I grew up on well water. Survived. My dad tests it once in awhile. Occasionally throws some bleach down the well.
Honestly the most problematic crop is Corn for so many reasons other than the ones mentioned here. We need to stop putting ethanol in gasoline in the US, but for whatever reason, the EPA refuses to act on this.
> Ethanol mandates are a marvelous candidate for deregulation--but they are caught in the middle of such a withering cross fire of special-interest groups that nobody in the White House wants to touch the issue with a 10-foot pole
There are lots of things that can kill you, like lead and arsenic. It’s not just a matter of pouring a little bleach down the well.
I have a whole house arsenic filter. It’s like a water softener but sits before the softener.
For sure. So the impermeable layer the water table is sitting on is actually limestone. The water is stupid hard. But the chance of heavy metal intrusion is next to nil, unless there’s an industrial accident upstream of the material aquifer flow. Not all regions of the US fall into this category but the vast Midwest mainly does. If you’re in an area with non sedimentary bedrock, or in an area where the impermeable layers are penetrated (like mining).
My father, also a hydrologist…. Heard non stop about rocks since I was a kid :)
Unscientific and anecdotal survivor bias.
Well this problem will be “solved” by the quickly dropping water table in much of America. I’m not sure why we don’t talk about the consequence of high yield water hungry crops. You’re basically shipping vast quantities of water out of an ecosystem in a way that doesn’t get sustainably replenished each season.