Well vs Rural Water

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aplusmnt

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Do you guys get your water from Rural Water or private wells?

Our Rural water has almost doubled in the last couple years. Been wondering if it might be worth drilling our own well.
 
My own well. Thankfully.

There are more and more places getting regulated. My daughter would like to punch a well but can't. She is in Willow Park. Folks there are getting $800 water bills regularly.
 
backhoeboogie":3ixfkseh said:
My own well. Thankfully.

There are more and more places getting regulated. My daughter would like to punch a well but can't. She is in Willow Park. Folks there are getting $800 water bills regularly.

$800 water bills? For what?!!!!!! I know Willow Park his a pretty pricey area, but good grief. That's crazy! Around here, it's the electric bill that has people crying.

We have our own well, thank goodness.

Alice
 
We have our own well and it's a good one. But if rural water were available, we'd sign up for it. I've been pretty worried this last few years because of the drought. I called the rural water people, but we're near the end of their line and they're not interested in expanding our direction. On the other side of the county, they're putting in some new housing additions and planning to put rural water lines out there, though. One of the downsides of living the way we choose to live.
 
There used to be flowing wells in this country. My wife's grandaddy told me the had flowing water on his farm when he was a child. Now you have to go 400 feet for good water. The water table drops a little each year.

Alice, Willow Park is totally out of hand. My daughter's development was strategically designed so that people could punch wells. You had to have something like 3/4 of an acre. Then the city changed the rules. Their neighbor had a $1400 bill.

There were lots of folks who put in developments there and now they cannot sell the property. It is a pitiful situation. Drought has wiped out all the landscaping and folks can't afford to water. Told my daughter to save the oak trees she planted and I'd buy new sod for her next year. There is no need to spend $800 to water the grass once a week. I can buy the sod grass from a cousin for $65 a pallet.
 
We have our own well and love it. The draw backs are few - no electricity no water, snake in the relay no water, frozen pipe no water, etc but that sweet, cold water is definitely worth it.
 
Um...where I live if you live in the country, you're generally on a well. Drought isn't a factor here, and our well is 160 feet deep. We hit brown water at 80 feet, at 90+ gallons a minute but kept going down to hit clean stuff. There's a stink in Ontario because of the Walkerton tragedy, so town water is getting really expensive with the new regulations. I too am glad I'm on a well, and I test it's quality every 6 months.....
 
I'm on city water, pumped from a facility about 15 miles away. My water bill is about $25/mo. We filled up one of those blue rubber pools this summer -- 15' wide x 42" deep -- and the water bill soared all the way to $40. :lol:
 
Vicky the vet":1mu8n7id said:
Um...where I live if you live in the country, you're generally on a well. Drought isn't a factor here, and our well is 160 feet deep. We hit brown water at 80 feet, at 90+ gallons a minute but kept going down to hit clean stuff. There's a stink in Ontario because of the Walkerton tragedy, so town water is getting really expensive with the new regulations. I too am glad I'm on a well, and I test it's quality every 6 months.....

What "Walkerton tragedy"? I'm new here.....and the paper we have doesn't print everything...
 
backhoeboogie":2v3rgmvp said:
There used to be flowing wells in this country. My wife's grandaddy told me the had flowing water on his farm when he was a child. Now you have to go 400 feet for good water. The water table drops a little each year.

Alice, Willow Park is totally out of hand. My daughter's development was strategically designed so that people could punch wells. You had to have something like 3/4 of an acre. Then the city changed the rules. Their neighbor had a $1400 bill.

There were lots of folks who put in developments there and now they cannot sell the property. It is a pitiful situation. Drought has wiped out all the landscaping and folks can't afford to water. Told my daughter to save the oak trees she planted and I'd buy new sod for her next year. There is no need to spend $800 to water the grass once a week. I can buy the sod grass from a cousin for $65 a pallet.

3000 gal of water costs me $12.27. They just raised the rates so I'll be paying about $2.50 more in a month.
$800!!! Is that water only? Around here, some folks pay a combined water and sewer bill, and it's the sewer that adds most of the cost.
The well fields are in the Ohio River valley in old glacial outwash gravel beds. Our water company is going to drill new wells that will pump 10 mil gallon a day maxed.
 
backhoeboogie":1i9x520a said:
There used to be flowing wells in this country. My wife's grandaddy told me the had flowing water on his farm when he was a child. Now you have to go 400 feet for good water. The water table drops a little each year.

Same thing here. The artesian wells my grandfather dug in the 50's and 60's have all stopped flowing. The last one quit the previous year. When I was a kid it litterally gushed water but the neighbor drilled a monster well and finally pumped it out faster than it could flow in. That's the problem with drilling a well nowadays. A neighbor could come in with the intention of selling water and suddenly no more water for you.

