Ground Water FAQ
Where your water actually comes from, and why private well owners wouldn't trade it.
Private wells: the satisfied majority
Private water wells tapping ground water can provide high-quality, economical water to homeowners, farms, and businesses. Deep drilled wells recharge themselves and provide a steady supply that isn't easily affected by dry weather.
According to an independent market survey sponsored by the National Ground Water Association, 78% of private well owners prefer receiving their drinking water from their own well, and 88% said it was their least expensive option. That's as strong a customer-satisfaction statement as you'll find in any industry.
How rare is fresh water?
Over 97% of the earth's water is salt water in the oceans. About 2% is locked in glaciers, ice caps, and snowpack. That leaves roughly 1% available for our daily water supply needs, stored in soil and bedrock (ground water) or in lakes, rivers, and streams (surface water).
- Oceans: 97.2% of total water
- Ice caps / glaciers: 2.38%
- Ground water: 0.397%
- Surface water (lakes, rivers, streams, ponds): 0.022%
- Atmosphere: 0.001%
No new water is being made, which is why Ontario's ground water reserves, among the larger available anywhere, deserve such careful protection.
Understanding ground water
Ground water is the water that soaks into the soil from rain and precipitation and moves downward to fill cracks and openings in beds of rock and sand. It's a renewable resource, though renewal rates vary greatly with conditions. It's naturally filtered by the earth that holds it, but it can be contaminated by pollutants at the surface, which is why source protection matters at every level.
Water from precipitation follows three main paths: some evaporates or is breathed out by vegetation; some runs off into streams, lakes, or oceans; and some infiltrates into the ground, where it can emerge as springs, feed surface water, or recharge aquifers deeper in the earth.
As ground water moves through the ground, it dissolves some of the minerals it contacts, giving each aquifer its own chemical character. Many bottled waters come straight from ground water reserves.
A drumful of water to think about
If a 55-gallon drum, filled to the brim, represented the world's total water supply, then:
- the oceans would total 53 gallons, 1 quart, 1 pint, and 12 ounces
- the icecaps and glaciers: 1 gallon and 12 ounces
- ground water: 1 quart and 11.4 ounces
- the atmosphere: 1 pint and 4.5 ounces
- freshwater lakes: half an ounce
- saline lakes and inland seas: slightly more than a third of an ounce
- soil moisture: about one-fourth of an ounce
- all the rivers of the world: one one-hundredth of an ounce, less than a millionth of the water on the planet