Brookbend Civic Assn.

Hi!  My name's Manda - first time poster :-)

Anyway, if you're really worried about water issues, you could always get an undersink reverse osmosis unit.  We live in Spring City and have well water, too.  We were uber paranoid when we first moved here because our daughter was seven months old and we didn't want her drinking well water (and my father-in-law instilled a great fear in my husband about the dangers of well water).  So we did our research, found a 4-step filtration unit for $80, installed it ourselves, and taa-daa - here we are now.

Downside?  I don't think there are whole-house units.  So you'd have to put one in each of your sinks if you plan on drinking water out of them.  They also waste a LOT of water - for every gallon of drinkable water you make, you use about 3-4 gallons - which I guess isn't much of a problem since we're not exactly paying for it, but just something to think about come drought times.  Also, you have to replace the filters every so-often.  I'm not sure of the exact months of filter usage, as my husband keeps tabs on them.  But I know we tend to replace on the low end (like, the sediment filters are to be replaced every six months to nine months or something like that - we do every six months).  The pre- and post- charcol filters we replace once a year, and the membrane itself we do every two years.  The filters aren't super expensive, but it's still another cost to consider.

Upside?  Clean water!  The filter removes pretty much all of the junk in the water, leaving it as close to pure as you can get without distilling it.  Not only that, but aside from replacing the filters every so often, there is zero maintenance.  They don't use any electricity, either.

So if you're really worried, look into getting an RO unit.  We have one and love it.  Our neighbors occasionally complain of a funny taste in the water, and we've never had that problem.

So... We had to get a new well pump this past week.  The foot valve on our jet pump failed after several years...  We now have a cool submersible pump. 

Now that our well water just passed bacteria, metals and VOC tests... We have some other stats to pass on:

1)     Well depth 100ft

2)     Water starts at 37ft down

3)     Well pump is positioned at 55ft

4)     There's about 63 feet of water in our well

5)     We inject a mixture of soda ash to adjust the Ph of the water

We had our well hooked up with extra wire & piping, so it can be lowered to a deeper depth if the water level goes low.  Although, there has been no problems with this in the past.  I strongly suggest a submersible pump, no more pump noise in the basement and better water pressure.

We need to protect the well water in Oaks!  We'll be keeping a watchful eye as future development progresses (gas stations, etc.)!  We've got our baseline established and will continue to monitor it periodically.