Query for you rural well users.....

[mapper]

I grew up drinking spring water and except for a couple of short periods in my life have lived on spring or well water. We have been at our current location for about 35 years, we have a 90' well, we drink the water every day. The only time we had any problem was after the Nisqually earthquake, the water was a bit discolored with iron that a been stirred up by the shaking, I pumped it for an hour or so and it was fine after that.
Our water is a bit acid and does contain a little bit of iron, not enough to taste, city water tastes really nasty to my wife and I.

 

[KYErik]

Check with your local health department, they can possibly test your water for a small fee. As others have said- bacteria (more specifically, fecal coliforms) are the main worry. I had low levels of bacterial contamination when I lived in KY (even after shocking the well with bleach), so I ended up connecting to the county water supply.

As others have said, most bottled water is actually from municipal water supplies.

 

[ultrarunner]

Respectfully asking here how many of the members here have topped off a battery recently? I have always had 4-5 vehicles and sometimes more during the last 20 years but have never needed to top off a battery on any of them....:laughing: :laughing:

My 6 volt batteries still have caps as do my large industrial batteries... so I still check and the industrials do need topping off about once a year.

 

[ultrarunner]

The water in Washington is the best I have ever had... tested clean and it really is delicious... the previous owner had a basic filter and that's it.

Nearby Tumwater was the home to the Olympia Brewery and the Artesians are still working hard... downtown Olympia has Springwater fountains with lines to fill water jugs.

Blessed with great water in Washington and really can tell the difference when in the Bay Area.

 

[dickfoster]

The water in Washington is the best I have ever had... tested clean and it really is delicious... the previous owner had a basic filter and that's it.

Nearby Tumwater was the home to the Olympia Brewery and the Artesians are still working hard... downtown Olympia has Springwater fountains with lines to fill water jugs.

Blessed with great water in Washington and really can tell the difference when in the Bay Area.

You're drinking water imported from the Hetch Hetchy in a lot of the Bay Area. Many of the wells in the South Bay are polluted with chemical waste and what isn't so polluted they can't use it they load up with chloramine and other chemicals so it won't kill ya out right. It's more like simulated water than real water. Much of it you can't put into a fish tank without killing the fish.

 

[Retiredguy2]

You're drinking water imported from the Hetch Hetchy in a lot of the Bay Area. Many of the wells in the South Bay are polluted with chemical waste and what isn't so polluted they can't use it they load up with chloramine and other chemicals so it won't kill ya out right. It's more like simulated water than real water. Much of it you can't put into a fish tank without killing the fish.

"Simulated water" rather than real water...I wonder if that kind of crap I am paying for...."HERE FISHY, FISHY...let's see if you can live two weeks in this brew....":laughing:

 

[NoTrespassing]

We have a 70ft. deep bored well. It's the only way to go where we're at. Some neighbors have to haul water in the summer. I bring home water from work 5 gallons at a time. The funny part is, it's the same water they sell at our local Walmart for 80 cents per gallon. I usually treat the well with a gallon of chlorine once a year or so.

Kevin

 

[ultrarunner]

You're drinking water imported from the Hetch Hetchy in a lot of the Bay Area. Many of the wells in the South Bay are polluted with chemical waste and what isn't so polluted they can't use it they load up with chloramine and other chemicals so it won't kill ya out right. It's more like simulated water than real water. Much of it you can't put into a fish tank without killing the fish.

My place in Oakland is EBMUD

It all depends on where the water is sourced and it does change...

Friends have HetchHetchy in Hayward and the water would run white sometimes.

Some of you may have heard of Alhambra Water?

It originally was spring water bottle and sold all over California and rail cars would fill up on it for wide distribution many years ago... today, it is only a name from what I understand.

Anyway, my brother's ranch/farm has deeded water rights to that Spring and that is what they use... and the place has since the mid 1800's

 

[IXLR8]

Except for the 14 years I lived in NM and AZ, for 60 years I have had well water. Never had an issue, our present well is slightly acidic so have a calcite filter to neutralize it. We have several companies in the area that sell water treatment equipment and they will test the water for free. Our local plumbing supply company will also test the water for free, if you can convince a plumber to deliver a sample to them.

