The Water in Your Home - Where Does it Come From?
This may seem like a straightforward and simple question, but knowing where your water comes from can help you keep it safe.
Where does the water in your home come from? This may seem like a straightforward and simple question. But when we started conducting interviews for our latest Culligan video, it was one that stumped our sample. Knowing where the water in your home comes from can help you make the best water treatment choices for your home.
Groundwater or Surface-Water Sources
The water in your home ultimately comes from one of two places. Groundwater sources include various types of wells. And surface-water sources can include rivers, lakes or reservoirs.
According to the USGS, roughly 258 million people in the United States rely on public suppliers, such as the county water department, to deliver water to their homes.
Types of Public Water Systems
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) essentially defines three types of public water systems:
Community Water System: A public water system that supplies water to the same population year-round.
Non-Transient Non-Community Water System: A public water system that regularly supplies water to at least 25 of the same people at least six months per year. Some examples are schools, factories, office buildings, and hospitals which have their own water systems.
Transient Non-Community Water Systems: A public water system that provides water in a place such as a gas station or campground where people do not remain for long periods of time.
If you are one of the 43 million people not relying on a public supplier, your water is likely being sourced from either a well, cistern, pond or stream.
In fact, roughly 98 percent of self-supplied water, according to the USGS, comes from groundwater wells.
Why Does It Matter for Your Home?
All in all, it's important to know where your water comes from so you can help keep it safe.
The EPA regulates all public suppliers to ensure the quality of the water entering your home. However, public water supplies sometimes add things to drinking water like chlorine and fluoride. While this is is the right choice for some, it might not be preferred by everyone.
Because they're not regulated by the EPA, private wells, cisterns, ponds or streams that bring water into your home could be filled with hundreds of contaminants if not treated properly.
With this in mind, you can learn even more about your home's water from your local water expert. Whether you're looking to get your public water checked, or run a test on your private well, your Culligan water expert can do it all.
