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
The other answer is that they did get sick. there are lots of times when they dug wells too near outhouses or animal waste. Church records tell the tale of families with multiple deaths because of contaminated well water.
I grew up on well water, and I’m middle aged. My mom had it tested regularly. It’s been long enough ago that I don’t remember how often it was, but I do remember her doing the little testing kits and sending them in.
The only thing was we didn’t have water whenever we lost power, because the pump didn’t work without power.
Recently moved to central Virginia and have a well. It is about 300 ft deep and a cording to the well drillers, is in a different aquafer then the niebors (they are about 150 ft.
Well is just a small diameter hole that has a cladding on the shallower parts, there is an electric pump near the bottom that pumps it up to a small tank in the house. The water is not usually “earthy tasting” although I have noticed three different “tastes” in the 8 months we have been here. Usually it is a bit sweet, but I have also noticed a savory taste and a more neutral taste as well, seems to be related to how much rain we get.
So my family has a cottage in northern Ontario that runs on a well on a spring kinda thing. We take the atv drive around a bunch of huge rocks and ridges , go through a muddy and small atv trail in thick woods , and load our atvs with jugs.
The water has a wood cover and we just lift it , and it sorts bubbles out of the spring into the jugs. It’s 100 percent heavenly spring water.
I’m scared nestle will read this and come and steal it
Wells work fine for clean water as long as you put the outhouse/manure pile/compost heap/bird coop/septic bed a good distance away from the well and not uphill/upstream from it. My uncle made the error of building a new chicken coop too close to the wellhead and everyone in the house started getting sick. They had the water tested, the well cleaned and uncle moved the coop farther away. All kitchen water was bottled, filtered and/or boiled for a while until the system cleared itself out and the water tested clean. It’s a more dangerous problem with outhouses and septic beds. Overland flooding and heavy downpours are also a risk.
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A old-time well in Europe was closer to a hole in the ground than the Snow White version. Villages and towns usually had some regulations on what could be close to a well, but dirty water was a major factor in disease (and death in infancy). So yes, they often got sick.
Travelers often commented on what the local water was like, and sources were rated. Romans liked to keep their sources separate – the aqueducts don’t mix the flows from each spring or other source.
Tons of homes are still on wells. Water is clean, and you should check it once and a while to be sure no bacteria is forming. If so, you can shock it, just like you do with your pool or hot tub.
My last house was on a well. The only issue I had with it is high mineral concentration, so unless you have a water softener, or some other form of mineral removal, you can get a lot of scaling/staining in toilets etc.
The upside is, no water bill, like I have now!
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