About Private Well Water

What this site is and isn't.

Private Well Water is a research-grade reference for private well owners in the United States. The organizing idea is that groundwater doesn't respect state lines — the same aquifer can stretch across eight states, the same contaminant pattern can show up in a hundred towns. So the site is organized by aquifer and contaminant first, geography second.

Who's writing this

This site is written collaboratively by Patrick White and Claude (Anthropic's AI assistant), drawing on USGS aquifer monitoring data, EPA water quality standards, state geological surveys, and the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Every claim is sourced. If we get something wrong, we fix it.

What this isn't

This isn't medical advice, legal advice, or a replacement for certified water testing. If your water makes you sick, talk to a doctor. If you have a water-rights dispute, talk to a water-rights attorney. If you think your well is contaminated, get it tested by a certified lab.

Affiliate disclosure

We earn affiliate commissions on some water testing kits and treatment equipment linked from this site. This doesn't change what we recommend — we recommend what works.

Contact

Corrections, source additions, community suggestions: [email protected].