Author Question: If you were planning to purchase a house with a well and septic system, what would you look for in ... (Read 17 times)

mynx · **on:** Jul 16, 2018

If you were planning to purchase a house with a well and septic system, what would you look for in regards to water availability, water quality, and sinkhole risk?

How would you determine where to locate your well relative to the location of your septic system?
What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Many brands of bottled water promote their product as artesian water. Is artesian water necessarily better than non-artesian water?

What will be an ideal response?

billybob123 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 16, 2018

Answer to Question 1

I would want to know more about the aquifer that the houses well was drilled into. How much water does it hold? Is it a good enough aquifer for my needs? What is the chemical composition of the water, hard vs. soft, polluted vs. unpolluted? What are the potential sources of pollution in the area? Are there any sinkholes or caves in the region? If so, is there a risk that the house could be over an underground cavern?

Answer to Question 2

Artesian water occurs when a confined aquifer has a recharge area at a higher elevation than its discharge area. The artesian water is under pressure and will flow to the surface without pumping if the elevation of the surface is below the elevation of the recharge area. The pressure of the water doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the water so in general artesian water is no better than non-artesian water. If there is a case where the unconfined aquifer is polluted and the artesian aquifer is protected from the pollution, then the artesian water would be better. Another special case could be where the regolith or rocks in the artesian aquifer were sufficiently different from the non-artesian aquifer to make a difference in the water. An example would be where the artesian aquifer was sandstone and the unconfined aquifer was limestone. The non-artesian water would be harder than the artesian water and would require water softener.