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Old 07-30-2011, 07:42 PM   #1
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Default Well water

How safe is well water for drinking? I know municiple water is treated to kill bacteria and whatever other harmful things are in the water, but I don't think you get that if you're using well water right? Do you have to boil it before you drink it?


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Old 07-30-2011, 09:34 PM   #2
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Unless contaminated it is completely safe to drink.
Our home is well supplied down to the second aquifier from our 650' well. Water is so clean and soft a drop of body soap will make tons of bubbles.
We do not have any public water available to this location.
City water is generally filtered sewer water, yummy!
DC


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Old 07-30-2011, 09:59 PM   #3
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I would much rather have well water. We had a wonderful well when I was a kid. When Dad put in the bathroom, he added the pump and we had water going to the bathroom and kitchen instead of having to draw all of the water. It tasted so good and cold. I wouldn't trade it for anything.


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Old 07-30-2011, 10:11 PM   #4
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I remember my grandfather's well. It held the coldest, sweetest water ever. I've hauled many a bucket full up so I could get Granny the water to do the washing with. She always managed to have the whitest white clothes I've ever seen.


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Old 07-30-2011, 10:18 PM   #5
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Well water here. The town drinks my sewage water.


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Old 07-31-2011, 03:41 AM   #6
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Been drinking well water my whole life and im not dead yet. Well water is actually better than city water, Well water doesnt have all the treatment chemicals in it.


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Old 07-31-2011, 06:10 AM   #7
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Well water here also. Springs out in the bush or streams filtered. no chemicals.


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Old 07-31-2011, 07:55 AM   #8
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As long as the well is properly cased and installed it sould be safe.

Shallow dug wells should be tested now and then to make sure they haven't gotten contaminated, especially if there are septic fields or pit toilets (outhouses) anywhere close by. Many cholera outbreaks have been traced back to contaminated shallow wells (although this is pretty rare here in the US).


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Old 07-31-2011, 08:33 AM   #9
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I grew up in the country and we always had sweet water. When I moved to Chicago, I had to distill the water to make it palatable. City water sucks. I'm back in the country now (22 years). My well is 120 feet deep and produces the best water. It makes great coffee, something I'm very picky about.


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Old 07-31-2011, 09:11 AM   #10
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Well water can be nasty too. My friend in Michigan has a nice productive well that produces awful water. It's full of lime, manganese and iron. A water softener and microfilter/carbon filter make it barely palatable. I expect they will eventually out in a reverse osmosis unit.

I know a guy that had a well that produced water like that. He used a water softener and piped that water to his shower, clothes washer, and toilets. He had a huge cistern built and hooked his house and barn roofs into it, and used that for drinking water.


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