Another well Question

[CareBear]

I'm not much for asking questions to my problems but I thought I would Throw this out there to see what some of you suggest. OK I have a Hand dug well on My property, I 've lived here for 8 years , its got a manual hand pump I've been giving this water to my chickens and dogs purttie steady this year, I have never had it checked for bacteria, I did drink from it once when I moved in, man its the coldest water I seen, I didn't get sick? do you think animals could get sick from a bad well, and Do you see any reason I should have it checked or check it myself. ?

[Axehandle]

It is possible for the animals to get sick,although it may not be readily visible.
For the minimal cost and piece of mind get it checked.

[grumble]

If you can get it checked through the county agent, or some other reasonably priced method, by all means, do it. If you have to pay a commercial lab, you'll pay through the nose.

My solution is to pour a half gallon of clorox down the well every year or so, let it sit overnight, then pump it dry, or at least enough to get the chlorine out. If you have to rent a gas pump for a day, it won't be too expensive for the peace of mind it will provide.

If your animals aren't showing signs of sickness, chances are they're fine. Axehandle is right, they can bear an illness and not be obvious about it, but if it's something serious, they'll probably show it.

[Grouchy-Hermit]

I suspect that animals might be more tolerant than humans of tainted water and I don't know that I'd consider that a good gauge of the water's quality.

[Catalpa]

Yup, the animals can get sick from contaminated water, though they may tolerate it better than humans and not show any signs until it's been going on a long time or the water is exceptionally bad.

Do you know how deep the well is? What kind of casing does it have? Is the rod on top of the hand pump shrouded? Where is it located with regard to distance from your septic system, barnyard, ponding rainwater, etc.?

Even a dug well, if sufficiently deep and properly cased, can provide good quality water. EPA drinking water standards say safe drinking water does not have and coliforms or fecal coliforms present. Some levels of hardness, iron, salt, sulfates, nitrates, etc., are acceptable and do not present health risks.

But if your well is less than 25 deep; the casing is rock or cement tile, or there's any opening around the pump connection or the pump rod, contaminants can easily enter the well. Even if you test it and it's ok today, it may not be ok tomorrow after a heavy rain. Dug wells are more susceptible to contamination than drilled wells, all else being equal, and often require greater isolation from sources of contamination. For example, here in Michigan a drilled well must be at least 50 ft. from the septic, while a dug or crock well must be at lest 75 ft. away.

Most of the time you can pick up the bottles for the test kits for free from the local health department. The state lab is usually the least expensive option for getting the tests done. I would recommend you test for coliform bacteria and nitrates; both are good indicators. If either is present, you'll need to take steps, if both are absent, there's a good chance your water is free from any other contaminants, too. Here's a tip if you wish to fly under the radar: most of the time the local health dept will get a copy of your results direct from the state lab. If you don't wish them to have any records, put the wrong county and street number on the paperwork, and have the lab send your results by email rather than snail mail. When you go in to pick up the bottles, you can ask about general problems for your areas, such as the prevelance of arsenic or nitrates, etc.

Do a google on your ohio drinking water regs and you'll probably find a lot more information.

[oldtimer]

Boy it would have to be bad water to hurt livestock, I mean think of it, they drink out of stockdams and dirty creeks all the time.

You have to have a state lab that tests water for a nominal fee at either your capital or the state ag college. Ask your county extension agent for a water testing kit.

We had a thirty foot hand dug well years ago at the parsonage where we lived. We drank the water for years and then found out no preacher's family before had ever used it for drinking as they claimed "It tore their guts up". We never suffered any adverse affects but after drinking it for three years and hearing we were the only ones to drink it I sent a sample into the state and they called and warned us not to even wash our food off in it or our dishes or anything as it had some collagen that they find in sewage in it. lol

Well I bought a distiller for Mrs. and the kids but I kept drinking it. Figgered I was happy as if I knew something before I got the test and if it hadn't killed me before why would it suddenly do it now. It was wonderfully cold and tasted so good.

I got to figuring the reason it didn't make us sick like the other folks who'd lived there before us was we'd grown up on bad water and no doubt already had all the bugs in our guts so we were immune to it or something. Shoot right now I'd as leave drink the cistern as this bleach contaminated rural water we pay big money for.

And what about this bottled water????? It's probably just some old tap water from somewhere and folks are dumb enough to pay big money for it. Who to heck would have thought fifty years ago that anyone would pay money for a pop bottle of water???:confused:

[grumble]

Oldtimer: "...we'd grown up on bad water and no doubt already had all the bugs in our guts so we were immune to it or something."

Excellent point! Ever wonder why those folks in Calcutta or Bangladesh (or Mexico, for that matter) don't have the problems with water that we do? That's it. The body builds defenses.

Some of those survivor programs on TV, the ones where some guy goes out and shows how to hunt elephant with nothing but a toothpick and build a fire with a raindrop, talk about TASTING (not drinking) water every place they go. Supposed to build up the immune system.

If it doesn't make you sick, it's probably ok to drink. If it does make you a little sick, chances are it won't next time you drink it.

[Catalpa]

Yeah, Grumble you're right to a point. There's folks 'round these parts that drink out of shallow crocks for years with nary a problem. When the contamination level is low many people develop a tolerance or immunity and do just fine. However folks in those countries you mentioned do have internal parasites, health issues, and decreased quality of life due to lack of access to clean drinking water.
I think a lot of people today don't realize the struggle that it has been to obtain clean drinking water, and the fight that goes on to keep it clean and to remediate pollution problems that do occur. We're so used to turning on a faucet and getting safe water that the thought of dumping sewage on the ground or waste in a ditch gets a shrug and a 'so what?'. It's like we've lost the hard-won knowledge of how not to crap in our own water that took years of death and disease to discover.

