Well Water vs County Water
 

We are starting to plan what will become a small farm/homestead.

We figure the most important consideration is water. We have been informed that our tap will be roughly 1/3 mile away and that it will cost several thousand dollars if we want county water.

We have made an inquiry into having a well drilled and have been given an estimate of $10,000 for a 400' well ( similar depth to neighbors 1/2 mile away).

We are planning to raise some livestock (4-5 dexters, a couple of dozen chickens, and a couple of hogs), so I figure we need a well anyway. I had been contemplating both a well and county water but now I'm not so sure.

The house we are planning to build is going to be small (~500 square feet), and we won't have a big barn for awhile so I don't think rainwater harvesting is an option.

Are we on the right track? Should we break the bank and also get county water? Are there any special considerations when drilling your own well?


Thanks and God Bless!

How many gallons a minute does your neighbors well pump? I have always been on well water. What you can water and irrigate from a well depends on gallons per minute and size of pump. I think that 10,000 for a 400 foot well is a pretty reasonable price.
Well drilling runs about $42 a foot where I live. What size pump do you plan to put in it?
I don't have any experience drilling my own well. I looked into it a couple of years ago. It looked like to me it would depend on what kind of strata (?) you have to go through. How hard is the rock? 400 feet seems awfully deep to drill yourself.
Have you considered using a dowser to find the best spot to drill your well?
It sounds like you have embarked on a great adventure. Homesteading is full of many decisions.

:( :( I just wish the pump in our well still worked! We have "city" water, and boy is it nasty. The well here was drilled when my parents first bought the land, about 25 years ago (and before my time). It only runs 85 ft deep, but after destroying four drill bits, they gave up trying to go any deeper. We have ran a trailer, a house, a small farm, and a garden on it and it has never run dry. We sit on top of a huge slab of slate (when I say huge, I mean about 40 square miles) that sits about 5 ft below the surface of the ground. I don't know any of the specifics except for the depth, because when we changed the pump a few years back we had to pull up the whole pipe, and it was 80 ft long (dad said that it didn't go all the way down that there was still 5 ft below it). The "new" pump was used, and it only lasted two years. It's been a year and a half since we were able to get it to work.


I hope that whatever you decide it works out for you! Down here they are talking about beginning to put water restrictions on well water (I'd like to see the government try that one!) because of the drought.

I'd go with the county water then drill a well when I got a chance.

For one thing if the power goes out you still have water if you are on county water. The wife though I was crazy the first time the power went out at our last place and I made her come into the kitchen and see that we had no lights but still had water. Having lived on a well all my life I thought it was really neat, as a city girl she just thought I was crazier than she first thought.

For another what ever you think about what the government puts in its water its is going to be safe to drink for the most part w/o you having to filter or treat it. The same can't be said for well water.

Last but not least: Remember well drillers get paid for drilling not for finding water. When you drill a well you might wind up with a very deep $10K fence post hole. I had a neighbor have three holes drilled before he got water. I haven't heard of anyone tapping into the county water main and not finding water.

How much does the county water cost? I know you said it's a few thousand to hook to it, but how much is it annually? I pay $55.50 quarterly for my town water (all I want to use). If it is metered you need to look into how much it will cost for the amount of water you plan to use before you can make a decision.

If it were me I would hook in and/or get a well if you plan to keep large livestock. It is difficult to haul water (lots of water) if your well goes dry, the power is out for a week, your pump burns up or you need a new foot valve and can't get it fixed for a few days.

Michelle

When I built this house I had the option of county water. It cost a great deal to bring it in (24,000 if I remember right) but when compared to drilling a well it was a fairly easy choice. The well driller told me that drilling the well was only part of the price issue. Being from a agricultural area I'd probably have to buy a pretty expensive filtration system to just make it safe to drink.

I had a well growing up and on my other place so I know what upkeep is on the well itself without filters and such. There is always something wrong with the thing. You're having to mess with pumps or switches or tanks. It always breaks during bad weather or on holidays. If you get a drought you have to seriously ration your water. You need to test it regularly. Lightning just loves the things.