The County Water Mafia charges $3.50 per thousand plus the monthly minimum which is $25. Getting a meter put in will run $1800 if they don't have to lay line to get to your place.
 
We have a well. No 'public' water lines out this way, and that's fine by me. If the electricity goes out, we have a generator. The original well for the house is directly under the kitchen sink, and only 50' deep, but disconnected at this time. We use a newer well we had drilled about 5 years ago.

Have friends in town on 'public' water and sewer, and the sewer part of their bill accounts for the majority of the bill.

Katherine
 
We do not have sewer, just rural water. I would think you would have to be actually in town to have sewer, at least that is the way it is here. We have a septic tank.
 
peg4x4 said:
What "Walkerton tragedy"? I'm new here.....and the paper we have doesn't print everything...

Walkerton is a town in Ontario where the chlorination system wasn't being run properly, and one well was contaminated with a bad strain of E. coli and several people died. The farmer whose cattle apparently contaminated the well seemed to take more blame than the jerks who didn't do their job properly. It caused an overhaul of the town water situation in small towns in the province. Water bills have gone up substantially in many small towns to pay for the new filtration plants. Since it happened a few years ago, and happened in Canada, no wonder you've never heard of it.....
 
I have my own well, as do the folks. What is 'rural water'? I'm unfamiliar with the term, or how it works. Thanks!
 
msscamps it's the same as city water. You buy it buy through a meter. They (the couty water mafia as milesvb says) drill wells and put up as series of water towers to service a rural area. But their area probably is more crowded than yours. I wonder if anyone uses windmills and tanks for their storage anymore. What would the city council in Willow Park say if you wanted to install a cistern and catch your roof water? I bet some of the houses there catch quite abit.
 
dj":q91o5ubn said:
msscamps it's the same as city water. You buy it buy through a meter. They (the couty water mafia as milesvb says) drill wells and put up as series of water towers to service a rural area.

Ok, I see. Thanks, dj! :)

But their area probably is more crowded than yours.

Yes, I would say that is probably true since, the last time I checked, Wyoming was 50th for population ranking. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wonder if anyone uses windmills and tanks for their storage anymore.

We don't do it anymore but, until 6 years ago, our cows depended on windmills and supply tanks, and the home place relied on a pump jack and a storage tank for water.

What would the city council in Willow Park say if you wanted to install a cistern and catch your roof water?

:shock: I don't know, but I'm thinking it would be worth parting with some money to watch the reaction! ;-) :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
dj":2r7gkx8a said:
What would the city council in Willow Park say if you wanted to install a cistern and catch your roof water? I bet some of the houses there catch quite abit.

I truly don't know. All I see is these retired folks on the news showing water bills in the thousand dollar proximity. I concluded they were flooding lush lawns. Then my daughter bought a house there. We sodded the front yard (not big) and we sodded around her house. 10 pallets of grass total maybe covering a quarter acre. Most of her yard is out back and we didn't sod it. She set her spinkler system for once a week. Then she got that water bill. Then she found out she couldn't punch a well. From what everyone there is saying, the city council is toast come election time. Folks are fighting mad.
 
peg4x4":3ngc7f2t said:
Vicky the vet":3ngc7f2t said:
Um...where I live if you live in the country, you're generally on a well. Drought isn't a factor here, and our well is 160 feet deep. We hit brown water at 80 feet, at 90+ gallons a minute but kept going down to hit clean stuff. There's a stink in Ontario because of the Walkerton tragedy, so town water is getting really expensive with the new regulations. I too am glad I'm on a well, and I test it's quality every 6 months.....

What "Walkerton tragedy"? I'm new here.....and the paper we have doesn't print everything...

I know I'm not Vicky, but I'll put this, peg: It was an outbreak of E. coli (the fatal E. coli) that killed over a half a dozen people inthe town of Walkerton, Ontario when they drank the contaminated water that contained the nasty bacteria. That happened a few years ago (more that five? I can't remember).
 
msscamp":3epst66a said:
I have my own well, as do the folks. What is 'rural water'? I'm unfamiliar with the term, or how it works. Thanks!

dj pretty well covered it. But around here in KS and also across line in OK. They have rural water districts every so many square miles. They drill a well and put up a small water tower much like in town and service people within so many square miles.

You do have a meter much like in town, but you read it yourself and send in payment.

Big difference in Rural water Districts versus City Water is there is no sewer system. You still have to have your own septic tank.

Around here the water is a little better tasting also. The city water within 5 miles of us is undrinkable.

Much like town they provide at the road and you are responsible for getting it on to your house. If you live far off the road that could get pretty expensive. Also if you do not have enough people on the same road as yours that will sign up for it they will not come down your road.
 

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