property has enough slope from seep and cistern location to point of use you may use a gravity piping system. See our warnings just below.
If you are planning to make use of seep water for more than watering the grass, you'll almost certainly need to install a water treatment / purification system before it could be safe to drink. Before choosing a water treatment system for your seep water here are some things to consider:
If the total flow rate of the seep is quite low - as is usually the case - the water supply quantity may not justify purchasing and installing collection cistern, pump, piping, and water treatment equipment that would be necessary.
Seep water supplies are often seasonal - you may have no water in the seep during dry weather.
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Water Supply & Drain Piping, Wells, Pumps, Water Supply Equipment
Access Water Energy, PO Box 2061, Moorabbin, VIC 3189, Australia, Tel: 1300 797 758, email: sales@accesswater.com.au Moorabbin Office: Kingston Trade Centre, 100 Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin, VIC 3189
Australian supplier of: Greywater systems, Solar power to grid packages, Edwards solar systems, Vulcan compact solar systems, water & solar system pumps & controls, and a wide rage of above ground & under ground water storage tanks: concrete, steel, plastic, modular, and bladder storage tanks.
Cheating on water tests: Testing Water for Real Estate Transactions - make sure your water test is valid
Smart Tank, Installation Instructions, Flexcon Industries, 300 Pond St., Randolph MA 02368, www.flexconind.com, Tel: 800-527-0030 - web search 07/24/2010, original source: http://www.flexconind.com/pdf/st_install.pdf
Typical Shallow Well One Line Jet Pump Installation, Grove Electric, G&G Electric & Plumbing, 1900 NE 78th St., Suite 101, Vancouver WA 98665 www.grovelectric.com - web search -7/15/2010 original source: http://www.groverelectric.com/howto/38_Typical%20Jet%20Pump%20Installation.pdf
Typical Deep Well Two Line Jet Pump Installation, Grove Electric, G&G Electric & Plumbing, 1900 NE 78th St., Suite 101, Vancouver WA 98665 www.grovelectric.com - web search -7/15/2010 original source: http://www.groverelectric.com/howto/38_Typical%20Jet%20Pump%20Installation.pdf
Water Fact Sheet #3, Using Low-Yielding Wells, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Cooperative Extension, School of Forest Resources, web search 07/24/2010, original source: http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/XH0002.pdf
Water pressure tanks - how to diagnose the need for air, how to add air, stop water pump short cycling to avoid damage - water storage water pressure tank safety.
Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair
Our recommended books about building & mechanical systems design, inspection, problem diagnosis, and repair, and about indoor environment and IAQ testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the InspectAPedia Bookstore. Also see our Book Reviews - InspectAPedia.
The Home Reference Book - the Encyclopedia of Homes, Carson Dunlop & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, 2010, $69.00 U.S., is available from Carson Dunlop, and from the InspectAPedia bookstore. The 2010 edition of the Home Reference Book is a bound volume of more than 450 illustrated pages that assist home inspectors and home owners in the inspection and detection of problems on buildings. The text is intended as a reference guide to help building owners operate and maintain their home effectively. InspectAPedia.com ® author/editor Daniel Friedman is a contributing author. Field inspection worksheets are included at the back of the volume.
Crystal Clear Supply provides portable ceramic water filter purifiers and portable reverse osmosis water treatment equipment - see http://www.crystalclearsupply.com/category_s/7.htm
Handbook of Disinfectants and Antiseptics, Joseph M. Ascenzi (Editor), CRC, 1995, ISBN-10: 0824795245 ISBN-13: 978-0824795245 "The evaluation of chemical germicides predates the golden age of microbiology..." -
This well-focused, up-to-date reference details the current medical uses of antiseptics and disinfectants -- particularly in the control of hospital-acquired infections -- presenting methods for evaluating products to obtain regulatory approval and examining chemical, physical, and microbiological properties as well as the toxicology of the most widely used commercial chemicals.
Potable Aqua® emergency drinking water germicidal tablets are produced by the Wisconsin Pharmacal Co., Jackson WI 53037. 800-558-6614 pharmacalway.com
Principles and Practice of Disinfection, Preservation and Sterilization (Hardcover)
by A. D. Russell (Editor), W. B. Hugo (Editor), G. A. J. Ayliffe (Editor), Blackwell Science, 2004. ISBN-10: 1405101997, ISBN-13: 978-1405101998.
"This superb book is the best of its kind available and one that will undoubtedly be useful, if not essential, to workers in a variety of industries. Thirty-one distinguished specialists deal comprehensively with the subject matter indicated by the title ... The book is produced with care, is very readable with useful selected references at the end of each chapter and an excellent index. It is an essential source book for everyone interested in this field. For pharmacy undergraduates, it will complement the excellent text on pharmaceutical microbiology by two of the present editors."
The Pharmaceutical Journal: "This is an excellent book. It deals comprehensively and authoritatively with its subject with contributions from 31 distinguished specialists. There is a great deal to interest all those involved in hospital infection ... This book is exceptionally well laid out. There are well chosen references for each chapter and an excellent index. It is highly recommended." The Journal of Hospital Infection.: "The editors and authors must be congratulated for this excellent treatise on nonantibiotic antimicrobial measures in hospitals and industry ... The publication is highly recommended to hospital and research personnel, especially to clinical microbiologists, infection-control and environmental-safety specialists, pharmacists, and dieticians."
New England Journal of Medicine: City Hospital, Birmingham, UK. Covers the many methods of the elimination or prevention of microbial growth. Provides an historical overview, descriptions of the types of antimicrobial agents, factors affecting efficacy, evaluation methods, and types of resistance. Features sterilization methods, and more. Previous edition: c1999. DNLM: Sterilization--methods.
U.S. Army Field Manual 21-10, Field Hygiene and Sanitation, 1988, web search 07/02/2010, original source: http://www.enlisted.info/field-manuals/fm-21-10-field-hygiene-and-sanitation.shtml The purpose of this manual is to assist individual soldiers, unit commanders, leaders and field sanitation teams in preventing disease and environmental injuries. The manual provides information on preventive medicine measures (PMM) to the individual soldier as well as essential information for the unit commander, unit leaders, and the unit field sanitation team on applying unit level PMM.
When Technology Fails, Matthew Stein, Chelsea Green Publisher, 2008,493 pages. ISBN-10: 1933392452 ISBN-13: 978-1933392455, "... how to find and sterilize water in the face of utility failure, as well as practical information for dealing with water-quality issues even when the public tap water is still flowing". Mr. Stein's website is www.whentechfails.com/
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