Typically dug, drilled or otherwise excavated, a water well is a manmade structure used to access underground aquifers for water. Many people are familiar with the old wishing wells with buckets, which were used to draw up water. Today, modern wells use powerful pumps to pull water from the ground.
The world's oldest recognized manmade water wells were created in 7,500 BCE on Cyprus, an island located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Throughout history humans have used wells as a water source and places to gather. They range from the simple soakages Australian Aborigines accessed by sucking on reeds like soda-pop straws placed in certain points of the desert, to the deep and open-aired stepwells found in western India used not only as a source of water but as a community gathering area.
Dug Wells vs. Drilled Wells
Today wells are created either by digging, driving or drilling. Driving is the least common method, and we will avoid that subject for this article. Most wells in the world today are created by using the drill method or the dug method. Both are used in different areas of the world for different reasons.
Modern dug wells are created using a method called caissoning, where pre-cast concrete or reinforced concrete rings are lowered one by one into a shaft while a work crew digs out from under a cutting ring, so the well slowly sinks down to the aquifer.
Mostly found in developing countries, dug wells present several problems. This type can only go so far into the ground. Being located so close to the surface, this type of well can be easily contaminated by animal and human waste.
Most modern wells in developed countries such as the United States are created by using drilling machines. The methods can involve simple hand drilling such as jetting, sludging or auguring or machine drilling with a top-head rotary or down-the-whole hammer. By going deeper a drilled well avoids the contamination problems found in a dug well.
Modern Water Wells & Your Swimming Pool
Obviously a drilled well can go much deeper than a hand-dug well, sometimes going deeper than 3,000 feet. Drilled wells are cased in PVC pipes or steel and the segments are welded together after being placed in the ground. In the United States a surface seal is used to protect the water from contamination, and a second seal typically caps the top. This second seal is designed to vent air while keeping animals and insects out of the water supply.
While contamination in the hand-dug, shallow-pumping wells typically comes from human and animal waste matter (bacteria, parasites, fungi and viruses), the deeper drilled wells here in the United States avoid these problems. But since well water has been below the surface for an unknown amount of time, usually percolating through the ground to the deep aquifer, this water contains more ground minerals and trace metals than regular surface water.
Do you own a swimming pool and have well water? Chances are your water is full of ground minerals and trace metals such as magnesium, iron, lithium, copper, zinc, vanadium, nickel, cobalt, chromium, molybdenum, arsenic, manganese and selenium.
The presence of these metals and minerals can cause serious problems for above ground pool owners. Hard water (magnesium and calcium) can cause pipes and filters to clog and systems to fail. The presence of iron and manganese can cause certain, and very harmful, types of bacteria to grow.
If you have well water, be sure to treat the pool water with Iron Remover (view Iron Remover here) or Metal Free (view Metal Free here). This is very important at the beginning of the swimming season, when you are filling your swimming pool with water. Be sure to follow the instructions on the bottles of these products before using them.
Iron Remover inhibits the formation of rusty, brown, black or green pool water. It's non-foaming and easy to apply. Metal Free will remove iron, copper and other trace metals from your swimming pool water. It's also easy to use, and will help prevent staining, rust lines, cloudy water and stinky water.
We hope this information is helpful with your swimming pool maintenance. Trust the experts at Family Leisure for the best advice regarding your above ground pool. And don't forget Family Leisure offers Pool Supplies for Sale and with Free Nationwide Shipping. View All Pool Supplies From Family Leisure Here.
