Cleaning dead snakes out of a dug well

[MossRoad]

An Assessment of Potential Exposure and Risk from Estrogens in Drinking Water

 

[Industrial Toys]

Interesting.

 

[MossRoad]

Interesting.

yep.

Now we need to see what's in the water downstream of NY.

 

[Mat4644]

That's kind of an odd statement.

All bottled spring water is probably pumped because how else would you get it into the bottles? There are plenty of springs in the U.S. with huge flow. Here's a list of some huge springs just in the Ozarks.

List of Ozark springs - Wikipedia

They install a well casing at the site to protect from surface contamination. Water is then pumped from the well because the spring doesn't deliver the pressure or volume. It's essentially a well where a spring once existed. It's well water! The spring is something that might of existed at one time. I've been to 6 and installed equipment and all filter and purify the water before it's bottled. Bottled spring water is a joke! I always buy distilled or RO bottled water.

 

[Jstpssng]

You would think that Poland Spring water would come from a spring.
It doesn't. The name came from a hotel/spa back in the days when those were poplular destinations for the obscenely rich. During the Depression my grandfather would go up in a wagon and haul garbage home for the pigs... I grew up using a silver plated ladle from there. The old Hotel burned in 1975, we were sitting outside our camp about 10 miles, saw the glow, and-thinking that it was my uncle's chicken house- went for a ride. (His chicken house burned a year or so later.)

 

[mapper]

FWIW...I have been told that humans can not get sick from cold blooded animals...as disgusting as it may be or seem...
Around here many folks use "surface" water (i.e., springs)...it is impossible to keep ultra tiny salamanders etc. from getting into holding and settling tanks...they get in when they are very small and then grow...they are often found dead with no ill effects...

My folks place had a spring and holding tank water supply. I remember picking the remains of a salamander out of the toilet ballcock once or twice, they really make an effective plug. After that we installed a filter on the intake. I also remember having to go into the tank every year to scrub and sanitize it, so much fun with the cold, cold water from the intake running down your back as you worked. Didn't want to linger on that task!

 

[Jstpssng]

I worked with a guy who I guess you would call a hippy... he came from a rich family buy moved north to "live the simple life. He lived in a cabin with wood heat and a hand pump... I can still see him eating cold potato chowder for lunch with milk dripping down his beard. (He couldn't use the microwave inside....)
One day he was telling about his water tasting bad. So he started cranking the hand pump. Pretty soon little bits and pieces of mouse came out... he kept cranking until the water cleared and kept on using it.

Another time we were staying at a remote camp with a hand pump; the water tasted terrible so I was going to a nearby spring but Dexter kept using the well water. Even the coffee was terrible...
The next week we got there and the water was crystal clear and clean. The owner showed up and said that he had cleaned the dead rabbits out and bleached it. :thumbsup:

 

[Valveman]

Leave a well open or even a small opening and animals will smell the water and fall in trying to reach it. I have cleaned almost every kind of animal you could think of out of wells over the years. One I remember vividly was a 6" casing that had been left open and cut off about ground level for years in the middle of a cotton field. The wells in that area were about 160' deep, but that one only measured about 100', with only 5' of water standing. Every scoop with a 5" suction bailer dumped a load of hide, bones, eyeballs, etc. Mostly rabbits it looked like but probably others things as well. Got it bailed to 160', ran a test pump for a few days, chlorinated the heck out of it, and hooked the new pump to a double wide they just moved in.

Another funny one was leaving about 800' of 4.5" fiberglass pipe laying on the ground overnight after pulling the pump. Came back with a new pump and forgot to run a "rabbit" (drop a short piece of steel pipe through each joint as they are stood up with the hoist). New pump wouldn't pump any water. Disconnected a flow meter at the well head and a soup of eyeballs, ears, skin, etc, fell out as about 3-4 real rabbits had been pressurized to at least a couple hundred pounds against the flow meter impeller. Funny now, but not so much at the time.

 

[Industrial Toys]

And how I make an ugly face when I find a fly in the last gulp of my morning coffee. I admire people that aren't programmed to be so particular.

My Father drinks water out of lake Ontario! Maybe George Carlin was right, you need to give your immune system practice.

 

[Jstpssng]

I doubt that she will spring for a new well (pun intended). I don't want to spray herbicides or anything else around her water supply, but may go around it with landscaping cloth and crushed stone on top.
That should at least discourage the snakes... plus we will be more diligent about keeping it mowed down.