Living on an Acerage

[Gorilla]

So Im moving to an acerage and needed to get some advice about water filtering.

Someone told me to get a seperate tank just for drinking water that they fill up every month. I heard there is alot of sulphur in the water that you cant drink.

Any ideas?

[01RedDX]

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[sputnik]

Originally posted by 01RedDX
Never drink well water without boiling it.
Unless your water comes from a municipal water supply, it's not potable.

:rofl:

[USED1]

Originally posted by 01RedDX
Never drink well water without boiling it.
Unless your water comes from a municipal water supply, it's not potable.

Are you for real??? Our farm has well water that we use all the time.

[01RedDX]

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[TKRIS]

Originally posted by 01RedDX
Never drink well water without boiling it.
Unless your water comes from a municipal water supply, it's not potable.


Bwahaha.
You've never lived outside a big city have you?

[sputnik]

Originally posted by 01RedDX


You drink it straight from the tap?

There are TONS of different ways to treat well water to make it taste like city water but 99.9% of it is perfectly safe. Most people just don't like the taste because we now live in a culture where everyone drinks bottled city tap water.

When I was a kid my grandparents house had a slight sulphur smell but for whatever reason it made the BEST Kool Aid.

If your water wasn't safe to the point where you had to boil it to make it potable you would have to dig another well or get a cistern and get water delivered.

[TKRIS]

Originally posted by sputnik

When I was a kid my grandparents house had a slight sulphur smell but for whatever reason it made the BEST Kool Aid.


Same with my aunt and uncles place. The water from their old well tasted like shit, but made awesome juice for some reason. Weird.

[Cooked Rice]

You can usually take a sample of the water and bring it to a place that specializes in home water filtration and they can run a test on it to see if you should be drinking it as is. When I use to live in Red Deer this place always sent out empty bottles to houses for you to fill them up for a free test. http://www.watercanada.ca/water_testing.html

[01RedDX]

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[TKRIS]

Millions of people drink well water everyday.

Walkerton's water supply got contaminated because noone bothered to do anything about a well known suceptibility to contamination.

To the OP: I hear these guys advertise on the radio around here constantly. Might be worth a look:
http://www.bigirondrilling.com/

[sputnik]

Originally posted by 01RedDX


Got me, I guess I've heard too many old wives tales.

I just remembered all those people that got sick and died in Walkerton, Ont, when their water got contaminated by farm manure.

There is a difference between contaminated water and well water.


Originally posted by 01RedDX
Also, when I was visiting my friend's acreage in Bearspaw, he warned me not to drink the tap water, I had no idea it was safe the whole time.

Chances are they personally didn't like the taste. The funny thing is that Bearspaw has their own water co-op and treatment facility which is their version of "city water".

My father lives on an acreage and actually hates the taste of city water.

[civicrider]

i had well water in two of my previous houses, and the water was safe anf tasted 100 times better then city water

[01RedDX]

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[rinny]

Get the water tested first. Depending on how the tests go, you may need (or want) different filtration systems. My parents have a soft water (salt) tank, iron filter and some other sort of tank to filter the water.

Sometimes the water may be high in iron and drains/toilets/showers turn rust colored. You may need to shock your well with acid once in a while. Depending on the pressure of the plumbing or well, you may want a pressure tank to keep the water pressure up at the taps. It all depends on location and specific characteristics of the well/water table.

Most of all, talk to a professional about it the water systems. Tons of different options. A place called Guaranteed Water in Red Deer works, I dont know any places around Calgary but there's gotta be some.

[Supa Dexta]

I'll admit Calgary's water isn't bad.. Some towns and cities though is plain gross.. I grew up on as farm and always loved our fresh water (same with anyone who came over that lived in a town).. But I could see how more places in alberta the water would be fucked up from all the oil activity over the yrs..

[sputnik]

This is who my in-laws used and their water out in Chestermere is great.

http://www.bigirondrilling.com/

[a social dsease]

Assuming your ground water isnt contaminated it should be fine to drink. Ground water (well water) is usually high in dissolved minerals (meaning its hard) but is relatively free of viruses and bacteria that are found in surface water (rivers). So you don't really have to worry about getting e-coli or anything from your water. The water will be hard however so get a softener.
This should be the case, unless you live near a heavily farmed or ranched area, in this case pesticides or cow manure can seep into the ground, contaminating the ground water. Another source of contamination is leaky septic tanks, ideally your septic tank will be downhill from your well, as ground water *usually* flows downhill.
Your best bet is to get the water professionally lab tested, to see just exactly what is in it, but generally you should be fine!