Spring For Drinking Water?

big rockpile · #1 03/31/10, 10:53 PM

Ok have some property that has a good spring.Problem is its about 50 feet from the property line.My wife is wanting to build on up and across from it.

Ok wating to use the spring for drinking water but she is wanting an Outhouse too.

This is kind of hard to explain.There is a spring that runs all the way through but it get alot of drainage,The good spring comes into it across from where she wants the Cabin and is about a foot higher than this ditch it runs into.

How far away would you build? Or forget the spring?

There is another place upstream the ground is getting water all the time because the ground is wet all the time just can't find a clear spring coming into it.

big rockpile

Oh I've been using the spring water no ill effects.

manygoatsnmore · #2 04/01/10, 03:14 AM

Are you planning to put the outhouse above the spring?

I'd get a reservoir of some type to catch the water coming out of the spring and keep it clean, then let the overflow go ahead and run the way it does. If you want an outhouse, put it downhill and 100' or more away from the spring, so you don't contaminate your spring. I'd take the water from the spring in to be tested, too, just to make sure that it is pure. You may have a good immune system that can handle drinking slightly contaminated water, but if your grandkids come to visit and drink it, they could get pretty sick. If it doesn't test pure, but tastes good, you can always filter your drinking and washing water.

I love good clean, clear spring water, and there's something to be said for having a year-round source of clean water that doesn't require electricity to access it. Wish I had a spring on my place.

I'd be digging around to see if you could find the source of the other spring,too, if it was me.

uncle Will in In. · #3 04/01/10, 09:09 AM

ROCKY, I heard about an old man who lived in the hills. His dug well was beside his cabin, and his outhouse was up the hill behind the cabin. It had been that way for years. One day a man from the Government stopped in and looked around. He told the old man it wasn't Ok to have his toilet higher than his dug well, and he'd have to move it. The old man moved the toilet down the hill from the cabin near the road. One month later the same Gov guy drove in. The old man was out to his car before he could get out. He called that man every nasty name he knew and threw in all his favorite swear words. When the Gov man got a chance he asked him what was the matter with him. The old man said, "Ever since I moved that outhouse down the hill my well has been dry!"

marvella · #4 04/01/10, 01:11 PM

if you have neighbors of any kind i would not drink the water. there is very little clean water left in this country. fecal matter, pesticide runoff... now if it came from a national forest or park, or from above your place with nothing else around, i'd think it was ok. no reason not to use it for other stuff. contaminants, even your dog pooping in the yard, can seep a hundred feet into the ground, according the guy who dug my well.

big rockpile · #5 04/01/10, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvella

if you have neighbors of any kind i would not drink the water. there is very little clean water left in this country. fecal matter, pesticide runoff... now if it came from a national forest or park, or from above your place with nothing else around, i'd think it was ok. no reason not to use it for other stuff. contaminants, even your dog pooping in the yard, can seep a hundred feet into the ground, according the guy who dug my well.

Well there is no neighbors where she is wanting the cabin is 100 yards on the side of the hill across from the hill that the spring is on.

big rockpile

Old Vet · #6 04/01/10, 04:14 PM

Get on city water and you will never have any problems at all. They get their water from a resiviour before that it was in a lake so just get on city water and you will never get sick again. I know they filter the water and treat it with chemicals that make it taste bad but but you will never have to boil the water or do anything else because it is "pure" and "safe" to drink. Some of them are from wells so you might be better to get yours from a spring because like they said there is no pure or safe water in the ground.

big rockpile · #7 04/01/10, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Vet

Get on city water and you will never have any problems at all. They get their water from a resiviour before that it was in a lake so just get on city water and you will never get sick again. I know they filter the water and treat it with chemicals that make it taste bad but but you will never have to boil the water or do anything else because it is "pure" and "safe" to drink. Some of them are from wells so you might be better to get yours from a spring because like they said there is no pure or safe water in the ground.

Get on City Water :smiley-laughing013: That has to be one of the funnier things I've head on here.

Surely you are not serious?

big rockpile

John_Yurich · #8 04/01/10, 06:44 PM

Getting on city water is also getting on forced medication, fluoride - though medication probably isn't the the correct word. Perhaps poison may be more suitable.

big rockpile · #9 04/01/10, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_Yurich

Getting on city water is also getting on forced medication, fluoride - though medication probably isn't the the correct word. Perhaps poison may be more suitable.

Yea I know.But what I found funny is what city is this water suppost to come from considering there is no city around and probably won't be in my life time.

big rocklike

Wis Bang 2 · #10 04/02/10, 09:17 AM

We have a cabin on state forest in PA that has a spring. The local developments are on the other side of the swamp that drains in a different direction and when dad was alive he had the water tested frequently as he worked for our municipality and would bring water samples to the city chemist at the water treatment plant. He always reported a slightly elevated bacteria count and cautioned against having strangers drink the water but said we would be OK since we were using it.

