eli5: When people used wells for drinking water, how did they not get sick? Was there some type of filter or was the water just naturally clean?
In: 6475
I have a well. I do not live in the sticks, just three miles outside San Antonio city limits. When my development was laid out in the 70s the city was still almost ten miles away but has since blown past us.
Our well water comes from the same place as city water does, the Edwards Aquifer, which is basically an massive underground lake. The limestone that makes up the geography of this area acts as a natural filter, so the water is safe to drink straight out of the ground. The city treats the water because of all the plumbing it must go through between coming out of the ground and reaching people’s homes which can introduce contamination. Water at my house goes ten feet to a reservoir and then thirty feet to the house.
That said, sometimes there are contaminates in people’s wells, up north where I’m from there is a certain bacteria that can found in the groundwater so you might have to pass it through a UV light filter. Other places probably have other things they might need to contend with.
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