 

[teg]

More worried about the "city" water, use a carbon filter for drinking and cooking. Never thought twice about well water in the country... about 1/2 mile to a neighbor. No clue about how deep the well is. (or how old the pump is...)

 

[tractchores]

We're in a similar situation (suburban area with a well). The bottled water half the time is just municipal water bottled at a plant. I worry about what's in that as well. Our well has a particle filter for rust, my experience on municipal is you need one of these too otherwise super fine silt clogs up fixtures and valves over time. For our well water we have it tested every 5 years or so, we did a more comprehensive test when moving in and now just periodically do much cheaper tests for more typical contaminants. Testing isn't very expensive and is pretty easy. Here's the place we use: ETR Laboratories Water Tests- . On the plus side I really like our water!

 

[oosik]

My water come from a spring and its the best tasting water I've ever drunk. No filters, no softeners, no clarifiers, no purifiers - just great spring water.

To me - bottled water tastes like cr@p.

 

[ultrarunner]

I do think Washington is particularly blessed with good water more so than many other areas of the country...

It is one of the things I like having gone through many a California drought where everything just withers away.

 

[Turbys_1700]

We drink our water from a surface fed spring. This spring has been in the family for over 150 years to my knowledge. The pump sits in a spring house with a foot valve in the bottom of the spring box. The spring is free flowing. We've never tested the water. The crayfish don't seem to be bothered by it so I figure it's good to go. My great grandfather drank out of that same spring until it killed him at 94. It is really good water.

Prior to that our old house utilized an old shallow bored well. Practically all the wells around here were that way. I am not aware of any issues with the water in our area. After that drilled wells were the ticket. County water was finally run down our road about 7 years ago. The cost was over $2500 to hook up. I passed. I think that now if you are within 300 feet of the line and you build a new house you have to hook up.

 

[oosik]

Yes, I'm pretty lucky with this spring. It was hand dug in 1892 and has been a reliable supply since that time. However, down south of me, in an area called the Palouse - world famous for wheat production - there is a big problem with nitrates in the well water. Its due to use/overuse of agricultural fertilizer. Nitrates, like mercury, in your water supply can be very hazardous for young children.

No crayfish in my spring but I do have little green frogs.............

 

[TheMan419]

Unless you get it tested you have no idea what (if anything) you need to do. When we bought our house testing the water was like $50.00. I could buy a lot of jugs of water for $50, but would rather know that I can just turn on the tap. We have a 5 micron filter and then a softener. However, at the old house we had a 3 stage iron filter because that was what we needed.

Listening to others say they have no problem with their well water is great, but that tells you noting about your own water.

R/O is the other way to go if you don't want to have it tested. Filter and soften the whole house and then R/O kitchen tap for cooking/drinking.

Better to have it tested and then deal with whatever you need to deal with.

 

[MacLawn]

Location location location. I think that's the issue. Our well in Georgia is 100' through dirt, 400' through blue granite, that'd be 500' deep 6" well cased down to granite which doesn't need casing. There's a water bottling company 7 miles from us, same water we have that they sell. It's called SpringTime®, and I've even bought my own water. Except for sediment filter, don't need anything. Tested, and it is excellent. In south Florida, if you spill it on the ground, you drink it in your well water.

 

[not2old]

Our well is 55 feet deep, all through gravel with the water level at 20 feet and provides 55 imperial gallons per minute. When we bought the place we had it tested at a government facility and it tested to three decimal places of zeros for everything that they check for. Certainly a lot better than paying $1400.00 per year for the crap we got in the city that I didn't like to drink because I hated the taste of the chlorine.

 

[ultrarunner]

The minimum residential charge for a 5/8 meter is $80 in my part of the Bay Area.

Add to this about $4 for each unit of water.

Water bills at one time paled to gas and electric but not anymore.

 

[TheGoose]

As a water well professional I hear this a lot. " Our well has great tasting water but we don't drink it". When I ask why not nobody ever has an answer except that they're afraid. It seems that society has conditioned us to only trust things that come wrapped in plastic with some obscure govt agency stamp of approval.

Have the water tested. If it tests good for bacteria and other contaminants then shuck the extra trouble for bottled water and forget about it.

Let me ask you one thing:. How do you get ice?