Since he retired and passed away, I've started bringing bottled spring water to carry afield. We still use the spring water for coffee, cooking and dishwashing, anywhere where it gets heated. We don't have running water and can't drill a well since the state restricted this at the lease camps.

One camp up the road has a grandfathered well outside [needs a grey water permit to pipe it inside] and the local camps know where the switch is so we get water there when the spring is dry.

Mel- · #11 04/02/10, 10:27 AM

never have to boil city water? I've seen plenty of cities who issue a boil warning, telling you to boil your water until further notice. was just looking at land in a county that did that for over a month back in the winter. because of some farm accident or something.

motdaugrnds · #12 04/02/10, 10:58 AM

ROFL I got a big laugh out of that suggestion to use city water too. *gag* I cannot even bring myself to buying the meat in grocery stores. America is simply putting too much in its shipped foods and the water is .. well, might as well have your own outhouse "uphill" from your spring. ROFL

As for collecting the "good" spring water before it gets mixed with the runnoff, I was referred once to a site where it explained how to "tap" into good water. You might want to read this as it gives me ideas as to how I would deal with your situation were it mine. I cannot remember the url; but if you do a google search for "Milking Water from the Hills . the Prehn Method" by Joe Summy, you will find it.

marvella · #13 04/02/10, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by big rockpile

Well there is no neighbors where she is wanting the cabin is 100 yards on the side of the hill across from the hill that the spring is on.

big rockpile

i know i don't have a clear picture in my head of the set up exactly. i'm just saying, because that water is running underground from who knows where, making sure there is NO human activity any where near it is critical. a neighbors septic can easily leak into it from a mile away and you wouldn't know it. boiling doesn't get rid of ag run off, like fertilizers. scary dangerous stuff.

Batt · #14 04/02/10, 11:00 AM

Yeah Rock, just get connected to city water. Let see it's what (15+4+2+1½) I make it about 22 miles to the nearest city that has a water system. Rock, I think some people just don't under stand that when you live in the country it is about 25 miles to the nearest stop light or McDonalds. Gosh how do we ever survive??

Truckinguy · #15 04/02/10, 11:05 AM

In Toronto, the wastewater is treated and dumped back into Lake Ontario, then it is sucked up into the drinking water treatment plants and pumped back into the city. Testing of Toronto tapwater has shown traces of many medications since so many people flush medications down the toilet and the treatment plants aren't designed to remove them. Not to mention all the industrial waste being dumped into the lake.

marvella · #16 04/02/10, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Vet

Get on city water and you will never have any problems at all. They get their water from a resiviour before that it was in a lake so just get on city water and you will never get sick again. I know they filter the water and treat it with chemicals that make it taste bad but but you will never have to boil the water or do anything else because it is "pure" and "safe" to drink. Some of them are from wells so you might be better to get yours from a spring because like they said there is no pure or safe water in the ground.

gag, puke.... sorry. i'm pretty sure you have tongue in cheek, right??

also, just think of all the medications that everyone is peeing into the water. and the adivce to get rid of old prescriptions by flushing. that stuff is never tested for.

i'm just waitng for the bottled water industry to blow sky high. most of them just filter city water from god knows where. i know a company near here, in greene county, that does it. the health dept regularly issues e. coli warnings about it to city water users, but everyone seems to just ignore it.

there is very, very, little clean water left in this country. humans are pigs. no other animal fouls theri next so thoroughly as us.

Wis Bang 2 · #17 04/02/10, 07:06 PM

Poland Spring water is only a few more cents than the nestle 'filtered' public water at Wal*Mart...worth every penny to me!

Johnny Dolittle · #18 04/02/10, 09:01 PM

Hmmmmmmmmmm wish I lived in your state .... here in Pa. we are no longer permitted to develop a spring as a water source for a home. And some in the legislature would like to put meters on you spring and charge you for your water. Be sure you get the water tested.
.... also outhouses and springs don't mix JMO LOL

roachhill · #19 04/02/10, 10:27 PM

When did PA ban springs? almost everybody in our area get there water from springs. It bubbles up everywhere almost to the point of being a nuisance. Where are we supposed to get water from if not all the water bubbling out of the ground? I for one am not spending 10 grand to drill a well when I already have so much water my field is boggy. Also as far as not being any clean water that's just silly my family and neighbors have their springs tested on a regular basis. Lots of minerals but perfectly safe.

Callieslamb · #20 04/02/10, 10:39 PM

marvella makes a good point. Whether spring water is good to drink or not can change pretty quickly. Have it tested often. We used to use spring water to chill our watermelons in the summer. We would dare each other to see who could stay in the longest. Lots of fun memories in MO springs!