Well Water Filtration System

Well water has become one of the most important sources of drinking water in many desert and arid regions. Many residential settlements are also resorting to ground water as a major resource of water.

What is Ground Water

Just as we have water bodies and water sources on the surface of the earth, there are also many springs and water sources under the surface of the earth. The percolation of water plays a very important role in the accumulation of ground water. After rain falls on the surface the earth, a large volume of it accumulates in water bodies, like, rivers, lakes and oceans. Most of us do not know but a huge volume of water trickles down into the ground and keeps on percolating into the surface of the earth. This kind of water keeps on accumulating and eventually underground streams are formed. Gravity of the earth also pulls down a large volume of water into the ground through the water bodies. This kind of water keeps on percolating eventually forming a huge deposits of water in the earth's crust. So where does all this water go? The answer is pretty simple: a large part of this water is absorbed by the soil and rocks. Hence as you start digging downwards, into the surface of the earth, you will find that the soil and debris that you encounter are full of moisture. Many of the wells that are dug out in river basins, have naturally clean water. The sources of underground water begin from the highland areas to the land areas and finally join some or the other water body. The velocity of the stream eventually purifies the water. Hence the water wells near the rivers have clean water. In other regions, however, there is a good chance of contamination. Contamination of well water is usually divided into three categories.

• Chemical and mineral contamination
• Biological contamination
• Human Contamination

Out of the 3 types of contamination, the chemical and biological contamination occur naturally, due to the presence of some or the other mineral or micro organism. The human contamination occurs due to human error and carelessness. This type of contamination occurs in the well itself and is very dangerous. The well filtration systems are basically designed to remove this kind of contamination.

Well Water Purification Systems

The well water filtration systems are basically divided into three stages or rather three steps of purification. The first stage in well water purification systems is the physical filtration. In this step, simple water filters are used to remove dirt from the water, such as screens and sand filters. Nowadays the concept of charcoal filters is also being used by many well water purification systems. The basic objective of this stage is to remove all the harmful particles in the well water.

The second step in filtration system is chemical water purification. The water that is taken from deep wells, often, contains excessive chemicals, like, calcium or carbonates and other compounds. These minerals are totally harmless, however, if they are consumed in large quantities, they can prove to be harmful. In order to reduce the amount of these minerals, softening of water or mixing chlorine in water are conducted.

The third step in well water purification system is the biological filtration of water. The water that is brought to the surface of the earth, at times contains small amounts of bacteria and algae, that may spread harmful diseases. During the biological filtration of water, these micro organisms are eradicated.

Some manufacturers of these filtration systems have come up with a brilliant home well water filtration concept where ultraviolet rays are used to purify water.