WATER: Domestic Tap vs. Pasture Tap

[glazed]

What is the difference between a domestic tap and a pasture tap?

The rural water company told me it is $500 for a domestic tap BUT I have to have an approved septic system in place before they'll install it.

The pasture tap is $700.

We have 80 acres, and have no idea WHERE we are going to want to build so it makes no sense to put in a septic system yet, but we will still need water.

Should I put in a work order for a pasture tap (so we can at least have water) until we figure out where we want to build?

Okay I'll cut to the chaff:

To be honest, we really didn't want to mess with "approved septic systems" and opening the can of worms to having inspectors on the land, and knowing our private business ... we wanted to look into compost toilets and using a greywater system ... we want to try to fly under the radar.

That's why I thought we'd just go ahead and re-drill the existing well ... trying to keep it simple ... but gyppy water may not be good for us judging by your posts in the other thread.

Should we just put in a work order for the pasture tap for our water needs?

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by Mama Crow

What is the difference between a domestic tap and a pasture tap?

The rural water company told me it is $500 for a domestic tap BUT I have to have an approved septic system in place before they'll install it.

The pasture tap is $700.

We have 80 acres, and have no idea WHERE we are going to want to build so it makes no sense to put in a septic system yet, but we will still need water.

Should I put in a work order for a pasture tap (so we can at least have water) until we figure out where we want to build?

Okay I'll cut to the chaff:

To be honest, we really didn't want to mess with "approved septic systems" and opening the can of worms to having inspectors on the land, and knowing our private business ... we wanted to look into compost toilets and using a greywater system ... we want to try to fly under the radar.

That's why I thought we'd just go ahead and re-drill the existing well ... trying to keep it simple ... but gyppy water may not be good for us judging by your posts in the other thread.

Should we just put in a work order for the pasture tap for our water needs?

The difference is that you cannot put a house on the pasture tap. To be honest you need to drill a well and forget what the county water toled you. If your water comes back with little pollutions like bacteria you can filter it out by installing a sand filter.

[glazed]

This is Papa Crow.

Is it unreasonable to think that hand dung well they did in the 40's can be re-done by us?

Mama says thank you.

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by Mama Crow

This is Papa Crow.

Is it unreasonable to think that hand dung well they did in the 40's can be re-done by us?

Mama says thank you.

I doubt that you can hand dig a well but you can put a sand point down by hammering it in from the surface and hit the same water.

[Papa Crow]

I'm as green as they come, I've lived in a city of 100 thou my entire life so is that something I can do myself or should hire out and what is a sand point?

[Old Vet]

A sand point is what you drive into the ground to hit water. Go to the nearest non box hardware and they will have it or can get one for you and all you need to drive it into the ground. You may want to ask a neighbor if he will show how to drive it in. Most any farmer will know how to do that.

[Papa Crow]

Great ! you know how green I am. Thanks and wish me luck. You only learn so much in boy scouts. But loved every minute of it.

[Alice In TX/MO]

How to drive a well with a sand point:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...es/DD0951.html

[Windy in Kansas]

The link provided in this old forum thread should explain sand point and driving one.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/arc...p/t-36716.html

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by Mama Crow

What is the difference between a domestic tap and a pasture tap?

The rural water company told me it is $500 for a domestic tap BUT I have to have an approved septic system in place before they'll install it.

The pasture tap is $700.

Taking a guess here but it appears the basic difference twixt a domestic tap and a pasture tap is about $200. Can you drill a well for 200? Can you rework an old well for 200 bucks? Come to think of it can you put in a pump and pressure system on a good well if it existed for 200 dollars? I dunno about Ok but in my area of Kentucky wells are not guaranteed to have water in them when being drilled, often if water is there its not fit to drink and folks end up owning a very tall stack of fence post holes. (them things are a real bugger to move over to the fence row where they are needed.)

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

Taking a guess here but it appears the basic difference twixt a domestic tap and a pasture tap is about $200. Can you drill a well for 200? Can you rework an old well for 200 bucks? Come to think of it can you put in a pump and pressure system on a good well if it existed for 200 dollars? I dunno about Ok but in my area of Kentucky wells are not guaranteed to have water in them when being drilled, often if water is there its not fit to drink and folks end up owning a very tall stack of fence post holes. (them things are a real bugger to move over to the fence row where they are needed.)

You need to read the whole thing about not wanting to have a septic system.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by Old Vet

You need to read the whole thing about not wanting to have a septic system.

Yep, I read that, thats why they would need to go with the pasture tap instead of the domestic tap. Fer a couple hundred bucks more, they have a good source of good water and no government interference on their composting toilet. This is of course presuming they dont broadcast to every one in their community what they are doing and have no qualms about fudging a little on the red tape issues which is something I would NEVER recommend to others but then I am not one to tell others how to live their lives.

