City water vs. cost of drilling a well.

[Andy Griffith]

We have a little place inside the city limit, which is not our home, but another place...I didn't build it.

They went up on water again. It does have it's own sewage and field lines- so I don't have to pay anything for that...

The well at the house next door is 347' to water, but there's plenty of it...and that water is colder that the proverbial well diggers rear. The well at our place is 426' deep and 6" steel foodservice grade pipe...never been able to pump it dry and we've certainly tried. I don't think many folks must be tapped into the same aquifer that I'm on here. Many wells went dry during the last two years here. I've heard it said it takes 100 years for a drop of water to get into the underground caverns...I guess I need to make certain that my well is deeper than anyone else's.

I'm tempted to have a well drilled just to say "stick it" to the city...because it isn't regulated here yet and just because I can.

However, at my age, it is highly unlikely that I'd ever get the "use" and recover my money out of it...unless the water bills go sky high.

Should I "drill here, drill now" before they say I can't with some silly city, county, state or federal ordinance even if it doesn't make great economic sense? I guess I could still leave the option to use city water on the house by just throwing a valve or something... I just hate those...you know.

I'm just getting less patient in my old age, which isn't good.

 

[Ron H.]

Sir, having a well should also increase the resale value of your house. Whether the increase would match the cost I don't know. I do know a well would appeal to me as a buyer.

JMHO, FWIW.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[m657]

re: "I guess I could still leave the option to use city water on the house by just throwing a valve or something..."

my folks had TWO wells on their place....and over the years the enveloping neiborhoods DID change the seemingly endless water table we'd been tapped into for decades while I was growing up.

The folks got to where they needed to switch to city water (high bucks for hook-up stuff) and of course dad got fed up, so they charged him more when he disconnected....and double extra more a few years later when he had to hook up again because of running out & etc...

The city really did NOT like him having the option and they made him pay through the nose.

Beware of what your plans may generate for your descendants to confront. What started as "an acre+ of apple trees and a shack out in the country", ended 40 years later surrounded by houses & pavement.

His acre+ was unceremoniously divided into 6 lots by the city during contested annexation. Six lots = more taxes. And every outbuilding he put up, was somehow straddling the lot lines. After dad died & mom went in the nursing home I had to spend way too much of their money getting variances to the lot line bureaucratic shuffle. Plus paying to have the wells officially defined as 'non-wells' by whatever name they called it. Scandalous.

So the money you save not doing the water on again/off again shuffle can be put to better use.

 

[tomf52]

My son is a driller. Deeper does not mean better or a more reliable water supply. The cost of a well, at least up here in the northeast is very dear. Probably $12000 and up from there. Takes a long time to break even. Good pumps ,lines, tanks, etc are also expensive.

 

[NE450No2]

At my place my well is about 600 feet deep. It is one of the best acquifers in the state.

The water is very "sweet"...

I have put it in a container for a month, and nothing has "grown" in it...

If you can afford it I SAY DRILL... Just be sure you get a company that knows what they are doing...

 

[BarbC]

Our house in Virginia had both a well and city water. The city water was for inside the house and the well water ran the sprinkler system. We also figured that in case of an emergency, we could tap off the well. There were times when hurricane backwash into the city water system would make the tap water funky.

It's a good investment and selling point for the house.

 

[Indiana George]

Here's a bit of driller's trivia for you:

"Colder than a well diggers ass"

originally referred to the animal used to haul up the material as it was excavated by the well digger. The well digger was below ground and probably sweating hard at his labor, while the donkey/ass was at the surface and exposed to the elements and cold.

With regard to the original question, I am more than a little biased. <smile> However, if more people would have a chemical analysis done on the municiple water they were drinking, I feel that most, for health reasons, would look into other sources for the water they consume.

George
Licensed Well Driller
Water Supply Contractor

 

[scoutsdad]

I am on that same fence with solar. Lots of folks around me are off the grid, my property is the end of the line. A nice setup would cost $20K. and I have the money to spend. But my electric from my coop is $35 a month, maybe $50 with the central A/C on. So pay back is a long way off, I am better off staying with what I have. But again I would love to be self sufficient.

 

[m1gunner]

Building code used in most of the US will not allow you to drill a well if you have access to city or county water. Your local authorities may or may not enforce this part of the code.

If you have been following the news, you may have noticed the Fed.Gov said Atlanta may not use Lake Lanier for a water source starting in 2012 (IIRC). EVERYONE's water bill in N Ga. WILL skyrocket around this date. It matters not if you are upstream of ATL.

I don't have a well where I am, but had one for 15 years before I moved. I wish I put one in here, even with the maintenance hassle.

 

[truckemup97]

I'm leaning on the side of self-sufficiency, but I'd have to see the estimates for the well before I made a decision. So, if you don't live there, why are you paying a water bill? Are you renting it out and you pay the water? If so, why don't you re-negotiate? Give the renter a $40/mo. break in the rent if he/she pays the water. None of my business, of course....

scoutsdad, I'd love to have solar and be independent, too. But, like you, I've decided that it's just not cost effective yet. Plus, I have neighbors, and they might not like solar panels on my roof. A good diesel generator can be had under $5k, and $15k will buy lots of diesel. Just a thought.

