How do I know if I have the harmful organisms vs the non-harmful ones in my well water?
You dont know. The lab can grow coliforms organisms (if they are present in the water sample) rather easily and they can also tell of there are e. coli organisms rather simply. Sickness depends on a lot of factors, such as pathogenicity of the organism, the relative health status of the person ingesting the water, and the dose, or number of organisms consumed. The point here is that bacteria of any type should not be able to get into your water supply. Here is a parallel story: If you leave the door to your house unlocked, usually, nothing bad happens. Your friends come and go and leave your possessions pretty much intact. However, it could be that a burglar could also walk in with no trouble one day and steal all of your stuff. Therefore, most people install locks on their doors to keep everybody out. Thats pretty much the way it is with water wells. A well should be constructed so that it excludes all bacteria because we dont know from one day to the next what kind of harmful biota c
