Macon County Health Department

The goal of the water well program is to protect groundwater from contamination and to provide a safe, potable water supply.  To ensure water supplies are properly installed and operated, our staff:

• Reviews plans and issues permits for private water wells.
• Monitors the abandoning of wells to ensure proper sealing.
• Samples and monitors non-community water supply systems.
• Samples private water supplies for laboratory analysis

The Macon County Health Department offers well water testing for total coliform bacteria and nitrates.  The laboratory method used is a presence/absence method for the identification of coliform bacteria which are used as an indicator of the bacterial quality of water.  Testing for coliform bacteria will reveal whether your water supply may be contaminated with infectious organisms, but it will not provide a direct measure of pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria.

Some members of the coliform indicator group, E-Coli for example, are found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals.  Others occur naturally in surface water and shallow ground water and in topsoil.  A positive analysis for coliform bacteria indicates that the water well may have been contaminated by surface water or fecal material.  Negative results indicate there was no contamination at the time of sampling.

Proper location, construction, and maintenance of a well will help prevent pollution from entering, thus assuring a bacteriologically safe water.

An abandoned well is defined as a water or monitoring well which is no longer used to supply water, or is in such a state of disrepair that the well or boring has the potential for transmitting contaminants into an aquifer or otherwise threatens the public health or safety.

A water well that is no longer used and not properly maintained can serve as a route for surface water run-off to contaminate the aquifer and hence cause pollution of your own and other wells in the area.

The basic concept in sealing an abandoned well is restoring the geological conditions that existed before the well was drilled.  Simply filling up an unused well with sand, gravel, stones, debris, or garbage is not appropriate.  The particular method for sealing a well depends on the type of water well and the geological features.

Contact the Macon County Health Department or a licensed professional water well contractor for information and procedures to properly seal an abandoned well.