Well water with high mineral content?

[KCFLY]

We will be closing soon on our new property!

Talked to a well driller as there are no wells on the property. He was a good 'ol boy and basically told me he'd be happy to drill for natural gas, but the water had way to many minerals in it to be drinkable and wouldn't be worth it.

He wouldn't really discuss it as (to him) it was just a bad idea.

Based on this little bit of info, would this water be ok for gardens and/or animals??? Would animals even drink it. ( I guess they would if they were thirsty enough )

Thanks

Drilling for natural gas is a whole other question. The cost would be about $20 grand for the well. That's a huge payback when there are already natural gas lines to the house on the property. Although it sure would be nice to put a NG heater in the shop and not worry about running it!

[geo in mi]

Knock on your next door neighbor's door and ask for a drink of water.....

geo

I don't have any idea where you're at but gas must be awful close to the surface there .

[Harry Chickpea]

I guess I don't see the appeal of buying land with no reliable source of water.

[Belfrybat]

My last property had well water that was highly mineralized. It was undrinkable. Unfortunately one of the minerals was sodium, so it could not be used on the garden either. As a test, I boiled a gallon of water dry and ended up with about 2 tablespoons of salts. We ended up re-plumbing the house to direct the well water into the bathrooms only, and put in a water catchment system off the roof for drinking and garden water. The well water was quite safe to drink, but it was near impossible to do so.

[simi-steading]

If you spend enough money for the right kinds of filters or treatment systems, there's not much water you couldn't use...

You need to find out what's in the water then go from there figuring if the costs are worth it..

So I take it you have no other source for water??? Water was number one priority for me when we went looking for land.

[wy_white_wolf]

Depends on the acidity of the minerals in the water. You'd not only be adding water to the garden, but those minerals too. A couple years of watering and one could change the soil.

WWW

[haypoint]

There are areas in my community that have salt deposits. The well water is too salty to drink. Because of the huge cost for equipment that will remove salt, it is far cheaper to draw lake water and clean that up for drinking. So, you can get minerals out, but sometimes it costs tens of thousands in filtering methods.

[Michael W. Smith]

I'm confused - were you talking to him about drilling a water well, or a natural gas well? Both are done with drills - but are two TOTALLY different things!

A water well is drilled solely for the purpose of drinkable water - but much depends on your area - how high or low the water courses are as well as if the water has sulphur or other minerals in it.

A natural gas well is drilled solely for getting natural gas - with oil sometimes being a byproduct of it. When a water course is drilled through on a natural gas well - the area is cemented off to keep the water from migrating.

And I highly doubt this guy can just drill a natural gas well for you. Here in PA, natural gas are permitted by the state and the drillers have many hoops to jump through. Also, eventually chances are that natural gas well will need to be plugged. If this guy is suggesting he drill you a natural gas well with bypassing the state required permits and regulations - it's not a good idea.

If you are interested in free gas (do you even own the mineral rights under the property) and own the mineral rights, see about leasing the land to a gas company.

[Molly Mckee]

Talk to another well driller, as well as the county health department or whoever keeps well records in your area. Hauling water for a homestead is going to be a real pain. It may make the land hard to sell if you ever have to do it.

[Cygnet]

I've dealt with a well that was high in fluoride and table salt, among other things. I didn't drink it, but it was okay for bathing, for livestock, and for gardening -- I moved the garden every couple of years as salt built up.

It was VILE tasting, but the animals would drink it. The only issue I really had was with hatchling chicks developing leg problems, I think due to the incredibly rapid growth and the effects of fluoride. I fed the babies bottled water until they were a few weeks old and they were fine.

(I have two dogs who are ten and seventeen and still able to work as stock dogs, who spent the majority of their lives drinking that water, as well as six cats -- four over ten -- who are still healthy. So it wasn't THAT bad.)

However, I will say my goats have had much healthier coats, and I've had healthier hair, since moving. I'm still on a well that is extremely hard, but it's just calcium and iron. No nasties, no salt. It tastes good, like mineral water. My hair being softer I completely credit to the lack of salt in the water. The goats may be water related, or it may be diet related, as my new home has actual browse for them. No change to the cats or dogs.

