What is minimum amount of water needed?

[TheGoose]

There are people who would LOVE to have 5 gpm. 5 gpm should be plenty most of the time, but might occassionally be an annoyance.

My guess is that you can pump much more than 5 gpm over a short period of time and the 5 gpm rule is not enforced because there's no way to easily enforce it. Plus, while your pump may only produce 5 gpm, your tank can supply whatever water needs you have. If you're using several appliances at a time the tank will continue to supply all of those while your pump fills your tank. As the water in the tank decreases it's possible the pressure might start to drop off but you will still be able to draw water, just at a little lower pressure.

My professional (as a water well professional) opinion is that you would probably never notice the restriction and when you did it would be nothing more than a minor annoynace. Start irrigating the yard or garden and it's a different ballgame.

Also, I bet if you look at the language of the deed it's probably restricting you to a 5-gpm pump, which depending on horsepower and water levels can produce more than 5 gpm.

Good luck.

 

[KTurner]

I was looking at an ad for a piece of land (20 acres) that had a deed restriction for water withdrawal of 5 gpm (5 gallons per minute). Doesn't seem like much water at first, but that is 300 gallons per hour and 7200 gallons per day at that pumping rate. Does that sound too restrictive?

Why put it in the deed and what is the enforcement mechanism? Does it invalidate the deed if you draw 6 gpm?
Why not just pass a water conservation law? What happens in 50 years when the water situation has changed but all the deeds still say 5 gpm? It'd be a lot easier to adjust a law than it would all those deeds. Say you had two children and want to split the land and give each of them ten acres. Do the new parcels only get 2.5 gpm each?
In 10 years, are they going to tell you to cut down half your trees because your trees are drinking too much water?

Something just seems wacky about this. Sort of like those places where its illegal to use a rain barrel.

Keith

 

[dave1949]

Why put it in the deed and what is the enforcement mechanism? Does it invalidate the deed if you draw 6 gpm?
Why not just pass a water conservation law? What happens in 50 years when the water situation has changed but all the deeds still say 5 gpm? It'd be a lot easier to adjust a law than it would all those deeds. Say you had two children and want to split the land and give each of them ten acres. Do the new parcels only get 2.5 gpm each?
In 10 years, are they going to tell you to cut down half your trees because your trees are drinking too much water?

Something just seems wacky about this. Sort of like those places where its illegal to use a rain barrel.

Keith

I think you have just pointed out that the drier states/regions don't really have a handle on how they are going to manage water use with more people coming and in some cases, less water to go around.

The whole issue seems so foreign to those with no experience living in those regions. Many places in the east worry about how to get rid of excess water, not how to get more of it.