Well and septic problems are pretty common in this country. This is particularly true of shallow wells. There are many homes around the country that have shallow wells and bad septic systems, where you can flush a dye down the drain and 20 minutes later it will be coming out in the kitchen sink. It won't smell and you can't see it is contaminated but it is. Well and septic problems are also very common in lake communities. The people that get really sick from it are the young (because their immune systems are not fully developed), the old (because their immune systems are getting weak) and people that are already sick from other things (because their immune systems are already weak). Healthy adults will build immunities to many of these bugs. Often visitors will get the stomach flu because they do not have these immunities built up. It's the same thing in Mexico. The first few months you are their you will get sick...but after a while you will build immunities and then you can tolerate it.

Shallow wells are 25' or less. Deep wells are usually cased down to 45' as a standard then the well keeps going down past that. The drainfield should be at least 50' away from a (cased) deep well and 100' from a shallow well. Of course, it is also extremely important to properly maintain your septic system, which very few people do. Septic systems are designed to catch the large solids in the tank, then the wastewater or effluent is treated by the soil before it passes through, i.e. to ground water or you well. However, if the soil in the drain field is failing and not adequately treating the effluent, you could have problems.

Here is a picture which should help you better understand how well and septic problems can occur.

As you may know from researching this topic, failing septic systems are a major financial and environmental problem in this country. Expensive septic repairs can often run from $5,000 to $20,000 or more and a large number of systems are failing throughout the country. For news stories related to failing septic systems and tightening regulations you can go to: http://www.laundry-alternative.com/Septic_Systems/failingseptic.htm

You also can't sell your home if it has a failing system. For more information on how to properly maintain your septic system, go to:
http://www.laundry-alternative.com/septic_system_maintenance.htm