And city water is worse! I always take my own drinking water when visiting relatives in the city. The chlorine and fluoride are carcinogens and poison, yet the government thinks it's necessary. Ugh.

Yup, the whole bottled water thing is silly - it's just plain old tap water put in a bottle. I have to admit I do buy it when I'm out working and my thermos runs dry, but that's just because I quit drinking pop.

The fight continues.....now there are pharmaceuticals getting into the water supplies, even hitting well water. Septic systems don't break down drugs, lotions, etc. Municipal water treatment plants do not remove them from the water, they just pass right on through without being altered. One of the most prevalent contaminants right now is estrogen. It is feminizing frogs and fish already.

Boys it looks like ya better stick with beer!

[Grouchy-Hermit]

It is feminizing frogs and fish already.

I think that it is also feminizing a lot of humans. Something is! :eek:

[Catalpa]

At risk of hijacking this thread:

Environmentalists Mum on Poisoned Streams

When EPA-funded scientists at the University of Colorado studied fish in a pristine mountain stream known as Boulder Creek two years ago, they were shocked. Randomly netting 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city’s sewer plant, they found that 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 were strange “intersex” fish with male and female features.

It’s “the first thing that I’ve seen as a scientist that really scared me,” said then 59-year-old University of Colorado biologist John Woodling, speaking to the Denver Post in 2005.

They studied the fish and decided the main culprits were estrogens and other steroid hormones from birth control pills and patches, excreted in urine into the city’s sewage system and then into the creek.

Woodling, University of Colorado physiology professor David Norris, and their EPA-study team were among the first scientists in the country to learn that a slurry of hormones, antibiotics, caffeine and steroids is coursing down the nation’s waterways, threatening fish and contaminating drinking water.

Full story: http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/1350/36/

Mainstream media is of course ignoring it, as are the enviro-nazis that think a bug has as much right to life as a human. I've seen reports of it already affecting Japanese men, due to the intensive re-use of water in such a small country.

The EPA does not currently have ANY standards regarding hormones, drugs, or personal care products present in drinking water. But they're thinking about it. http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/ppcp/basic.cfm

I'd take my chances with a shallow well out in the middle of nowhere vs. city water or an aquifer downstream from a treatment plant.

[NCLee]

FWIW......

I'd get the water tested just so you know what the potential risk may be to both yourself and your livestock.

We have a 30' bored well, dug back in 1974 before they were declared illegal in this area. Last time we checked it has about 13-15' of water. Been drinking it for years without ill effects. People who come to our home, from the city, talk about how good our water tastes. Run enough to be drinking water immediately drawn from the bottom of the well, the water is cold. Best time to get a drink of water is after washing a couple of loads of clothes. :)

Sis even takes some back home with her as she can't stand the taste and odor of her city water.

County plans to eventually hook everyone up to the county-wide water system. When the line comes down our road our well will be condemmend and we'll be forced to hook-up to the line. And, to show our well has been disconnected from our home. In addition to big hookup fees, our expense to run lines to the house, there'll be fines if we don't comply. We'll comply. :wink:

That county water system pulls water from a local river. Upsteam a town has been repeatly had accidents that's dumped raw sewage into the river. Additional water source is so contaminated that land bordering it can't be put into a conservatory.

They want me to drink that soup.

Get your well tested. Shock the well, if necessary. Make any repairs needed to keep surface water out. Do what you can to keep one of the best resources a homestead can have - clean water that doesn't depend on anything other than muscle power to access it.

Lee

[oldtimer]

FWIW......

I'd get the water tested just so you know what the potential risk may be to both yourself and your livestock.


County plans to eventually hook everyone up to the county-wide water system. When the line comes down our road our well will be condemmend and we'll be forced to hook-up to the line. And, to show our well has been disconnected from our home. In addition to big hookup fees, our expense to run lines to the house, there'll be fines if we don't comply. We'll comply. :wink:


Lee
Land to mercy, I never heard of such a thing. What kind of a socialistic communistic state do you live in????? Glad I'm not where you're at. The very idea of forcing you to get on a public water system. Here they can do that if you want to sell milk and they don't approve of the water you use in the milk house, then you get on the water system to satisfy the inspector, but you have the option of just stopping the sale of liquid milk and keeping your well or cistern or whatever and even at that they can't stop you from using a well or having it hooked to the house. Wow, I'd be for moving.

[NCLee]

Oldtimer, that tactic is common around here. Local small town condemmed all wells within the city limits years ago. This time, it's the county.

Bottom line is they have to have paying customers to support the system.

In recent years we've had drought conditions that have pushed the ability of the county system to supply drinking water to the limits. All sorts of proposals to tap into other potential water sources. The problem was compounded when the county approved new subdivisions right and left before the housing bubble burst. All they could see were tax dollars rolling in from MacMansions on former farm land.

Yet, they are putting more customers on the system with every new line they run along side a road. There are vested interested behind the scenes, especially in some areas. Those with land that has the potential to become commercial in nature welcome the ability to advertise their property with access to water.

As to moving, we're OK for right now. Not enough homes on our road to justify the expense of running the line. As long as the land owners around us hold out and don't sell to developers, we'll be OK. Don't know how long that'll last, if the contruction industry rebounds and younger generations obtain ownership of the lands.

Lee