Rural water vs well - what am I missing?

[edlegault]

The price for drilling a well will be determined by the type of ground being drilled through. Sand/gravel/dirt can be "drilled" inexpensively and fairly quickly by one of those "pounder" type of rigs. Where we are building this summer we have about 2 feet of sand/gravel/dirt and then it is solid ROCK. It takes several days to rotary drill through 245 feet of rock to get to water. Then the county's building codes require a certain amount of tested water rate for an extended pump time. The 245' well on our property was rotary drilled in 2010 for over $10k back then for drilling, 6" casing, and a sleeve. Pump cost (last month) set at 200 feet to pump continuously for 8 hours (2x required test time) to get 18 gpm was a tad over $3K installed. Does not include pressure tank and well/pump house to be built this summer.

 

[chemteck29]

I would definitely get more prices! I got mine drilled at $17.00 a foot to drill, $500 for 50 ft of casing, and the pump, pipe, and pressure tank was $1500 installed with the well being about 100ft from the house. This was done 2 years ago. As for the hard water it's not as big a deal as people make it out to be. My well had 30 grains per gallon hardness which is pretty freaking hard! I fell into the Culligan water trap for a bit because I had too much other stuff to deal with supervising the house building. So like a dummy I just made a phone call to Culligan water who was all too happy to set me up with their water softening unit that I could either pay $2500.00 outright or I could rent it for the so-called bargain price of $65 a month. The worst of it was I had to sign a 1 year contract with Cuillgan in order to rent the unit. I watched the installation like a hawk, I couldn't believe how easy it was to install the softener. Literally, if can read directions and you have a pulse you can put a water softener in! The Culligan guy was there 30 minutes at best and he was gone. Needless to say THE DAY my 1 year was up with Culligan, I was on the phone to them telling them to come get it! I then simply took a drive to my local Lowes home improvement store and picked up a 45,000 grain water softener for $500 bucks and another 40 bucks for salt. Put it in myself in about 45 minutes and haven't looked back! No more $65 a month rental fee, and my water? Never better, the Whirlpool unit from Lowes actually performed better than the Culligan one with fewer regen's and a heck of alot less salt! All I did was plumb it in, set it for 30 grains per gallon, filled it with salt and done. Long story short, don't let hard water scare you away from getting a well. I'd take a well over a municipal water service anyday! Less crud added to it and it generally tastes a heck of alot better! BTW, when you have them build your house just ask the plumber to install a softener loop, he'll know what you mean. That way you can just hook up the 2 water lines from the loop to the softener turn a couple of valves on the loop and not spill a drop of water.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Water cost from rural water source for irrigation is going to run you big bucks. We elected to hook up to rural water and then had to put in a lawn sprinkler last year due to the drought. Our monthly water bill was over $350 per month all summer long. I have no idea how much electricity a deep well pump would require per thousand gallons of water but you could find the submersible pump that you need, check the amperage draw x number of gallons per minute and calculate it vs the per gallon cost of rural water and then go forward from that point based on cost recovery. Dont forget to include a cost for pump replacement eventually plus you may occassionally have to service the well screens if they plug up.

 

[paulharvey]

The also I think the well price sounds very high, did you get at least 3 bids? I would rather have the well any day, but if I could hook up to city/county water for less the half might consider it. Remember once you hook up to them you might be banded from drilling a potable well in the future.

 

[Barry 1]

Where does this Rural water come from? Ours comes out of two SEWER lakes,and when they get low they pump out of a SEWER creek. They run it through a sand filter,add chlorine and send this chemical soup to your house.

 

[paulharvey]

Is that well quote for 3", 4", or 6" well. I reread the original post, 2" service line puts out a TON of water (try accidently braking one) and if we are comparing 3" residential well to a 2" water main that's like comparing grape fruit to grapes.

Is grey water available, if so that is a huge vote for "rural" water and grey water combo. Typically if they offer grey water its a flat very low monthly price like $15 for unlimited 5/8" tap. If your only getting potable water your usage could get insane if your irrigating anything, forcing you to add an irrigation well anyways.

I also read into it that perhaps 300 ft is a worst case, and may not be average or even close. Might help to ask around. Water is a very localized thing, but I have an 4" 85' well with great tasting but hard water, 12 miles away my mom has a 2" 290 ft well with great water.

 

[Ken45101]

As you noted, you run the risk with a well of 1) getting a dry well (big $$$, no water), or 2) getting bad quality water (again, big $$$, no water). I would go with the rural water approach!

Our horse club put in a well at the state park. Big mistake, more money than expected and the water quality is so bad that the horses won't touch it! Wells, in many areas, are a gamble.

You also have the possibility of future contamination from a well.

 

[3v0]

A well with bad water is a never ending pain. It may well ruin the pipes and fixtures in you yet to be built house

As suggested by others check out the quality of the rural water too.

If you can't get gray water and need to irrigate you can drill a well later.

 

[TCJatko]

Lots of sound advice being dispensed here; check with neighbors about water quality, get several estimates for drilling. From a personal perspective, I'd go with a well if given a choice. For the first forty or so years of my life, I drank "city" (treated) water. The last couple of decades I've been drinking from our own drilled well; when I go to the city I can taste the gunk in the water. Go with the well if at all feasible.

 

[TheGoose]

Visit several drillers and get several prices.

Regarding the "finishing costs"....I'm not sure what that means. $5-6K covers what? Pump, tank, trenching, electrical. Sounds a little high but I have no idea if you're trenching through rock or what? Find a company that only services wells and find out what they charge. Sometimes the drillers charge a premium for the hook-up part.

FYI a 1-HP pump at 10 GPM uses about 1200 Watts (watts vary with flow). So 1 Hr = 1.2 KW-H worth of electricity...at say $.12/KWH. So 24 Hrs x $.12 = $2.88 at 10 GPM (may be more) = 14,400 gallons per day (GPD) at $2.88 per day.

$16K is a lot of money but then you are in charge of your own water and not dependent on someone else (by the gallon/buy the gallon). Ask your other neighbors and find out if they have poor water also before deciding. Sometimes the shallow, cheap wells have the hard water but going deeper gets much better quality water.

My wife and I are working on our 'well vs rural water' decision for our acreage. I'm hoping the wisdom of the group here at TBN can look at this to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Background: we bought 40 acres of bare land with a plan to build a house and shed on it. We have a pretty substantial creek flowing on the east side of the property. Last summer we had a drought in Iowa and it flowed until about October. We have planted a chestnut orchard and I plan to irrigate the trees, when necessary, by pumping out of the creek and storing run-off from the shed roof. Currently have about 9000 gallons of storage capacity. The land is about a 75' elevation change, so irrigation would be gravity powered from the storage tanks.

So, here are the details on potable water source options:

Drill a well: local driller indicated that a nearby well required 300' at $30/foot, plus about $5k-$6k in finishing costs/pump. I'm budgeting $16k for this option. Neighbors about a mile away indicated that they had iron in their well water and were glad to get rural water service.

Rural water: This service is available by extending the main to our property. Cost for main extension and metering pit is $4k. They offered to install a 2" service line from the pit back 550 feet to our building site for an additional $1k. My responsibility is to maintain the service line from the pit on back to my buildings. Expected monthly costs for buying water and service charge should average about $65 per month. If I use no water at all - I pay the minimum monthly service charge of $21.

Based on this, other than my desire to not be a slave to future rate increases and the fact that I can never 'undo' the metering pit, I cannot cost-justify a well. Add the risk of not hitting water, having bad water that requires conditioning etc. etc. I don't see going the well route.

What am I missing?

Rick