Somebody's poisoned the water hole!*

Sad Homeowner reporting here.

So when I moved into my house I knew at the time that there was a well. What this meant to me was tap water I refused to drink and no water bill from the county. I kind of liked the freedom of using water without charge, made me feel like I really owned this land. I knew there was always an option to hook up to the county since most of my neighbors had done so back when the railroad came through town...I mean, the water pipes came through. Sorry, felt very old, small town-ish there for a second, like Dr. Quinn. The woman who owned the house at the time had opted to stay on the well, probably thinking what I thought, "Why pay for water when you've already got it for free?" She did hook up to the sewer (thank you ma'am) so that I don't have a septic tank or anything (thank you, thank you ma'am).

Well, the honeymoon phase is over. Yesterday I was cleaning my bathroom. I scrubbed the toilet (which sometimes seems useless cause it's hard water and therefore the toilet has the horrible hard water stains but I clean it for the sake of habit, not for the hope of having a beautiful white toilet) when I went to flush the water that filled the tank was murky. I thought to myself, Self, this is weird. I shrugged my shoulders and soldier on. I went to the sink to wash my hand and the water trickled out. Trickling is not something my faucets have been known to do, the water pressure that comes out of the shower is sometimes painful. I quickly washed my hands as the water source vanished before my eyes. I tried the shower, the sink again, the sink in the other bathroom, the kitchen sink. All of them seemingly bone dry. My well! So of course, I call my dad, even though my dad hasn't had a well before, but dads have all the answers don't they?

We talked about the possibilities but we both came to the same conclusion, it isn't the pump, nor the power to the pump, it is most definitely the well itself. Then, as any heroic father would do, he offered without me asking to call the county and find some well people and get some estimates for me. The way he saw it I had two options, hook up to the county or dig a little deeper with the well. After considerable though (more like ten minutes of nostalgia about how life used to be on county water lines) I knew I would likely just opt to hook up to the county. It may make me cry financially up front, but in the long run life will be better, more secure, on the county pipeline.