Once I added it up, the county water was a no brainer. I pay about 15 bucks a month for no more water than I use. Who knows what I would be paying for filtration supplies, testing and well upkeep on top of the thousands to drill and get set up. County water made the most practical and economic sense.

Depends on where you live, & how much water you use.

City water makes no sense here..... Drill 260 feet, you get good clear water, 20-50 gallons a minute flow, there is no issue with drought or drying up, etc.

On a water pipe from the govt with everyone else, you get tax assessmernts, fees, climbing rates, pipe gets too small & you get less water rate than you wanted or a new round of tax assessments to put in new bigger pipe.....

In 41 years, lightening took out the pump once, just replaced the pressure tank for first time, had to pull the pump & clean the screen couple years ago, put in maybe 3 pressure switches. That's pretty cheap per year costs, and less outages than what a city pipe would have.

Kind of a no-brainer 'here' either - dig your own well & enjoy cheap good water! :)

--->Paul

I know it sounds expensive right now, but I would drill my own well personally. The county water will keep going up in price over the next few decades. At least with your own well you'll have the free water and without all the chemicals. Do check the dlow rate of your neighbours well and if by any chance you do get a lower flow rate, they can always fracture it which opens up the veins. This will increase your flow rate/min. Hope thsi helps, Chris

We were told roughly 25Gallons Per Minute.

Check and see what the future plans are to force you onto city/county water. That is a normal growth plan. Expland the pipeline and force hookups at properties it crosses. You don't want to buy a well and then be forced to switch, at your expense. So check.

With livestock there is not inherent need for a well. City/county water can supply that just fine.

There is also the water quality issue. It can go both ways. Again, check what water quality is like in that area for both the piped water and well water.

If you have a high water table and relatively light soil, you can drive a point well for about $1,200.

http://hydrology1.nmsu.edu/hydrology/wellpoint.htm

You do not need to hire a drilling expert, but having a dowser locate the source would be a good idea.

I second "watcher", who said county now, maybe drill later. The cost to connect to the county isn't exorbitant since it is guaranteed to put water in your house!. Drilling is not. The handful of places on my road all have wells. Ours has water at 28' & 56'. The top is clear, the lower has sulfur, maganese, iron, and is very hard, so we have $4000 of water treatment in the basement. Our neighbor doesn't get enough flow for total household use, so he draws his grey water off our pond. Works fine, but a re-sale nigtmare. Up the hill one guy can light the tap because of bubbles of methane, and at the far end of the road, they managed to hit the tail end of the NE salt plume that runs from Ohio to @the Genesee River area of NY. Across the valley from here, people run out of water in dry summers, even though we are in the water-rich Finger Lakes. Sue

Here is something to think about. My friends are on the Iowa/MO. border when that ice storm went through a few week ago it left them without Power for 5 Days~! They have horses, donkeys, mules, and other critters. NOW IF they would have had a well instead of being on country water, they are glad they had country water line as they would have had to start hauling water for the animals.~! So being on a well is not always the best idea if you are that close and reasonable for getting country water piped in.~!

I prefer well water for a few reasons:

1.) No chlorine. Chlorine is a carcinogen, and it is accepted that a certain percentage of municipal customers will get cancer from a life of drinking it. The percentage is low, but tell that to the ones who do get it.

2.) The cost amortizes over years of cheaper operation.

3.) You have a water source that cannot be cut off by someone else.

We're lucky here, a 70-foot well supplies all we need and then some, even in exceptional drought. We get 15 gpm.

DO you have the water rights on your land? east of the mississippi most do, west of the big river many dont.

As county water is 'available' you may not be permitted to have a well drilled. An anonymous phone call is in order to make this detertmination. If you were presently on a well and wanted county water, the government may require that you cap your well (with concrete) to prevent 'cross contamination'.

If at all possible, the well is a better option because of the increasing rates and tax issues raised earlier.

County water is an invitation to future regulation and intrusion. If your county installs a countywide sewer system at a later date you will probably be forced to connect to it, with additional fees and taxes.

