Make Sure Your Bradenton Well Water is Great Water

How’s your well water treating you?

Wells are great, especially here in Florida, where our aquifer offers a fantastic combination of spring water and naturally filtered groundwater. Plus, when you use a well, you save money that would otherwise go to municipal water utilities payments.

The biggest problem is, without municipal water treatment plants and infrastructure, your private well is susceptible to contamination from bacteria, minerals, and even harmful chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides.

About 25 million Floridians—12% of the state’s total population—rely on private wells to supply water to their homes, according to University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. And a 2023 report found that one-third of those well water users didn’t know how to take care their well and ensure that their water was safe.

Not to worry, you can have Healthy Water from your Bradenton well flowing out of every tap in your house. Just give Ellenton’s Healthy Water a call.

How Do Wells Work?

Private wells tap into the underground water supply, which in Sarasota-Bradenton is the Florida Aquifer. Great news: This is one of the biggest, most bountiful aquifers in the world. It sits underneath all of Florida as well as parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

Wells pump this water up and directly into your house (or in some cases, only to your outdoor irrigation, or to your pool). Sarasota-Manatee’s municipal water supply utilizes some wells, too, in addition to surface water from Lake Manatee. Our municipal wells are 1,200 feet deep.

How deep your private well goes depends on where you are. Aquifer water may be available as shallow as 50 feet below the surface; further east in Manatee County, you may have to go as deep as 200 feet. In many cases, deeper is better. Aquifer levels vary according to how much rain we get, so deeper wells are typically more “drought proof.”

Deeper wells also offer more natural filtration between surface contaminants and your water. Well water is, generally speaking, considered safer than surface water because it’s been naturally filtered through plants, soil and even limestone. These natural filters work similarly to basic man-made filters in that they catch contaminants as they pass by, letting purer water flow down into the aquifer. The more the water is filtered, the better.

What Does Florida Groundwater Contain?

Unfortunately, natural filtration isn’t fool-proof. Depending on where you are and what types (and volume) of contaminants are in the groundwater—including dangerous chemical runoff from farms and mining operations—your groundwater could still contain significant amounts of harmful elements.

And even in the deepest wells and least-contaminated parts of the aquifer, Florida’s water naturally contains elements that can be bothersome or even unhealthy. Many of these elements are a result of the natural dissolved limestone that gets into the water even as it’s filtering out other contaminants. In Sarasota and Bradenton, our groundwater is known for containing calcium, magnesium, and sulfate.

What Else Can Go Wrong in a Bradenton Well?

Additionally, your well itself can be a source of harmful contaminants. Microorganisms that get inside your well, especially the tank itself, will flourish there if it’s not properly maintained. Broken pumps/equipment, leaks, clogs, and other structural breakdowns can happen, too. Not only can these issues result in harmful water conditions, but all the money you save on your water bill will go instead to your power bill, as your pump works harder than it should.

Are Bradenton Wells Still a Good Option?

If you understand the necessary responsibilities behind properly maintaining a well, then Bradenton well water can be a great option.

But in order to properly protect yourself and your family, we have a few recommendations for living safely with private well water:

• Have your Bradenton water tested annually to detect contaminants and other potential problems
• Have a well expert inspect your well’s infrastructure
• Have a Healthy Water home filtration and water treatment system installed to keep potential well and groundwater contaminants out of your tap.

As a preferred, family-owned and operated home water treatment company in Manatee County, we offer water tests as the first step in many of our customer relationships, whether you use well water or municipal water.

But you don’t have to take our word for it; the Florida Health Department offers a number of resources for people who own and rely on private wells—including a list of EPA-certified well water testing agencies.