Where does *your* water come from?

[Tradd]

Lake Michigan

[kally]

Here we are, pristine Haslam Lake in BC.

[goldensmom]

A well in a hay field. It is deep, was drilled in the 60's and still giving us really good water.

[CathyA]

Bae.......you big showoff!! I'm so envious.
Our water comes from an aquifer that's about 65' down. Hopefully, its not filled with farm chemicals. Its very high in iron and other minerals. We use an iron filter, but alot still gets through.
The aquifer has alot of sand, and that means we go through a fair number of pumps and pressure tanks.

[JaneV2.0]

If our snow pack disappears and the aquifers dry up, I guess I'll have to take a couple of buckets and walk downhill to Lake Washington. The hike back will be a challenge.

ETA: Gorgeous pictures, Bae.

[Tweety]

Mine comes from the well under my front porch, that dips into an aquifer 40 ft. down. I don't know the source of that, but it ultimately must be from rainwater. I live only a few miles from the North-South divide between the Great Lakes watershed and the Mississippi drainage so I must be near the top of that divide. The creek in my back yard ultimately flows into Lake Michigan. I don't have a fancy water storage system like Bae, but do keep many gallon jugs of water stored in the basement for when the electricity goes out and the pump quits. The water is hard and full of iron but at least it flows.

[razz]

Lovely views!
Ours comes from a 56 foot deep sulphur water well which we treat with hydrogen peroxide. This works very well except when the baromeric pressure drops dramatically then we might get a whiff of sulphur.

[Bronxboy]

Our water is very good considering you can see the dam spillway from I-95 halfway between DC and Baltimore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Gorge_Reservoir

The water for this house originally came from a shallow well about 20 feet from where I'm sitting. The house wall between me and the filled-in well has some blistered paint to remind us of the high water table.

[creaker]

http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/04water/html/watsys.htm - but I liked the well water we had when lived in Maine much better.

Last year one of the pipes coming to Boston failed, we were without water for a day or so.

[Spartana]

Dear Bae, I feel it is of utmost importance I come to your island. I am a former Environmental Compliance Officer for a large water/wastewater district and I believe that your water facility needs to be inspected ASAP. I believe that inspection willl take at least 3 years to complete and during that time you will be required to house me in your domicile and take me out on your boat everyday to view your waterways. As a Govmint Regulator who has the full authority of the law behind me, you MUST comply to my demands to live on your island and just loaf around doing nothing but taking in the beautiful scenery all day long.

OK so I'm wildly jealous!! Not only your island but of your water set up (yes, I really was a compliance officer for a water district before I retired but did industrial (chemical) waste inspections of commercial businesses). Here is suburban SoCal we get water from various sources depending on where you live. Most water is imported from the Colorado River (100% in winter) and combined with State Project Water (Sac Delta water in NorCal) in summer. All of this water goes thru a treatment plant before it is imported to the various water district's reserviors and then to their customers. There are a few aquifiers around SoCal - the Orange County area being one - but most are controlled by large water districts (like OC's) and there aren't too many private wells. Those aquifers are pumped by the water district, treated and often combined with some treated imported water. In OC there is also a plant that takes wastewater, highly treats it, and then reinjects it into the aquifers (the "toilet to tap" program). There are also many salt water desalinitation plants that are in the works to meet future water needs.

Also, most of the domestic (i.e. household not industrial) wastewater in SoCal is recycled (reclaimed) and highly treated to be used to water parks, golfcourses, green belts, etc... instead of using potable (drinking) water. This cuts down on the amount of water needed from other sources like the Colorado River and Sac Delta.