Drought Impacts Well Water Treatment Systems And Water Quality

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the North American Drought is a record-breaking expansion of the drought which started in 2010, when the shortage of snow and rain in North America resulted in little or no run-off and melt-water to soak into the soil.

The shortage of water encompasses 80% of the United States, and central and eastern Canada. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 15% of Americans rely on their own private well for their water source and the drought is beginning to have an effect on a huge number of private water wells throughout the U.S.

The drought has caused, and is expected to continue to inflict, devastating economic effects on the affected states because it impacts agricultural as well as communities who depend upon groundwater. The shortage of water also has the potential to affect many millions of Americans whom depend upon private wells for their water source.

What To Do If Your Local area Is Impacted

If you live within an area suffering from drought, be on the look-out for a change in your own well water. In the event that you have a dried up well issue where the well is pumping air, consult a professional water well water contractor to see exactly what the level of the water is in the well. Often the well pump can be dropped to take benefit from the existing water table. If the well water quality changed in recent months and you discover higher amounts of smells, color or sediment, it is possible that this has been the result of a fall in the water table.

Rehabilitating a water well may cause it to produce a lot more water and improve drinking water quality. Water well rehabilitation is the process by which a well is restored to its best possible condition using various mechanical or chemical techniques. A professional water well contractor can do checks to see if rehabilitating methods will be productive before beginning the process.  For more information contact the National Ground Water Association.

Water Treatment Systems Affected By Drought

A great number of well water owners employ various kinds of water treatment systems to obtain potable water from their water wells. These include iron filters, water softeners, chlorinators, sediment filters, ozone generators and ultra-violet sterilizers to mention a few. Systems such as automated iron filter systems, softeners as well as reverse osmosis systems all utilize water to automatically clean and maintain the treatment system in a process known as regeneration, in which the system is backwashed and rinsed to drain to clean and maintain the treatment system.

How You Can Optimize Your Water Treatment Systems During The Drought

See our free report on how to save water by optimizing your water treatment system.  Test your water both before and after your water treatment system to ascertain if it’s operating in line with the manufacturer specs. If it is working properly, consider changing the frequency of the backwash or regeneration to save on water. For instance if you have an iron filter or some other type of backwashing filter system that backwashes every night, look into setting it for every other night to reduce water consumption. If it is set for once every four days, consider changing it to once every seven days.

Consider re-using the waste water from the filtration system for watering the garden. Except for water softeners which use salt water brine for regeneration, many types of filtration systems use backwash water which may have waste water which can be routed to irrigate trees or shrubs. Check local laws, as some states have polices regarding using this kind of waste water.

Examine under-sink reverse osmosis (“RO”) devices with regard to waste water to make certain the system is not continually running waste water to drain. Under-sink RO systems route a percentage of the water to drain, as the system is producing the pure drinking water. If an RO system malfunctions the RO can continually waste water. The waste water from RO systems can often be used for irrigation and it’s often not difficult to run some tubes out of the waste water line to the outside for irrigation.

Need assistance?   Contact us for more information on how to reduce your water treatment systems waste water.