You may recall that three years ago (it might be four) we realised that we had a well in the garden, although it turned out to have been used as a drain for a long time and took a lot of cleaning. Anyhow, clean it we did and at the time it passed the environmental health water test. We left a lift pipe in it, rebuilt the wellhead, put the cover on, and that was that.
Somewhere down there is the main water pipe.
Until now. This year’s job was supposed to be water – well water, and rainwater, and the clock is ticking, so I thought it was time to get the well water connected, and at least pump from the well, and get it retested. So today I started digging up the main pipe into the house so that we can put a stoptap on the main supply, and feed the pumped water from the well into the domestic water pipes. Somehow we have to separate the stables, and the polytunnels, both of which will be rainwater fed from several large tanks, but for now the task is to hook up the pump and see what the water looks like…
From a drinking water point of view, what’s the difference between (shallow) well water, rainwater harvested of a roof and borehole water? Presumably the well water is just rainwater that fall in the local catchment over prior weeks and months, then been ‘filtered’ through the local soil. It will have picked up minerals (generally good) and bacteria (generally bad). Rainwater harvest from a roof, will also have bacteria from the bird/bat shit on the roof and less minerals. I guess from a practical point of view, well water volume won’t be constrained by tanks as rainwater harvest will be – but the well will have a finite recharge rate? The borehole on the other hand, being tens of metres deep will be much older water and likely have no bacteria but need more pumping? I’m interested to dig a well on our land – but we have no shortage of rainwater harvest.
Hi Chris. I guess a borehole or deep well is likely to have the better drinking water; there’s always more likelihood of rainwater from a roof containing whatever was on the roof – bird shit, whatever is dissolved in the rain etc.
Our shallow well seems to have a pretty static recharge rate, and needs a less powerful pump than a borehole would, plus we can surface mount it. Rob Smith did a good job with his spring well using concrete rings, I think. Once we cleaned ours it was as bacteria free as tapwater and very drinkable. I’ll still filter it and am looking at a UV filter, which can switch on with the pump to conserve power. Initially we are going to hook the pump up and use the water for irrigation until the well has had a regular empty and refill for a while. Then we’ll get it retested before switching it into the house.