Wells Underground

When you turn on a faucet in the country, that water might have started as rain that fell 50 years ago! It soaked into the ground, trickled down through dirt and rock, and waited underground until a well pulled it back up for you to drink.

- Where the water in a well actually comes from - What an aquifer is - How a well pulls water up to your house - Why we have to take care of water underground

A well is a deep hole dug or drilled into the ground until it reaches water that is stored underground. That underground water sits inside layers of rock and sand called an aquifer, kind of like water soaked into a giant sponge made of stone. A pipe goes down into the aquifer, and a pump pushes the water up through the pipe and into a house.

It all starts with rain and snow. When rain falls, some of it runs into rivers, but a lot of it soaks straight down into the soil. It keeps traveling down, down, down through tiny spaces between grains of sand and cracks in rock, until it reaches a layer that is already full of water. That whole underground water layer is called groundwater, and it can be just a few feet down or hundreds of feet down, depending on where you live.

Because well water comes from the ground right under our feet, anything spilled on the ground nearby — like oil, chemicals, or too much fertilizer — can soak down and mix into the same water people drink. That's why farmers and families are careful about what they pour or spray near a well. Keeping the ground clean keeps the water clean.