Welcome to Our June Newsletter |
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Days are getting longer, temperatures are getting hotter, and it's time to get camp up and running! Make sure to get your well water moving and tested after a long winter to ensure its safety for your family and friends. |
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In this Edition
Lawn Care and Your Well
Public Water Treatment
Drought and Your Well
Industry News
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With the temperatures warming up, New Englanders are spending more time in their back yards with their toes in the grass. We all strive to have beautiful, lush, green lawns and fertilizers are a tool used by many to achieve this. Whether you use chemical or natural fertilizers, care must be taken with these products as they can permeate the ground and end up in your well or drinking water supply if not used and stored properly. If fertilizers make their way to a drinking supply, they can cause high levels of nitrate, which can cause serious illness in infants and may increase risks of certain types of cancers.
Fertilizers can leach into the earth and penetrate the water table or get carried by heavy rains into streams and rivers. Some factors make wells more susceptible to leaching such as the depth of the well, a shallow well is more at risk as there is less earth to act as filtration. Soil conditions can also play a factor in fertilizers reaching the groundwater, sandier and fine soils can allow the nutrients or chemicals to pass through easier. The chemical persistence, or the length of time it takes the chemicals to break down, as well as the solubility, can contribute to leaching. If the chemical fertilizers are highly soluble or easily broken down in water, they are more likely to move through the earth and reach the groundwater. Fertilizers that get into lakes and streams by stormwater runoff can cause an over-abundance of phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, which in return causes algae to overgrow and harm the water quality.
Care should be taken when mixing, using, and storing fertilizers. When using products that attach to a hose sprayer, you want to make sure there is an anti-siphoning device on the sprayer, this will keep the chemicals from backing up into the hose and directly into your well in the case of a drop in water pressure. For the same reasons, if you are mixing the fertilizers or chemicals in a bucket, make sure the hose is above the solution and not down in it. When spreading lawn chemicals, it is recommended to stay at least 75 feet from your well, and not to spray uphill of your well. When it rains, it can wash the fertilizer downhill and concentrate in the area of your well. Follow the dilution directions carefully, more is not better. You should mix, store and spray fertilizers in an area far away from your well. Leftover solutions should be stored covered and off the ground, far away from the well. Do not pour leftover solutions onto the ground. If you wish to dispose of leftover fertilizers or pesticides, you can bring them to hazardous waste disposal at your local transfer station, or you can give to a neighbor to use.
For more information on nutrient pollution and what you can do to prevent it, visit:
For ways to care for your lawn and minimize the environmental impact, visit:
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Drinking water in the United States is among some of the cleanest in the world. However, even in the US, drinking water can become contaminated. Because of this, drinking water sources require appropriate treatment to remove these disease-causing contaminants. Most public drinking water systems use various methods of rigorous treatment to provide safe water for their communities. These steps include coagulation and flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection.
Coagulation and flocculation:
Coagulation and flocculation are usually the first steps in water treatment. Chemicals with a positive charge (like iron, aluminum sulphate, ferric sulphate, or polymers) are added to the water. The positive charge from these chemicals neutralizes the negative charge of dirt and other dissolved particles in the water. When this occurs, the particles bind together, or coagulate. This is flocculation. The large particles, or floc, will settle to the bottom of the water supply. This settling process is called sedimentation.
Filtration:
Once the floc has settled to the bottom, the clear water on top passes through filters to remove any particulate matter that had not yet settled. These filters have varying sizes of pores and is often made up of sand, gravel, and charcoal. The filter process may be either slow or rapid while being operated by gravity, or the water can be forced through medium under pressure. Rapid gravity filters contain course mediums and will allow water to rapidly pass through leaving behind suspended solids. In slow sand filters, much finer mediums are used. These filtration systems eliminate out any particles that remain after sedimentation.
Disinfection:
After the water has been filtered, it flows into a closed tank where disinfectants like chlorine or chloramine, will be added in order to kill any remaining parasites, bacteria, and viruses. This will keep the water clean and free of germs until it is distributed to homes and businesses.
Water may be treated differently in different communities depending on the quality of your water that enters the treatment plant. If you would like more information, you are able to contact your local water district or treatment plant.
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Currently, the National Drought Monitor shows parts of every New England state to be experiencing “abnormally dry” conditions. Additionally, parts of New Hampshire and Vermont are in a moderate drought with some areas of northwestern Maine having only 25-50% of its normal precipitation for this time of year.
This low precipitation has also caused below normal stream flows across eastern New England. However, because of the snow melt runoff throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, stream flows are considered normal or even slightly above normal.
During severe drought, we rely heavily on groundwater which is held in underground aquifers. An aquifer can become depleted when more water is pumped out of it than is replenished by rainfall or other water sources. To protect your well equipment and water supply, there are some recommended practices to follow.
First, monitor your well pump. Low water levels will make your pump cycle on and off rapidly which will burn out the motor. If you find that your pump is beginning to cycle on and off consistently, turn it off. You may need to reduce your future pumping rate or lower the pump if water levels don’t rise. Next, if your pump sounds like it is sucking on air, let it rest. When water levels drop, your well may begin to produce sand and air bubbles. If you find sand in your toilet tank or have milky-looking tap water that clears after running a short time, it could mean your well is beginning to go dry.
Finally, make sure to have your water tested regularly during and after a drought. As water levels fall, air can enter the aquifer and change its chemistry. Oxygen in the aquifer will increase concentrations of naturally occurring contaminants such as arsenic. If your well normally contains low concentrations of arsenic, expect it to increase during a drought.
To order your water testing kit click below:
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NEWS THROUGHOUT OUR INDUSTRY |
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