If you live far from a municipal water supply in Florida, your most reliable source of potable water may be a well. Having your own well may also provide you with healthier water since you’ll be able to avoid the contaminants and additives that are sometimes found in municipal water supplies. Well drilling Tampa FL can help you be confident that the water you’re drinking is healthy, fresh and safe.

Planning for a New Well

Before you hire someone to drill a well, check to make sure you have any local permits that may be necessary. While some locations don’t put any restrictions on new ground water sources, others do. It’s always best to place a well so that any maintenance work that may need to be done on the site over time can be done easily.

It’s also important to place your new well far away from any potential sources of water contamination. Placing a well on a higher rather than lower site will reduce the risk of water contamination. Additionally, many localities have specific rules in place that regulate acceptable distances from things like septic tanks, cesspools and landfills. If your municipality has no such rules in place, here are a few distance guidelines:

• Cesspools or any other reservoir of raw sewage: 200 feet
• Privies or outside toilets: 50 feet
• Septic tanks: 50 feet
• Boundaries of property: 5 feet
• Boundaries of roads: 20 feet
• Landfills: 200 feet

How Deep Should a Well Be?

There are no hard and fast rules determining the optimal depth of a well. Well water usually comes from pockets of water within the bedrock that are located at varying depths. Well depths are generally determined by the height of the water table as well as by the geological features of the area in which the well is being drilled. The deeper the well, the more likely it is that the water in the well will contain mineral residues. Most residential wells are somewhere between 100 and 500 feet deep.