=Important safety measure.=--The farmer can do no other one thing so vital
to his own and the public health as to make sure of the continued purity
of the farm water supply. Investigations indicate that about three out of
four shallow wells are polluted badly.
Wells and springs are fed by ground water, which is merely natural
drainage. Drainage water usually moves with the slope of the land. It
always dissolves part of the mineral, vegetable, and animal matter of the
ground over or through which it moves. In this way impurities are carried
into the ground water and may reach distant wells or springs.
The great safeguards are clean ground and wide separation of the well
from probable channels of impure drainage water. It is not enough that
a well or spring is 50 or 150 feet from a source of filth or that it is
on higher ground. Given porous ground, a seamy ledge, or long-continued
pollution of one plat of land, the zone of contamination is likely to
extend long distances, particularly in downhill directions or when the
water is low through drought or heavy pumping. Only when the surface of
the water in a well or spring is at a higher level at all times than any
near-by source of filth is there assurance of safety from impure seepage.
Some of the foregoing facts are shown diagrammatically in figure 3. Figure
4 is typical of those insanitary, poorly drained barnyards that are
almost certain to work injury to wells situated in or near them. Figure 5
illustrates poor relative location of privy, cesspool, and well. Figure
6 is a typical example of a nuisance. Accumulations of filth result in
objectionable odor and noxious drainage.
[Illustration: BPR-RE 13883
Fig. 2.--The rickety, uncomfortable, unspeakably foul, dangerous ground
privy. Neglected by the owner, shunned by the hired man, avoided by the
guest, who, in preference, goes to near-by fields or woods, polluter of
wells, meeting place of house flies and disease germs, privies of this
character abide only because of man's indifference.]
Sewage or impure drainage water should never be discharged into or upon
ground draining toward a well, spring, or other source of water supply.
Neither should such wastes be discharged into 'Openings in rock, an
abandoned well, nor a hole, cesspool, vault, or tank so located that
pollution can escape into water-bearing earth or rock. Whatever the system
of sewage disposal, it should be entirely and widely separated from the
water supply. Further information on locating and constructing wells is
given in Farmers' Bulletin 941, "Water Systems for Farm Homes," copies of
which may be had upon request to the Division of Publications, Department
of Agriculture.
Enough has been said to bring home to the reader these vital points:
1. Never allow the farm sewage or excrements, even in minutest quantity,
to reach the food or water of man or live stock.
2. Never expose such wastes so that they can be visited by flies or other
carriers of disease germs.