How does rain affect well water?

Informative

August 1, 2015 • 2 min read

Do you wonder how rain can affect your well water? Is the impact good or bad?

Moderate snows in winter and an abundant rainfall in spring and summer means that the water tables will be higher than they were before any drought/lack in the summer, but does not assure your well will continue to be safe and reliable. So your water table has an impact on your well, but indirectly through rain and snowfall’s effects on water table (and this is mostly for shallower wells).

And most droughts (or any rainfall trends) are not 1-year events.Long term trends of (less) rainfall over recent time results in the water tables dropping (to lower levels) over recent years; but intermittent reductions in drought conditions can make gains offsetting the overall negative trends.

In addition to the precipitation that is retained in local reservoirs, much of the rain and snow runs off into other far away bodies of water; that’s where the Continental Divide is important as it splits the US east/west - water funnels in either direction, but not both.

Heavy current or one time rainfall, though, doesn’t quickly become groundwater available for your well.

Rainfall never immediately becomes groundwater, since 90%+ of rain runs off all hard surface into drains and sewers.The remaining 10% of water which may remain on your property seeps through the ground at a rate of only 10 feet per year. The benefit of heavy rainfall to your well may not be fully realized, if there is a benefit at all.

And exceptionally high levels of precipitation in a short period cause well owners other problems with higher frequency and levels of Coliform bacteria occurring during such periods.

So while no one should be singing Rain, Rain Go Away…, well owners should be vigilant to consider the impact of natural events on this very complex, important and expensive home system.

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