rural water or well water?

[alpacamom]

Given the choice, would you rather have rural water on your homestead or well water?

Our neighbour across the road said that rural water is going to be brought out our way within the next year-ish. Our well isn't even on our property; it's on the property behind ours with an easement so we can have access to the well when we need it. The water is rusty and has an "off" taste to it, so we use a faucet mounted water filter. I like not having to pay a water bill every month and just have the electric bill for the electricity for the well pump.

What are your thoughts?

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

Well and rainwater storage.

[fantasymaker]

A better well?

[Karenrbw]

We use both. Rural water came in a couple of years ago. The house is on rural water and the barns are on the well so we don't have to pay to water the plants or the livestock. We have a hook-up in the basement so that we can switch the house back to the well if the need arises. Around here, you are always hearing about boil orders for the rural water system.

[Terre d'Esprit]

We have the same setup as Karenrbw, but we don't have problems with the rural water. You do have a committment, as it's a co-op type thing, and there are stipulations about the transfer if/when you sell your property.

[rambler]

Always, would want a well on my own property.

Any other arrangement is an arrangement, and somebody else can change the rules.....

--->Paul

[Michael W. Smith]

I'd rather have well water. It's MY water and I don't have to think or worry about what chemicals they are putting in the water. I also don't have a monthly bill either.

Regardless even if you had a well on your property with good water and public water came through, it's pretty much a guarantee that you will HAVE to tap into it. Even if you don't use it, you still have to pay for the hook up to your house so if you do decide to start using the public water, it's ready to go.

You can probably also guarantee, that every couple of years, your bill will be raised. Public utilities are pretty much guaranteed that they will make a profit.

Nope, I'll stick with my well water, thank you very much!

[BillHoo]

Since the trend is for people to move away from drinking flouridated municipal water, there has been a marked rise in tooth decay in the American population.

The ground water in many communities is technically drinkable, but closer examination of the purity reports will find "acceptable" levels of formaldehyde and fecal matter.

The formaldehyde comes from grave yard and cemetary seepage. The fecal matter comes from animals and outhouses.

[Shagbarkmtcatle]

On our farm we have city of Petersburg water and sewer and an old well. WE are NOT using stinkin' Potomac river water. I have lived along the Potomac all of my life and I see what's in that water.
We do have an advantage in that DH is a master plumber and we own our own business. We just tested the water in OUR well and treated it. No big deal. No monthly bills from the city of Petersburg for water and sewer. Of course, we have to buy a new pump if anything happens to that or pressure tank if anything happens to that. But for us, it's no big deal since we are in that business. My water is way better than treated river water. This is the water that has male fish in it that lays eggs. Why would I want to drink that?

[Quint]

I went with rural water simply on price and long term savings and convenience.

To put in the well, buy all of the pumps and plumbing and all the the treatment equipment which I would need to make the stuff drinkable due to farm chemicals and other impurities would have cost more than running in rural water. Plus having a well in the past there is always something breaking or going wrong which needs fixing or replacement. It's a hassle. Add to that the filters and associated stuff for treatment that would be an ongoing cost and it became clear that rural water was the way to go even though running it to the house was expensive. The well guy flat out told me that if I had access to rural water to go ahead and get it and not to bother with a well.


My water bill from the water authority is only 15 bucks a month since I don't come close to minimum usage. I'd have probably spent that on electricity and filtration supplies for a well.

I've considered putting in a simple inexpensive driven pump for agricultural purposes. Right now I just pump water from my pond.

While I like the idea of having my own drinking water supply the economics just don't make sense for me. If something catastrophic were to happen I could get drinking water from other sources.

[mwhit]

I have rural water and I'm very pleased with it. Of course, our 'village' water is from a well, it's minimally chlorinated and there is not flouride. We don't have water meters-- I pay $55 every 3 months which is how much it has been for 10 years (or more?). I do not have village sewer and currently there are only 3 homes hooked into the rural water (I own 2 of them). They had considered stopping service because the lines need replacing and there were several leaks, but they decided to replace them (at no cost to us) so I'm quite pleased.

Michelle

[michiganfarmer]

Originally Posted by BillHoo

Since the trend is for people to move away from drinking flouridated municipal water, there has been a marked rise in tooth decay in the American population.

The ground water in many communities is technically drinkable, but closer examination of the purity reports will find "acceptable" levels of formaldehyde and fecal matter.

The formaldehyde comes from grave yard and cemetary seepage. The fecal matter comes from animals and outhouses.

I find this very hard to believe.

I understand the ground to be a filter. I think that if manure was able to seep through 80' of earth into our vein of groundwater, then manure from millions of years of animals would have already ruined all ground water.

Show me your PHd, or get cabin fever here to tell me you are right. Otherwise I wont belive you.

