Rural Living and Access to Water
Hello again,
Thanks for checking in!
Living in an urban area, like a city or town, has a lot of conveniences; shopping, restaurants, transit etc. This also includes access to utilities like water and sewer. However, living in a rural area sometimes means switching gears to what you may be used to. In our case, we didn’t have access to municipal water and sewer utilities. If you followed along from the beginning of our renovation journey, you know our property had a well and septic system. I’ve already highlighted and walked you through the changes and updates we made to our septic system by incorporating the Eco Flo septic system. But, today, I wanted to back track a bit and share with you what we did to address our water needs.
The well that our property had when we bought it was the source for all of our water needs. Given the soil make up of this area in Niagara, the water from the well had a high content of iron and saline. This meant that our water had a salty taste, wreaked havoc on our old copper pipes, left spots on our glassware and wasn’t doing any favours to our laundry! Even our water softener system, which we rented, did little to address this problem. We did have a filtration system installed at our kitchen tap for drinking water, which met our needs for the short term, but when planning the renovation, changing our water situation was a MUST.
We looked into options like drilling a new well, or installing an improved water treatment/filtration system; however they each presented their own issues. Drilling a new well would not guarantee a better source of water and likely wouldn’t given the area. An improved water treatment/filtration system would have addressed our problems, but the installation and ongoing maintenance was cost prohibitive (in excess of $20,000). After doing some more research, we found that cisterns are most common in our area.
You may ask, “what is a cistern?” Essentially, a cistern is a large holding tank that stores water. It’s like a well, but it doesn’t have a direct source of water to keep it filled. This means that an external source is required. In our case, this meant that we would need to buy water and have it trucked in. Now, this may sound like a real pain, but cisterns are very common in rural areas and around the world…this is one of those instances I mentioned where you may have to switch gears to what you may be used to! Honestly, I questioned the idea of having a cistern, but once Greg and I thought about our water consumption, we realized we would likely need to fill it every 45 days or 1.5 months. We learned that the average price to fill our cistern would be around $100. This is a cost we were comfortable with since it was $100/month for the water softener and filtration system that I had mentioned, which still wasn’t giving us the best water. We also learned that the water we would be getting is sourced from the local municipality, meaning it is the same water that is treated and provided to those on municipal water services. When looking at the cost of installation, it was the most affordable, coming in at around $16,000 for a XXXL tank.
Our system also included an ultraviolet (UV) filter to further remove any organisms that may be present if the water sits longer than normal in the cistern, like when we go on vacation. We also have an indicator that will notify us when the water level is getting low, so we can arrange for a refill. The cistern has a submersible, variable speed pump, which gives a constant flow of pressure regardless of what is being used at the same time (i.e. shower, laundry, dishwasher etc.).
To install our cistern. we hired a local company - Ted van der Zalm and Family Well Drilling. Ted and his team did a great job. In one day the cistern was installed! Now, this is not a paid partnership, but I also wanted to give a huge shout out to Ted and his wife Maria for the AMAZING non-profit organization they founded called Wells of Hope. In a nutshell, Ted and his family have dedicated a good portion of their life in the service of digging wells in impoverished communities, so the people living there can have access to clean water. It is a wonderful organization and is a fantastic example that we are all part of a global community. To learn more about Wells of Hope, I invite you to check out their website www.wellsofhope.com.
I know cisterns aren’t pretty or all that exciting, but if you're looking to move to a rural area this may be something you will encounter or want to consider.
OK, that’s it for now. Thank you so much for stopping by, it was so great to have you along for this journey and I'm excited to finally be sharing every little detail with you!
All of the views and opinions expressed here are my own.