 

[walkinghorse]

"...Building code used in most of the US will not allow you to drill a well if you have access to city or county water...." etc.

M1Gunner is giving good advice.
In our county a section in a township down the road had been having septic problems for a while. Many of the people had put in new septic systems, around $12K each or so average/approved by the county, and now are being told that these are no longer legal!! The county has recieved notification from the Feds/DNR that it needs to be on a sewer system.
So a new one is to be built, and the homeowners have to pay for the privilige of hooking up, even though they may have a new approved septic system.

Wells are starting to be looked at also, especially if there is a subdivision or a group of homes with wells and septic systems.

Farm size land pieces and away from City systems are still exempt (well except for confinement sewage lagoons) and farmers are vigoriously protecting themselves that they cannot be changed under state law, cause they see black clouds on the horizon.

 

[Andy Griffith]

If you have been following the news, you may have noticed the Fed.Gov said Atlanta may not use Lake Lanier for a water source starting in 2012 (IIRC). EVERYONE's water bill in N Ga. WILL skyrocket around this date. It matters not if you are upstream of ATL.

It does matter, since we aren't on any tributary that runs into Lake Lanier...we're on the Tennessee River watershed.
Many folks around here that still remember the Roosevelt administration still don't care for the TVA.

I have no problem hiding the well where I am. I might just have them drill it on a Sunday or something so nosy folks won't know about it.

 

[Iggy]

Within the next week Congress may pass a bill that could give the Feds control of all surface waters within the US.

Watch your butts folks, it's gonna get worse.

 

[Landpimp]

around here, you can be on a water system as well as having a "well" for inagation. Me, I just got a well, only 80ft deep, cant get on city or other water system, I am right in the middle.

 

[scoutsdad]

Within the next week Congress may pass a bill that could give the Feds control of all surface waters within the US.

Watch your butts folks, it's gonna get worse.

I read the bill, and my property is affected. I would quess it may take my driveway away. No problem I can assess the west gate.

 

[Andy Griffith]

I read the bill, and my property is affected. I would quess it may take my driveway away. No problem I can assess the west gate.

Is that your fish'n chair there on the right?

 

[Wayne02]

It kind of depends on how much you think it will cost when they start taxing your well water in the future. That may end up costing more than city water. You know this is coming, after all you don't really believe that YOU own that water just because it is on your land?

Having said that, if you are planning on leaving this house to your kids or other kin to live in, I might be tempted to put in a well in the hopes that it might leave some flexibility for them as the regulations continue to encroach over time.

If you want to do just for spite, I think I'd take that money and buy a new gun and some ammo as it would be more satisfying over the long-term.

As Iggy mentioned, they are fixing to pass a bill that amounts to nothing more than a back-door land grab. If we lose true private property rights in this country then it is all but over.

Updated December 14, 2009

Not So Private Property?: Clean Water Restoration Act Raises Fears of Land Grab


Upwards of 40 percent of all land in the United States is already under some form of government control or ownership -- 800 million to 900 million acres out of America's total 2.2 billion acres.


The government now appears poised to wield greater control over private property on a number of fronts. The battle over private property rights has intensified since 2005, when the Supreme Court ruled in the Kelo v. City of New London case that the government could take property from one group of private landowners and give it to another.


The Clean Water Restoration Act currently pending in the U.S. Senate could reach to control even a "seasonal puddle" on private property.

"Well, this bill removes the word 'navigable,' so for ranchers and farmers who have mud puddles, prairie potholes -- anything from snow melting on their land -- all of that water will now come under the regulation of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency," he said.

 

[oldRoger]

We have both, we are obliged to connect to the public water system and pay a small minimum whether we use water or not. Water rates have been climbing and will continue to do so. The county bought the private water company here to reduce costs they said, naturally rates have skyrocketed since.
I have a 4” well, 140’, water is up at about 70’ dependent upon the season. Maintenance has been low, I have replaced the pump once in 14 years.
Our permit to drill comes from the water management district not the county. The county seems not to know that we have a well, I think the record keeping is so poor that no one knows any longer.
We are prepared to use the minimum county water by switching back and forth to the well.

 

[M28]

The cost of a well, at least up here in the northeast is very dear. Probably $12000 and up from there. Takes a long time to break even. Good pumps ,lines, tanks, etc are also expensive.

The same would be true in the northwest. I know of a few instances where folks have big money tied up in a well with low gpm numbers and/or bad water quality.

Brian~

 

[ohiobuckeye]

Wells in populated areas run a higher risk of pollution and wells in that area that tested OK when drilled 20 years ago, may not be today.
Also, if you already have municipal water and sewage hookup, you may not escape a monthly bill by disconnecting the city water even if you do not have a sewer hookup. In the town I moved away from, the water and sewer charges were included in one monthly bill, and the sewer charge was assessed on everyone in the district whether you were connected or not....Disconnectng the water still left you with a monthly sewer charge.