Private Water Systems

The source of water for most households in America is a municipal water system, from which purified water is delivered under pressure to each home.

But in outlying areas, water must either extracted from private wells or from cisterns. People have been living with these systems for hundreds of years, but many are not familiar with how they work.

Wells are usually dug by professional well-drillers, with the plumbing handled by a plumbing contractor.

Cisterns are installed by specialized contractors, often in cooperation with a builder who installs the rainwater collection system, but once again a plumbing contractor usually installs the pumping and filtration system.

Sometimes, to avoid the need to install purification equipment, homeowners elect to arrange for water to bedelivered by truck. This works well as long as the cistern is replenished before it runs dry, but the available source of water is finite.

For additional information on these sources of water, we present the following articles or links to sites with outstanding information:

• Cisterns
  Texas Guide to Rainwater Harvesting  (PDF) - although this document was written for Texas, almost everything in it applies everywhere
  
  
• Water Wells
  Wellowner.org
  Nat'l Groundwater Association
  
  
• State of Kentucky
  Building a Cistern for Home Water Supply
  Cisterns for Kentucky
  Management of Wells for Drinking Water
  Assesing and Reducing the Risk of Groundwater Contamination from Drinking Well Water Condition
  
  
• State of Ohio
  State of Ohio Rules on Private Water Systems - These rules apply to both wells and cisterns.
  
  
• Graywater (for non-drinking use)
  Home Use of Graywater, Rainwater - from the State of Arizona
  
  

Links to Related Websites:

 BACK

Was this article helpful?   Yes    No