About Maine Well Water
This site exists because finding clear, reliable information about well water quality in Maine is harder than it should be.
Roughly 400,000 Maine households rely on private wells for their drinking water — the highest percentage of any state in the Northeast. Unlike public water systems, private wells aren't monitored or regulated by any government agency. That means well owners are responsible for testing their own water and understanding the results — but the information to do that is scattered across government PDFs, academic papers, and water treatment company marketing pages.
We built Maine Well Water to put the most important information in one place: what contaminants are common in your area, where to get tested (including free programs), what your results mean, and what your options are if something comes back high.
What This Site Is
- A starting point for understanding your well water
- Community-specific guides based on local geology, real water quality data, and government sources
- Links to free testing programs, certified labs, and state resources
- Plain-language explanations of arsenic, PFAS, radon, and other contaminants
- A public information resource — not a sales funnel
What This Site Is Not
- A substitute for actual water testing (every well is different)
- Professional advice about your specific well or water system
- Affiliated with any government agency, water treatment company, or testing lab
Our Sources
The data on this site comes from government and academic sources, including:
- Maine Center for Disease Control (Maine CDC) — arsenic testing data, well water guidance
- Maine Department of Environmental Protection (Maine DEP) — PFAS investigation data
- Maine Geological Survey — well database, arsenic prevalence maps, bedrock geology
- United States Geological Survey (USGS) — groundwater studies, arsenic and radon research
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — contaminant standards, private well guidance
We cite specific sources on each page. If you find an error or have better data, we want to know.
Every well is different. Two wells on the same street can have completely different water quality. The only way to know what's in your water is to test it.
Contact
Have questions, corrections, or suggestions? Reach us at [email protected].