Nearly a quarter of Pennsylvania’s population — more than 3 million people — depends on its own water well for drinking water.

But with some of the nation’s most lax regulations on water well construction and water testing, it’s up to landowners to ensure their well is constructed right and is safe.

At the recent Ag Progress Days, educators from Penn State Extension talked about water well safety and things people can do to ensure a safe water supply.

"Pennsylvania stands out as essentially having none [regulations] statewide for private well construction," said Andy Yencha, Extension water resources educator. "It's buyer beware. It's up to the homeowner to know they should request these things are done to protect their water quality.”

Here are some recommendations for proper water well construction:

Ensure casing is properly installed. It is recommended the well casing extend all the way to the bedrock and be between 8 and 12 inches above the ground. This can prevent surface water from getting into the well.

Slope the ground around the wellhead. When a new well is constructed, the soil should be mounded and sloped.

“Just a 3- to 4-, to maybe even 6-inch gradual slope is fine. That’s something you can do,” Yencha said.

This may not work for older wells, especially if the casing isn’t above the ground. But if the well is in a depression, you may want to build up the surrounding ground to prevent surface water from seeping in.

Use a sanitary cap. These caps, which cost about $80, have a rubber gasket and bolts that are designed to wrap around the casing, ensuring a tight fit and to keep things out.

Ensure you get the right-sized cap based on the diameter of your well casing.

Fill spaces with grout. When a water well is drilled, a hole is dug deep into the ground and a casing is placed inside with a water pump to get access to the source.

Yencha said this creates a gap that in many cases is filled with loose material that is not tightly packed. Use a concrete grout seal to fill the gap and ensure nothing seeps in.

“A grout seal is cement, a slurry cement that you use a special tool to fill it up,” he said. “Cement is filled from the bottom up. You only grout-seal through the casing portion, and the casing should be embedded a few feet into the ground.”

Know what’s around your well. It’s recommended that water wells be located at least 25 feet from a silo; 50 feet from sewers or septic tanks; 100 feet from pastures, septic absorption fields, cesspools, fields where manure and other chemicals are applied, and barnyards; and 300 feet from fields where biosolids are applied.

One way to see what could potentially affect your well is by marking off the spot of the wellhead and, using a 100-foot string, creating a wellhead protection area around it.

“Look at that 100-foot radius. Determine what you have in there, what activities you have going on,” said Faith Kibuye, water resources Extension associate. “Are you tying a dog there? Do you have fertilizer application within that area? Those are all things within that radius that may impact your water quality. And if it’s within your control, figure out what you can do to potentially mitigate those pollution sources.”

SANITARY CAP: Protecting your well water starts with the right cap. Andy Yencha, Extension water resources educator for Penn State, points to an example of a sanitary well cap — one that has a rubber gasket and bolts designed to wrap around the casing — ensuring a tight fit and to keep things out.

Test your water regularly. More than 45% of private water well owners in the state don’t have their water tested regularly, said Jodi Sulpizio, master watershed coordinator in York County, Pa.

Even if your well is in a safe area, there are certain contaminants that you won’t be able see, smell or taste, and this is where testing can come in handy.

Sulpizio recommends water be tested yearly for bacteria. This can detect things such as coliforms or E. coli that could be in the water.

If the well is near a field that has a lot of chemicals applied, test it for nitrates or other contaminants that could run off.

If plumbing is old, test it for lead and copper.

“Anytime you have water testing done, keep it in a file, and then when you have it tested again, you can look back at your old results,” Sulpizio said.

Applying too much water treatment can be just as bad as not doing enough. Yencha said that finding a happy medium, based on land use and testing, should be the goal.

"It's kind of interesting. I think a lot of people are too lax about their water,” he said. “They just take it for granted, and it might have issues if they don't get it tested. But there's an opposite part of that spectrum. There are people who are way over-worried about their water and will invest money they shouldn't be investing in fancy treatment equipment they don't need, and their water may be less healthy because of it.”