Wellhead protection programs help protect public
groundwater supplies from contamination and prevent the need for
costly water treatment.
The national Wellhead Protection Program was established by
the 1986 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The SDWA
Amendments require each state to develop a Comprehensive State Groundwater
Protection Program and encourage local water systems to develop
wellhead protection plans for their community water systems.
If you own a well, protecting the area around your wellhead is important to protecting your water supply.
You can help protect your well:
- Safely seal, store or dispose of animal
waste, fuels, pesticides, fertilizers, paints, and other harmful
products in accordance with local waste disposal ordinances. These elements should never be located near a wellhead.
- Properly seal a well with a 50-foot-deep
sanitary seal around the well casing to prevent contaminants from
directly entering the groundwater basin.
- If you're a private well user, test your
well water at least once each year for coliform bacteria and at
least once every three years for the Routine Domestic Water Analysis.
For more information, call a certified private lab.
- Develop wells only outside areas of potential
contamination. Corrals, pastures,
feedlots, drainage ways or underground storage tanks should never be located near a well.
Establish a wellhead protection area
Although wellhead protection is a routine requirement for large
well users such as municipalities, private well users are encouraged
to establish their own wellhead protection areas around their wells.
The area should be a circle around the well that has a minimum radius
of 100 feet from the wellhead.
For more information about wellhead protection,
call the Water District's Operations Department at (702) 258-3110.
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