Mid-late spring or early summer is the prime time to conduct a private well maintenance check. Winter can be especially hard on outdoor systems; surfaces and landscaping that are subject to the elements. Getting in the habit of inspecting and maintaining your well system in the spring and the fall is a good habit to get into. It will help ensure everything operates efficiently and can potentially save you from shelling out money for costly repairs.
Spring is here and that often means its time start outdoor projects. Whether you are spading in new trees, putting in a koi pond or other excavated landscape features, drilling a new well, or installing a new onsite wastewater system, you want to make sure a ‘Locate Request’ has been submitted to Nebraska811 before digging.
Nebraska811 is the statewide one-call notification center, set up by Nebraska state law. It is the link between people who want to excavate and the underground facility owners/operators.
National Groundwater Awareness Week is March 9–15, making it the perfect time to talk about groundwater in Nebraska! What exactly is groundwater? It is the water below the earth’s surface that fills the interconnected voids and cracks in and around soil particles, sand, gravel and rock — all of this is what we call an aquifer.
Many parts of Nebraska have hard water. Hard water has a high mineral content; hardness primarily refers to the amount of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) dissolved in the water. Hard water is not just a private well owner’s problem, it affects many municipal water users, too. While hard water does not present a health risk for the vast majority of the population, it is often a nuisance for rural and urban homeowners across the state. Having your well water tested for hardness is helpful in assessing what treatment system will work best.
Those residences that are not served by a public water system need a source of water for both consumption and daily needs. A private well most often fulfills these needs. While the cost of drilling a well is not a huge expense in the overall purchase or building of a home, it is a necessary expense to provide the residence with a useable water supply and it adds value to the property.
The Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District (P-MRNRD) 2018 Groundwater Management Plan incorporates and responds to new data and information about groundwater quantity and quality throughout the District. The new plan incorporates data from studies, as well as regulation changes including:
Groundwater Protection: It’s Up to Everyone
If you think about the water cycle, you begin to realize the water we use every day, is in essence, recycled. There’s no new water, we are drinking some of the same water the dinosaurs drank!
Keeping our drinking water sources safe begins with each of us. There are many things everyone can do to assist with groundwater protection whether you live in an urban or rural area.
It’s that time of year again in Nebraska, when we can experience severe weather such as flooding, thunderstorms, and tornadoes. These events can create power outages. If you are a private well owner without power your well pump won’t work, therefore you will not have running water and public water customers can also experience disruptions in their water supply. Having an emergency water supply on hand can be very helpful in these situations.
There is no time like the present to have a “Flushing 101” review. Whether you live in a rural area and have your own personal onsite wastewater system or your house is hooked up to a municipal wastewater system, everyone needs to be conscious of what we flush down the toilet. Regardless of what type of wastewater system your home is hooked up to, minimizing solids in our wastewater will improve the overall system performance.
