If you get your water from a private source, such as a well or spring, YOU are responsible for ensuring that your drinking water is safe. You are the regulator, inspector, maintenance manager, accountant, and consumer. The information here can help you with these responsibilities.

Take the Personal Water Systems Check-Up. Check-out these OSU Extension Service Publications: 12 Simple Things You Can Do To Protect Your Well Water Keeping Your Well Water Well Agua Limpia en Su Pozo Rural Domestic Water Supply Backflow Protection for Private Water Systems (pdf) Locate a copy of your well log. This is the drilling report for your well. Well logs provide information on geologic formations encountered in a well and list details concerning well design, construction and yields. The Water Resources Department (WRD) has drilling records of most water wells drilled in Oregon since approximately 1955. If there is a copy of your well log, you can find it using the WRD's search program called GRID. You may also contact your local Watermaster for a copy of well logs and for help interpreting the information.

• Contact a well contractor licensed by the WRD if you need to have work done on your well. Browse the list for someone located near you.

• Learn more about wells and groundwater at Groundwater Stewardship in Oregon.

• Find info on conserving water on the OSU Extension web site.

  • Conserving Water Around the Home: Managing During Critical Shortages (PDF)

  • Conserving Water in the Garden: Growing a Vegetable Garden

  • Conserving Water in the Garden: Landscape and Lawn Care

  • Conserving Water in the Garden: Designing and Installing a New Landscape

• Visit these additional web sites for more information

  • U.S. EPA information for private well owners

  • Oregon Water Resources' Well Construction Guide

  • Water System Council's Wellcare Hotline

  • Aquacosm Home page - National Directory of Water & Septic Systems Professionals

• Search DEQs Water Quality Database about groundwater conditions in your area.

  • Instructions