How Private Well Systems and City Water Really Work — and Why It Matters for Your Treatment
A significant number of Americans rely on private drinking water supplies — an estimated 15 percent, or about 47 million people. Unlike public water systems regulated by the EPA, private wells do not fall under federal oversight, meaning there is no agency regularly monitoring the water quality before it reaches your tap.
While private well water isn't subject to EPA standards, some state and local governments have established their own rules to protect users from contamination. But in practice, the responsibility for safe well water falls largely on the individual homeowner.
Most wells in the United States use submersible well pump systems: a drilled well that can run 200 feet deep or more, with some reaching 1,000 feet or greater. These wells have steel or PVC casings that extend well into the ground to keep out surface water and prevent cave-ins, along with screens that filter out sand and dirt while letting water enter the well shaft. The surrounding area is sealed with grout — typically bentonite clay and gravel — and the pump itself sits several feet above the bottom of the well to reduce the sand, silt, or mud it draws in.
Understanding the difference between shallow and deep wells — and their pump systems — matters for anyone relying on a private well.
Shallow wells, typically less than 100 feet deep, use above-ground jet pump systems located in the basement or crawl space. Very shallow wells with a high static water level use a single-drop jet pump. Deeper shallow wells (roughly 50–100 feet) use a double-drop jet pump system, which includes a foot valve — a check valve at the bottom of the well line that keeps water from draining back down.
Once a well passes about 100 feet, jet pumps can no longer suction water up from that depth. That's where submersible pumps take over — installed directly in the well itself, capable of pushing water up from much greater depths.
Regardless of which pump system is used, water from the aquifer is pumped into a pressurized holding tank, which stores water for use between pump cycles and regulates pressure throughout the system. From there it's distributed through your home's piping to every fixture.
Many contaminants found in private well water don't pose a direct health risk — but they can still do real damage to plumbing fixtures, appliances, and everyday water quality. Iron and hardness stains ruin laundry and surfaces, corrosive water shortens the life of water heaters and plumbing, and sulfur odor can make showering unpleasant and permeate the whole house.
Modern water treatment equipment is built specifically to address these aesthetic problems — targeting iron, sulfur, hardness, and other unwanted substances to stop the staining, odors, and plumbing damage before they start. Investing in the right equipment for your specific well doesn't just improve water quality; it protects the lifespan of everything downstream of it.
Municipal water systems — also called public or city water — deliver drinking water to communities through constructed pipe networks, regulated by the EPA under the Primary Drinking Water Regulations. Roughly 90 percent of Americans get their water through about 157,000 public water systems nationwide, a partnership between the EPA, individual states, and local water operators that keeps drinking water safe and reliable.
In Maryland and surrounding municipalities, the hardness of public water varies widely — anywhere from just a few grains per gallon to over 25 grains per gallon. Chlorine levels fluctuate depending on the season and how close you are to the treatment facility. Municipal water's pH is regulated to stay between 6.5 and 8.5, though high oxygen levels in some public water can still make it corrosive to copper piping.
Many city water customers add whole-house conditioning to deal with these issues — carbon pre-filtration to remove chlorine, a water softener to remove hardness minerals, and increasingly, a reverse osmosis system as an extra layer of purification for drinking and cooking water, replacing bulky bottled water delivery with clean water straight from a dedicated tap.
Read the EPA's Primary Drinking Water Regulations and Secondary Drinking Water Regulations directly on epa.gov.
Whether you're on a private well or city water, send a few photos of your setup and describe what's going on — Scott will tell you exactly what it needs, no salesman required.
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