Drinking water wells can be really cost effective. Unlike people hooked up to municipal water supplies, people with their own wells don't have to pay a fee to purchase their water.

That's the good news: "free water." The bad news is that nobody generally tests the water when it's coming from a private well. And with increasing frequency, we're finding out that wells can be contaminated.

Just recently, a newspaper called the Bradenton Herald reported that substantial levels of dangerous contaminants have been detected in drinking water wells surrounding a former industrial plant located in Florida. Old factories are often a source a drinking water contamination.

According to published reports, dangerous chemicals leaked from this plant into the ground many years ago. Thus far, five drinking water wells have been affected and ironically, just weeks before, state regulators reported that no home wells have been impacted. They were wrong. Early reports about these kinds of incidents seem more often wrong than not, based on my experience.

The result in Florida is that bottled water is now being provided to community residents. But what good is bottled water when people may have been consuming the polluted water for years. Harmful contamination, at elevated levels, for lengthy durations, represent the perfect formula for life threatening disease.

So yes, bottled water is to good to have when your well water has been polluted. But it may not do your health any good if you consumed the bad water for decades.

The affected residential wells have apparently been impacted by a list of frequently found volatile organic contaminants that can make people ill and have been identified as cancer causing. Think how you would feel if you learned that your drinking water, your family's drinking water, may be killing you.

Water is a basic human requirement. That along with a roof over our head and some food is all we really need to survive. When a family learns that its drinking water is dangerous, the news is often emotionally scarring. Families can be shattered by this type of news.

What is the moral to this story? It is that drinking water wells do not produce "free" water. People with well water absolutely must test their well water on a regular basis. Ask your local health department what the intervals of testing should be. Not testing, is an invitation for tragedy to occur.

Many municipalities are starting to explore septic system utilities for large areas that are not hooked up to municipal or government run sanitary treatment facilities. The idea is that regulators will ensure that these local septic systems properly run and are properly maintained. Residents will pay slight fees for this service, but in turn will be guaranteed safe septic systems, and that means a healthy environment.

I think it's time to consider establishing well water utilities which do the same thing. There is no free lunch, and there is no free water.

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.