In my area, this would be a no brainer - Country water now, and eventual well for backup. However, that is because the well water around this area is naturally tainted. Right now our country system is accepting applications for expansion. Pay $1500 with the app, and hope they add you to the list. It can't be all that bad, as people raised families with well water for several generations. But now the Dr's say it is not safe for childern or elderly. Hmmm - maybe that explains some of the antics of long term residents . . .

Now, if it weren't for the water quality issue, I'd use well water. Country water costs me about $45 a month, and I only use 4000-5000 gallons a month. Most of that is the basic charge though. It does not increas much per 1000 gallons.

I have a well on the property from before county water was hooked up. I don't know much about it, but it served the previous owner(s) for many, many years. We hope to get it working for backup.

The other great thing with the county system - it is gravity fed, so we still have plenty of water when we were without power for 10 days. Some systems had to borrow generators from the National Gaurd to keep the tanks filled.

Couldn't keep the outside buckets from freezing, but at least we could run water to haul every day.

Cathy

LOL, Gary, you may want to consult a map of the US, of course, assuming kentuckysteader is in Kentucky :)

I agree 100% with this suggestion.

We have spring water at our house. The drought is playing havoc with our water level, we had to haul water this summer and fall.
At our rental house just 1/4 mile down the road but still on our property, we have a well that was sabotaged by an evicted renter. The well is no longer usable. As it happened, the county was laying water lines about the time this happened to us, so the rental house is hooked up to county water. The water is excellent, and it flows when the electricity does not.

I grew up here in Kentucky with only well water available. The first rural water line on our road ended exactly 1.1 miles from our home. Having reliable water was deemed important enough to my father we ran our own line the entire distance. Well water is wonderful. Blue hole water also works for livestock. But rural water can absolutely make your entire life incredibly better. One need only read the posts here to see how often those with wells only are out of water. Sometimes it's only hours, sometimes it's days, and sometimes it's literally months. I just can't express how rural water changed our lives. Dry holes cost money to drill, good wells go bad, sulfer wells are worthless, pumps/switches/pressure tanks wear out, power failures occur, and yet through it all, rural water still flows. I endured the worst municipal water debacle in Kentucky's history in Logan County. Our water was unfit for human consumption for weeks & months. Yet the only water I had to bring in was for drinking/cooking. We could still flush, do laundry, water livestock etc. Even under severe restrictions, rural water was a blessing. Please, consider rural water first and a well later.

IF I could afford it - drill the well now!! With the way water rights are changing, there is no guarantee you even will be able to drill a well in the future. A working good well ADDS significantly to the value of your land. IF I were on "county" water here, my cost would be $43.55 per month for the privelege of being hooked up to the system. That gets me 0 gallons of water. Water is $2.00 per thousand gallons after that up to 10,000 and $3.65 per thousand after the 10K. Leave the hose on once and see what it costs you - whew.

well or not
 

To those who could have a well (water available, and quality good), and have access to rain and streams:

Cost is always a factor, but there are some things which cannot be 'costed' out. 1) the long term toxcicity of the lovely chemicals added to city water. Natural levels of some of these things is as it is. But as soon as we tinker with this stuff, we go into unknown or 'acceptable risk' territory. This applies to genetically altered food, pesticides, preservatives in food and so-on. 2) the government has more control over you now. They raise costs as it suits them, and they can add whatever and whenever thay please. Think new lines, dammaged lines, boil alerts, terrorism, mistakes . . . . just another chink in your armor of independance. Add to this that they may insist you cap your well, or restrict its use, and you belong to thier every whim. 3) if there are severe water shortages, and limits, they can monitor your every gallon. They can tell you what to do, and when to do it, water-wise. Talk to folks in drought-ridden areas. "sorry guys, not only can you not water your garden, but no livestock" after all you can buy that from the store (veggies/meat/eggs). 4) think about other SHTF scenarios. If we had an earthquake, I'd be among the sheep running to the store for water. That gets expensive over time, especially if it is a prolonged outage. Where's the convenience then?

My folks have a well pump in their basement with two lines running to the well. Never have to pull the pump and miles of line. No lightening broblems either.

