why is it that city people always think well water needs boiling in the first place? i've been drinking untreated well water for almost 60 years, just as it comes up out of the ground. never got sick from it even once.
That
really depends on the well. though to be clear, when I said "as well" I did not mean "as well water".
Having lived my life in a northern area, well water is generally safe to drink, if often rather bleh in taste due to iron 'contamination' (arguably a contaminant that makes it
more healthy

) from the ground itself. Some years over at the summer place it was pretty much required to use juice/squash?/whatever its called or it was impossible to drink it from the strong taste.
But if you instead live in more tropical areas, you often truly
do need to boil the well water for it to not be actively unhealthy and giving you the runs. People who grew up drinking it unboiled generally has little issue, but it is often absolutely not healthy for someone whose body is unused to it.
But even then, it also depends on the well itself (how it is build) and its surroundings (including depth). Particularly wells that hits deeper deposits, the chill of the earth is still enough to keep it from becoming an issue.
So city folks think they need to boil well water because their bodies/immune systems are not used to even the slightest trace of biological activity in the drinking water. As well as because usually when they
do encounter wells, it is when they travel as tourists to tropical still-developing areas where the hotter temperatures makes it very hospitable to bacteria.
Hope that answered your question!
