Date: March 16, 2004

Water board urges county residents to protect groundwater basins, inspect and test private wells

SANTA CLARA COUNTY – An unusually warm month of March means Santa Clara County’s retail water companies, municipal utilities and private citizens are relying more heavily on wells to quench their thirst and keep their gardens green.

Yet the source of that water – the county’s groundwater basins – is under continued threats of contamination.

In hopes of drawing attention of the groundwater’s importance to Santa Clara County, the water district board of directors approved a resolution today proclaiming March 14-20 as National Groundwater Awareness Week.

“The message is pretty simple,” said Joe Judge, chairman of the water district board of directors. “If you don’t want to drink it, don’t spill it on or in the ground.”

Roughly half of the county’s annual drinking water supplies are pumped from groundwater basins through some 6,000 wells owned by municipalities, retail water companies or individuals. Although water from groundwater basins is traditionally of very high quality, the basins are threatened by industrial spills, leaking underground fuel storage tanks and agricultural applications, as well as biological pathogens from cracked sewer lines, septic systems, livestock facilities and other sources.

Because there is no local, regional or state agency responsible for maintaining and testing private wells, the resolution urges well-owners to conduct annual well “checkups,” including maintenance inspections and water-testing.

The district recommends an annual checkup, including:

• Inspection of the wellhead, looking for openings where insects, rodents, water or anything else can enter.

• Inspection for cracks in the concrete pad that could allow water, or contaminants it may be carrying, to follow the well casing into a drinking water aquifer.

• Inspection for water flowing out of the top of the well, which can waste water and/or allow contaminants in.

• Clearing away overgrown vegetation and debris, which can create homes for rodents and other pests. (Do not use herbicides around your well.)

• Making sure the well-registration number is still visible, as locally required.

There are dozens of tests that can be performed on drinking water and no one analysis can assure that water from a specific well is “safe to drink.” For that reason, the water district recommends that well owners have samples tested for:

• Total coliform bacteria, the presence of which indicates that the water may be contaminated with other disease-causing organisms.

• Nitrate, a naturally occurring compound that, at high levels, is a health risk for infants younger than 6 months of age, pregnant women and people with certain specific enzyme deficiencies.

Information on maintenance and testing of wells is contained in “A Guide for the Private Well Owner,” available by calling the district at (408) 265-2607, ext. 2238, or by visiting the district Web site, www.valleywater.org.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District manages Santa Clara County's wholesale drinking water resources, coordinates flood protection for its 1.7 million residents and provides stewardship for the county's 10 reservoirs and more than 800 miles of streams.