There have been some suggestions about cisterns and rainwater storage for the critters in higher use situations. What about running a pipe from an uphill location to a critter pond/cistern. Govt water just has a bad ring, when there are alternatives.

HBN

We have a well, an R.O. filtration system... Works fine for us. Only thing is that the pump is electric, which could cause problems if the electric ever went out.

Cindyc.

Wells have their own problems. As I have pointed out when you have to go deep and/or through rock they cost a lot. When you don't have to go that deep you run into the possibility of contamination.

Most people today have the pump inside the casing which means if there's a flood (even a couple of feet) you are going to have ground water flowing down into the well. Flood water is loaded with a lot more nasty things than any city/county water will ever be (petroleum, fertilizer, septic tank back flow, dead animals, etc).

Also the chemicals in city water are known and fairly easy to filter out. What you are going to get out of the ground is any one's guess.

As I pointed out, for this poster going with county water is the smartest option. The cost are lower and there is a guarantee of getting water for the money. $10,000 is a lot of money to gamble when you have sure bet for half the money. It would take a long time to recoup $5K plus any interest paid by using well water. It would take even longer if the first drilling didn't hit water.

I grew up on well water (our house well was 18 foot and hand driven). I lived with county water for years and liked it. Now I'm back on a well and like it as well (forgive the pun) even with the H2S in the water. When I set up the plumbing here I ran two lines. One for 'raw' water for the critters, garden and the like. The other will be 'treated' for household use, when we get enough money to buy the equipment.

I would go to great lenths to stay away from a rural water system.I have all the switches,etc for my well in the basement and have had no expensive problems in the 26 years I've been here.

We have county water - they ran it in after a lot of wells in the area (including ours) started to run dry. We now have nice running water all the time. Our neighbors down the way, declined to pay for the water hook up - now they have had to put in a large storage tank and during the summer often do not have enough water for the basics. We would love to get our old well up and running for irrigation purposes but for now we are very happy with the county water.

In my neck of the woods, here are the costs:

1.) County sets a meter - $925.
2.) I hire out installing water line to house, $10-20 a foot (depending on line type and installation type.)
3.) Older pipes in house? Add $50-80 for a pressure regulator.

My well was drilled 2 years ago. 70 feet of 6-inch PVC casing cvost me $1,700. I have $500 in a new tank and submersible pump, about $2,400 in the whole installation, including plumbing the supply line, the Pitman, and wire. I have 15 gpm now in exceptional drought.

It would have run me the same price to get hooked up to county water. PLUS, I'd get to pay $30 a month to use it.

No water when the lights go out? Buy a generator.

The real expense is in running the line. You said it would be long. If to do this, please place a shutoff every few hundred feet, so if it ever leaks you can isolate the leak. I have a friend with 1/2 mile of PVC line and it leaks somewhere. He's paying $150 a month for water, and the plumbers still haven't found the leak, though they have dug around.

If you can do it I would strongly suggest having your own water source.

25 gallons a minute is not bad...about average for where I live. I prefer having a well. You can get a generator to run your pump when the power is out. But it may cheaper to use city water, and drill a well later.

Jim S,
If your friend's leak can't be found because the ground is wet, there is a chemical that changes color in the presence of chlorene. Don't recall the name of it. Could be used to identify an area to dig in.

I had a 200 ft well, tank and pump put in all for $2,000 here but in where I used to live in TN $2,000 probably wouldn't have paid for the casing. Its a lot different drilling 200 feet in soil than 1000 feet through hard rock and the cost is much more. Also I can hit water anywhere I dig around here, in TN there were people who would spend $10K and still not have water.

We've had wells for the last 6 years, and I wouldn't have it any other way. From a health standpoint, if you have your well water tested, it's healthier than county/city water. No additives, and you don't have to wonder if it's being cleaned or treated properly. And in drought conditions, county water supplies dry up just like wells.

From a safety standpoint, you don't have to worry about a terrorist putting something nasty in the reservoir, that everyone ends ups drinking.

Yes, you have to worry about droughts, but that's a small price to pay, IMO, for having fresh, unadulterated water that YOU control.

I wouldn't have it any other way....