[texican]

Well, you CAN actually dig and clean out the old hand dug well.... if you're a brave soul, who doesn't mind tight and wet spaces.

One of my cousins got the gumption once to see if he could fix the dug well that was on his place. He got a winch line off a truck, built a tripod over the hole, got a bucket and had himself lowered into the hole. Didn't stay down long... and decided the local rural water company rates weren't really that bad.

[Macybaby]

I love my rural water company. Might be because well water around my area isn't quite potable.

Around here a domestic hookup is around $2,000 and a pasture way cheaper. Domestic has a "pot" in the ground with a man hole cover that you can open up and crawl into. It has the regulator and meter installed and a hookup for running lines to the dwelling. Pasture hookup is just a tap into the line with a hydrant. I expect there is a regulator to limit the PSI. There is no meter on them so I expect the farmers just pay a flat monthly fee. They are used for filling stock tanks.

It sure is nice having running water when the power goes out, especially when it's out for ten days.

Cathy

[RosewoodfarmVA]

I dunno....

If it was me I'd do whatever I could to have my own well instead of piped in water. Not only are the monthly costs going to add up against the initial cost of the well, but atleast in this area I wouldn't drink from tap water at all. The nearby cities of Clarksville and Oxford get their water from Kerr Lake. Upstream about 20 miles is the 3x larger city of South Boston, which takes its water from the same river and dumps its sewage into it after it's "treated." I dunno about you but I sure don't want to be drinking someone else's potty, even if it's been 'treated' and traveled 20 miles in a river before being pumped out and bleached then piped to me! With a well you are dealing with relatively localized contaminants, meaning that you can see potential contaminants and probably deal with them. Piped water you never really know it's source or what's in it, as Clarksville hides it's water test results and if you study it you find that the same contaminants and bacteria test too high every month yet they say in the test that they're working on lowering that count.

As to the old well issue, we have an old rock lined well from the early 1800s here that still has relatively good water, though the previous owners had a new well drilled in the 60s because the old one didn't go low enough to have volume storage for high use times and would run dry when several appliances were in use at the same time. They would have to wait a half hour to get water again, so they drilled a deep well to have a larger reservoir of water. But the old well did provide them with good water and still would if cleaned out again. We have no filtration at all, no grit, no bad smell, no staining on toilets or tubs, the taste is great. If you clean out a well you have to strain out all the sediment and trash in the bottom of the well (usually by going down there with strainers and buckets), then pump continuously for several hours to clean out all the filthy water and cause fresh water to seep into the well. Depending on the lining it may need work as well, though ours is a dry-stacked rock lining with no mortar at all. Do be aware that often there may be many feet of water before the bottom of the well so don't plan on standing on the bottom in the water while you clean! Our well water level varies with the season, in winter during rains it may be as close as 10 feet from the surface, but in summer drought may be 50+ ft deep.

I'd take a well over piped water any day, both for water quality and for long term financial savings.

[glazed]

Originally Posted by Macybaby

Around here ... .... ..... ... Pasture hookup is just a tap into the line with a hydrant. I expect there is a regulator to limit the PSI. There is no meter on them so I expect the farmers just pay a flat monthly fee. They are used for filling stock tanks.

It sure is nice having running water when the power goes out, especially when it's out for ten days.

Cathy

I was told that the first 20,000 gallons are "free" (after the $700 initial hook-up fee) and then after that it is $120 a year ... sounds too cheap so let me look at my notes from that phone conversation ... well, that is what I wrote down ($120/year pasture tap fees.)

[glazed]

Thank you for all the responses.

I'll be sure to show Heath when he gets through watching the first season of Lost with our daughter

[Papa Crow]

Only a $200 difference? Thanks, I was having alittle trouble doing the math. I was wanting to know the "under the radar" plumb-ability off the pasture tap. But you're not who I need to talk to since you're a beholder of red tape.

[Papa Crow]

Thanks for the links and the other posts. I'm going to explore all of my options.

No public water no public officials is the way I'm looking at it. Don't really know if I'll have to go with public water out of necessity or not but I figure that if they could hit water in the early 1900s with an old rickety shovel then I'm pretty confident that Old Vet's sand point recommendation should work just fine. My family had their windmill on this well and lived off this well for 40 something years. It's just been abandoned since mid-1950's.

[Old Vet]

The pasture tap needs to be at a trough for animals to drink out of . From their you can have pipe that runs to another trough or more even to irrigate a garden but not to a house if they find you connected to a house you will be in trouble and will not have water until you get an inspection. If you were to have a travel trailer and hooked it up with a hose that will be alright or to a barn or shop that don't have a commode in it When you get all that hooked up you will lose track of where it all goes. If you get a paster tap get a big one so that you can plum everything on that one tap.At least 1 1/4 inch.