Rural water vs well - what am I missing?

[azrancher]

An advantage of the rural water system is that you will have water in the event of a power outage. You can buy a generator, but that would be another hit to your wallet.

Nope, in case of a power outage you will not have water, I bet you are on city water where everything is provided for you... power goes out, that means the rural water will be out of power also, they don't magically have power to pump water...

Rancher

 

[Ken45101]

Nope, in case of a power outage you will not have water, I bet you are on city water where everything is provided for you... power goes out, that means the rural water will be out of power also, they don't magically have power to pump water...

Rancher

Actually the water in most areas comes from elevated tanks. Power is only required to pump water to the tanks (resupply them).

Our rural water utility here brings a generator out to the pumps if necessary for extended outages (over 24 hours) that the water tank can't handle.

 

[dmccarty]

Nope, in case of a power outage you will not have water, I bet you are on city water where everything is provided for you... power goes out, that means the rural water will be out of power also, they don't magically have power to pump water...

Rancher

Actually the water in most areas comes from elevated tanks. Power is only required to pump water to the tanks (resupply them).

Our rural water utility here brings a generator out to the pumps if necessary for extended outages (over 24 hours) that the water tank can't handle.

Yeppers. The water systems around my area also have generators to supply water at least until fuel runs out. After Hurricane Fran caused power outages for 7-10 days in some areas, I never heard of water being a problem from a city or count water supply. I think being connected to a water system is easier and more reliable in a power outage since the home owner has to do nothing. If one has a well, you either stock up on water, have an alternate source, and/or have a backup power supply. Or one should and its all on the home owner. Our well static water level is close enough to the surface that I could use a small bucket and rope to get water if we had too. I hope I never have too.

Later,
Dan

 

[GolfAddict]

... the water district is Central Iowa Water Association. If it were Xenia, I wouldn't even consider rural water - with the massive over-expansion they did a couple of years back and the resulting rate increases that they've put on their members, I wouldn't touch them with a 10' pole...

With a well, you don't have to worry about CIWA ever doing something similar...

 

[300UGUY]

Kinda complex issue. I have a well, no rural water availble here. My well is pretty good, some iron in the water. It's 300 feet deep. My neighbor had a 60 ft well, and it was terrible. A friend lives less than a mile away, has a 300 ft well, and it is terrible, full of gas, smells bad, and is undrinkable. It really is a crapshoot, you never know what youre going to get. In a area of intensive ag use, I'd be concerned about chemicals in the well water?

 

[MotorSeven]

My well recently was 265' and cost $6K. That included drilling, case, pump/pressure tank and a 1K sulpher filter system. Sorry, but I don't care for municipal water and would rather have a well even with iron and/or Sulphur.

Another option is to ramp up your existing rainwater catchment system to 30K gallons or more. Use the creek to supplement. That will cover most drought's with no problems as long as you are conservative with use. Additional tanks and filter systems should not run you more then 5K total.

 

[Western]

I agree with a few of the fellas on the creek. I would try to capitalize on that resource also, if for no reason than irrigation. You may be able to manipulate the creek (dig out a swimming hole) , small rock dam so you can have a small reserve. I'm sure up there y'all have some kind of "rule" on that though, so I would check on that. (not talking about a Hoover dam, something small:laughing

 

[Bikewanderer]

Around here most towns can make it a week without pumps. They can also buy from neighboring towns who may or may not have water. Most districts have at least three sources of water.

 

[hawkeye08]

Around here, you have to be very careful regarding pumping out of streams, etc. You have to have water rights and just because you own some land does not mean you have rights. In the early 1950s, my wife's grandfather had a permit to pull 300 gpm from a seasonal stream for irrigating farmland. He formed up a dam to collect the water and was putting waiting for winter to be over to put in pump and pipes. There was a sudden warming period and heavy rains, it washed out his dam and he never rebuilt it. We own a piece of the land now and when we checked into it, the water rights for the irrigation were lost when he did not take the water... Most of the time now, we are lucky to see 5-10 gpms in that stream (upstream folks taking water)...

Before counting on stream water, check into your water rights or you could end up with a fight on your hands... maybe different laws in your area, but water rights around here are hotly debated.

We have a well and two things I can share. 1) have a professional well witcher come out (many discussions on this) and 2) the lowest price is not always the cheapest (some drillers will quote cheap per ft prices but have hidden charges that drive the price higher than others).

 

[Richard]

An advantage of the rural water system is that you will have water in the event of a power outage. You can buy a generator, but that would be another hit to your wallet. Of course, you may want a generator regardless of your water source.

Steve makes a good point. We live 15 miles out of town, on a well. Wife actually laughed at how absurd my idea of a backup generator was.

Fast forward to one Christmas Eve when she had to go to her boutique job at a fine jewelery store... day before Christmas and the power goes out.

She was taking a shower and all soaped up....and it died. I pulled out a kerosene heater, tossed all of our ice cubes into a stainless bowl and warmed them up for her so she could rinse herself off.

Aside from that...and in my book, perhaps more important... when our electricity goes out, we have only two or three flushes before the toilets die.

I usually take a stroll to the woods to take care of simple needs during those times to keep the toilets "armed" for heavier duty if need be.

We learned this the hard way and have never forgotten it.