Defensive Water Well Construction Regulations in the United States

Water well construction standards and regulations favor optimizing water well production and longevity with defensiveness against contamination or pollutants. However, with ever-changing standards and aging well infrastructure, some regions are likely to be more susceptible to contamination than others. A survey of water well annular seal standards, as well as setback standards was completed for all 50 US states which measures, respectively, the average vertical and horizontal separation distance from surface contamination. Annular seal survey attributes include the minimum annular surface seal length, thickness and materials. Similarly, attributes for the setback distance survey compares commonly regulated pollution sources including any sewer line, a water tight septic tank, an animal or fowl enclosure, and a cesspool or seepage pit. Together, United States water well defensiveness against surface water contamination is assessed with respect to the selected standards’ A) stringency variance B) frequency of selected regulations and C) association with regional hydro geology, climate and population attributes.