Towns we cover
All of Robeson County. What is useful to say up front is which addresses are actually on a well, because in this county that mostly is not the towns themselves.
The towns are largely on county water
The Robeson County water system serves Pembroke, Red Springs, St. Pauls, Fairmont and Maxton among others, and the City of Lumberton runs its own system inside the city limits. So if you live in one of those towns and get a water bill, a well contractor is probably the wrong trade and your county or city water department is the right one.
The private wells are the addresses in between. Robeson is a big rural county and most of its ground is not inside a town, which is why roughly one in four households across North Carolina is on a private well and why the number is higher out here than the state average.
How to tell in ten seconds
Look for a pressure tank and a pump. A well house in the yard, or a tank in the crawl space, garage or utility room. If it is there you are on a well and the only water bill you pay is the electricity to run it. If there is no tank and a bill arrives monthly, you are on a system.
Where we cover
- Lumberton and the county around it
- Pembroke
- Red Springs
- Fairmont, St. Pauls and Maxton
- Rowland, Parkton, Orrum, Proctorville, Lumber Bridge, Marietta and McDonald
- The unincorporated county, which is most of it
Whichever town you are nearest
The problems are the same across the county and so is the geology. This is Coastal Plain, which is sand aquifers rather than fractured rock, and it decides three things worth knowing:
- Wells are generally shallower and cheaper to drill here than in the Piedmont or the mountains. What that costs.
- Shallower also means more exposed to what is on the surface, which in farming country means nitrate.
- Iron and sulfur run through this ground, which is how Red Springs got its name and why so many houses out here have orange staining.
And when the water comes up, which here it does, a flooded well is presumed contaminated until tested.