I like having my bets covered every way I can. We use the county water that was here when we moved. I'm still kicking. I live about a 1/4 mile from the river this county pumps from, that's 2. Located where we are I've a spring (#3). It stopped running this summer, first time in years, but you could turn rocks in the creek and water would puddle up. #4 will be a shallow well with a hand pump. A berkley will provide filtration. #5 will be cisterns and catchment pond. It will cover us county or not, electric or not. I can live without an occasional pizza, I can't live without water.

3 and 1/2 gallons of good water per minute output from a well can provide plenty for an average family. If I am going to use the water for my needs I prefer a well. If I am responsible for paying for and maintaining a continuous supply of water connecting to a service would be my choice. A reliable supply of water from a well is not as cheap as most perceive. The quality of water from a service IMO is not as good as from a proper well. When it comes to my and my families consumption I try to not let the cost impact the decision. If you happen to get a high producing well you can offset some of the expense by using a geothermal heatpump thus offsetting some of the utility expense to condition the home.

It depends on where you live. When I bought my farm 2 years go, the biggest issue was the wells. I have 2 wells here - 85' and 135' and both of them yielded about 100 gallons of water per well, in a 24 hour period last summer during the drought. I had city water put in when I bought it as the wells were underproducing during the pre-purchase inspection. Installation for this was $4700. The tap costs were $2800 alone, and the rest was laying the pipe from the road to the house. I have a 200' driveway.
I still use the wells, but only for watering the livestock. This spring, I'll plumb in an extra spigot on the outside of the house giving me city water to water the crops with. With my wells being so dry last year, keeping a garden going was difficult.
I also plan on sinking a 10,000 gallon water tank and using the runoff from the barn roof to fill it. I'll put a hand pump on it and an electric pump in case either/or doesn't work. Since I have livestock its critical that I have a redundant supply of water to keep them in water.
So it if were me, I'd put in the city water first, then drill for the well. But if there's a question about if you are allowed to drill, or will be regulated out of it, put the well in first. Its a good bet that the hydro tables in your area are going to tell you how the sub-strata is and if you'll get a good supply of water.
For city water or well water, you can put filter systems on the lines. I'd not worry about chlorine if you use a reverse-osmosis filter system for drinking water. I'd put one of those in regardless of the water source.

Ohiogal
At those depths and a yield of a hundred gallon those must be shallow wells. I am referencing in the above post the output to be 3.5 gallons per minute continuously. Here where I live the depths for 6 inch casing wells would be drilled 400 feet or greater. We also have lots of shallow wells anything from a bored 35 ft deep to a 2 inch drilled at 85 to 135 ft. Our static water table is in the 35 ft range. The 400 ft plus wells are not significantly impacted by seasonal droughts.

Actually, they are standard in depth for this part of the county.
The problem is that we have a lot of iron and I need to get someone out here to clean out the wells. I treated them with chlorine when I moved in because they did not pass the testing levels for e-coli. Then I had a huge mess on my hands. The amount of black gunk that came out of those wells plugged up a lot of stuff in the house. I had to change all my iron filters.
The wells just do not recharge at any useable rate even in non-drought situations like now. The 135' well is the oldest and best producing. That one will run about 10 minutes before it goes dry. It was a nasty surprise when I went to finalize the purchase, as this was not disclosed by the owners. They ended up paying for the water to be installed because they committed fraud and I was walking away from the deal entirely.
I figure if city water doesn't flow, we are all hosed. That means the gov't infrastructure is going down, and that is a bigger problem then not having water!

If you have enough land for cows, I'd vote for a pond, lake, reservoir! I'd hate to depend on a single water source, that required electricity to produce... if the grid goes down at your house, will it go down everywhere??? Bad enough storm, it'd knock power out everywhere.

Yes, it costs money to build one... But, once built, if you have enough drainage, you'll have a known amount of water. No one knows when a well's about to go dry.

At our last house in Connecticut, we had a 300 foot deep well, and even in a drought year we had cold, fast running, clear water. I don't know how deep our well is here in North Carolina, but this is 110-year record-breaking drought and we still have plenty of water. We do conserve as much as possible, but I'm happy not to be dependent on town water.