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by rambler

Always, would want a well on my own property.

Any other arrangement is an arrangement, and somebody else can change the rules.....

--->Paul

I agree 100%

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by BillHoo

Since the trend is for people to move away from drinking flouridated municipal water, there has been a marked rise in tooth decay in the American population.

The ground water in many communities is technically drinkable, but closer examination of the purity reports will find "acceptable" levels of formaldehyde and fecal matter.

The formaldehyde comes from grave yard and cemetary seepage. The fecal matter comes from animals and outhouses.

Statistically, more people have died or become sick from drinking municipal water than from private well water.

[ginny63]

I would go with the rural water especially since the well is not on your property. When we moved to the farm we had hard water and not much of it. The water level keeps dropping every year. I would have to start a load of clothes of a morning, stop it when I went to work and finish it when I came home. The costs of plumbing, pump repair and inconvience was more than my water bill is now. When we joined the rural water system it was $500 for a meter. I don't know why we had $500 but we did, today the cost is $2800 for a meter. Some people are afraid of rural water because of all the chemicals but I think that seeping ground water is just as dangerous in wells. We have 2 wells that I plan on keeping, the county started a program to cap all water wells a couple of years ago, but there were so many protests they quit trying. It is so good to have all the good water whenever you want. You will not always be in your 20's, 30's, or 40's or whatever, when you are older it is so nice and much easier.

[baldylocks]

I'd have both...your well may be safe now, but what happens when the pig farm goes in down the road...or the mine...or the dump. Who knows. I would want my options

[Macybaby]

In a lot of areas of SD, people rejoice to get hooked up to rural water. Mostly because the well water isn't all that safe to drink. Does not matter if you have a deep well or not.

After living in MN and WI - land of very clean well water, this came as a shock to find that rural water was the much prefered way to go. I was actually upset when I found the property I wanted to purchase was not supplied from a well. We have lots of geothermal activity in the ground. Some areas the well water comes out around 60deg, but it sure does stink (sulfur). Great for heating systems but not for regular use.

However, I also see the good of having a well on the property. We have one (from prior to the rural water system coming in), but have not yet got the pump working. I hope to get the well running, as watering the garden uses more water than I like to pay for. There is an old cistern next to the well. It is not hooked up to the house, but would provide water for livestock and basic things. Our nieghbors to the north have a well, and tests showed that is is not safe for thier young childern to drink. They are excited as they should get hooked up to the system next summer.

Two years ago, we were without electricity for two weeks. Since we had rural water (gravity fed system) we always had running water. We did run the generator in the afternoons so we got enough hot water too. With a well we would have been without water. So even though our automatic tanks stopped working and froze up, we didn't have to haul water that far for the animals. Couldn't fill a tank, as it would have just frozen. (Happened due to major ice storm)

On the other side, one year ago we had such a dry summer that the rural system was not able to keep up with demand, and we were close to running out of water also.

For me, I'll be very glad when I have both.

Cathy

[WayneR]

Rural water is usually placed with the intention of future development.

Investigate the backers and inital funders of such projects. It is VERY expensive to install these systems. The number of customers who connect initally is usually insufficient to cover the cost of the system. Future customers (ie:subdivisions) will recover these costs.

Once you have accepted this service, you also accept any future improvements to it. You can be compelled to connect to a central sewer system when it is eventually installed.

Then there are the fees, taxes, etc. that accompany it

[TRAILRIDER]

I would prefer my own well water, but hooking up to city water would raise the value of your property. I'd try to keep both. Nothing like your own well water when you want to water your garden etc. It just costs you electric to operate. Take care all!

[Jim S.]

The pipe runs right across our front yard, and we just two years ago paid to have a new well drilled. Our well water is unbelieveably soft, delicious and UNCHLORINATED, which is a biggie for us. Our skin is much better with just plain water, and we avoid possibly becoming one of the cancers that fall in the "acceptable risk" category for chlorinated water systems. Most people don't know, but there is acknowledgement that chlorinated water will cause a few cancers per so many thousand people. That sounds fine, unless you are one of them.

Further, we avoid drinking water from the same small river that other towns are dumping their waste water into. Yes, I know it is treated before it is delivered to homes. The funny thing is, there are raw waste water discharge point signs up and down the stream, explaining that when a town gets a lot of rain, raw sewage is discharged because the treatment plant gets overwhelmed. Mmmm, that's appetizing, treated or not. I'll keep my well water.

The water folks just came down my road, spraying a yellow dot on the road at every place they have a tap stub. Then if it is hooked up, they sprayed a blue dot next to the yellow one. I was very surprised at how many folks are still on wells. It's the majority on my road, until you get to the subdivisions.

Now in some places, if the line comes, you MUST hook up to it. I am glad I still live where a person can make his own decisions with his own property.