[Bellyman]

Build a cistern for household use and possibly develop a pond for irrigation use. If a pond won't work, a large tank (or even a pool) could be useful for water storage.

Some places, the water from wells is truly awful. It would be good to find out what well water in that area is like, though, to see if it could be used for gardening or animals safely as it comes from the ground. Filtering can be pretty expensive, depending upon what needs to be filtered out but can be done if you've got the $.

Water is a big deal. A homestead or farm needs a good source of water. You can minimize what you need in both household and irrigation needs but you still need good water.

Good luck!

[K.B.]

Couple of options... a lot depends on where in the country you are located.

Find out where the water table(s) are - there may be a shallow water table within 20' of the surface. It may not be the best for drinking either if there are chemical or biological sources of contamination around, but it may be easier to filter contaminants out of this type of water than the minerals/salts. Also, the water table that is deeper and has the high mineral content may be only one layer. I would think the well driller may have told you this if it was the case, though. May be worth checking to see if anyone in the area has gone deeper than usual and gotten better water. Could be pretty expensive, though.

Raincatch is one of the best options, IMO. Laws vary by state, but if you get 20+" precipitation per year, you can probably make this work for your for cheaper than drilling a well and treating the water.

Are there any surface water features on the property? This would be helpful for critters and irrigation (again, if local laws permit use of the water).

Dilution is another option. Our well water has some minerals and enough salt for me to not like it straight, but if it is diluted 1:1 with less mineralized/salty water, it is not bad at all. See if you can get a water test (including a mineral profile) for other wells in the area.

If your area doesn't get much rain in the summer, solar distillation may be an option for drinking water. There are some good plans around (google search) for small scale distillation that will give you plenty of water per day for drinking.

[KCFLY]

Thanks to everyone for their replies:

This is just southeast of the Kansas City MO metro area.

This land does have city water and a septic system.

The well was something I'd like to have for gardening and any future animals we have as well as for a back up source of water for the family. Summers are dry and hot.

In Missouri drillers do have to be certified by the state to drill gas wells. This driller is. I have verified that with the state. A reliable gas well will good volume can be had at around 450-500 feet. Permitting for me is no problem and a pretty easy process.

The water well would need to be around 150-200 feet.

The driller did mention even going 500 feet if no gas was found (very unlikely according to him and the guy at the state I spoke to) we would definitely hit water, but it would still have a high mineral content.

This part of the country does have a huge aquifer so I was surprised at the poor quality of the water based on what the driller had to say. You can hit water almost anywhere you drill around here. Our annual rainfall is about 40" on average so a catchment system would work for a fair amount of water needs. No problems catching all the water we want around here.

I have talked to a couple neighbors but they are pretty spread out and none I have spoken to have a well. They are quite well off people who are happy paying for city water for their animals to drink.

There is oil in the area as well, but I do not know how deep, etc. We looked into leasing, but we don't have enough land to warrant anyone's interest in this area. Everyone I spoke to said 100 acres minimum. So if we want to drill, we are going to have to do it alone.

I have tried to answer everyone's questions. Thanks again for your insight!

[Vosey]

I'll just throw out there that I wouldn't trust this guy, we were told a bunch of bogus stuff about the place we bought by some of the good 'ole boys. Maybe he'd rather you paid him 20K for a gas drill than 10K for a well?

Sounds like you have a number of water options, the more the better!

[haypoint]

In many areas that have "city water", it is illegal to drill a well. It isn't because they can't stand the competition, but every well has the potential of contaminating the aquifer. Might want to check that out, before you go too far.

[barnyardgal]

My house that burned has a water softener & water filter....the filter had to be changed once a month cause of rusty colored water/sediment... so in the new house am putting a water softener in & a whole house water filter system from Lowe's,not suppose to change any filters on it,we will see.don't know what else to use...but do know the toilet water gets rusty colored if filter is not changed monthly which is to often...

guess i don't really have any good answers for ya....except my dilemma & gonna try solution....

Gotta have water on the farm/in the country though!!!!