Well, I can tell you we spent around $10,000 to dig a well to get 4 GPM and had to go down 600 ft. Our neighbors went down less than 100 feet and have 10 GPM. It is a gamble any time you dig a well. We're hoping the 4 GPM will be OK (w/ some kind of special pump) so we don't have to get them to come back and try to dig deeper. Going even deeper would have required special equipment and costs would have been even more astronomical.

Well water can also be hard water. We haven't had our water tested yet but our neighbors said the water was so hard that until they spent $2000 for a filter, every faucet and sink in their house was turning colors. When you get into softening water, you can end up w/ the issue of having to constantly refill salt and many people hate the feeling of softened water. If your neighbors don't have hard water, you probably won't. But if they are using theirs for irrigation only, then they might not know that or it might not matter.

I have never seen an instance where municipal water is available that permits wells to be drilled for domestic water supply. Powering and maintaining a well is not free.

We are in an unincorporated area (county, not city). Our house water is city water (but septic tanks). Well does our irrigation. We have it ready to also go to the house, if needed. Our neighbors down the street use well water for everything. It's hard water and my hair dresser said if you color your hair, you do NOT want well water.

I'm confused. First you said you were considering a well and then you said the well does your irrigation. Do you have a well yet or not?

And I'm with beagles on the fact that there is a gamble with a well. Our first drilling resulted in a 645 ft hole that gets a quart a minute. Our second drilling resulted in a 545 ft well that gets 1.75-2 gpm. You never know what you are going to get.

Ditto busdriver.

First - if you have sewer, you usually can't use well water inside the house. They would have no way of billing you for sewer. Here they take the water meter and bill you for the water and then the sewer.

We considered the well. It was about $8k. I wanted to do it partly because it cost about $1500 in impact fees to get an irrigation meter here. But now that we are in, I spend about $500 a year on irrigation. So the money savings wasn't really there and that irrigation amount will go down in time. We have 1/2 acre and a lot of that is fescue. But we also may get more rain than you do and have more clay in our soil. Generally you shouldn't have to water bushes that are established (although I guess that depends on what you plant).

I think a wise approach to water use is the best "solution". People in high end neighborhoods want things to look nice and sometimes get a bit excessive with water use. We have a lot of rivers running down the road from irrigation every morning.

Another thing to keep in mind about wells is that if your electricity goes out, you've got NO water. You need electricity to work the pump motor to get the water out of the ground. Our well gives us lots of water, but it's rusty and we have a whole-house water filter as well as a water softener, both requiring plenty of filters and salt.

Good points. The person I know a few miles away with well water is in another county, which may have different rules. I need to check on it for sure. They also may be on septic - more rural area - although they are in the city (not unincorporated county).

Your town sounds sensible, David :). Ours is not. You are actually penalized for having an irrigation meter here as irrigation automatically goes in to the 4th tier, which is priced at 10.45/1000 gallons (more than double tier one pricing). Tier 1 is priced at 4.18/1000 gallons, which I understand is Tier 4 pricing in many areas. In fact, the new neighbor that got the well this week disconnected his irrigation meter for that reason (they are not required and the house was built under the old system which did charge less for irrigation).

Our well cost is 9300.00 estimated for a 300 foot well and pump - so not cheap. At our water cost, though, it might pay for itself fairly quickly even if used for irrigation only. I have several friends who have had 800.00 water bills on a regular basis . . . I might pass out if I got one of those!

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think over 10 years ROI is paying for itself "fairly quickly" and your OP has a 20 year ROI (and that's assuming they don't have to go deeper). And we are talking about watering plants here, right? There are plenty of water conservation measures, including planting drought-resistant species, that would keep your costs down to a reasonable amount.

Remember, though, that your $9300 cost could go way up if you need to go deeper or if your well doesn't produce the water you need and there is no way to tell that before you dig. We were told our well would be $5000. Nope. If we had any alternative to a well, we would not have a well right now I can tell you that.

Where are you getting the 10 year rate of return? If my water bill is 400.00 higher because of irrigation, the payback is slightly under 2 years. Maybe the 800.00 water bill statement? That was 800.00 a MONTH - several friends with large yards have this situation. Our current yard is small and our plants and trees are well established, but our bill was still over 500.00 for the last month. As you can see from the above, it is largely due to much higher than average (exorbitant) water rates,

We are in the South, and it is standard and expected here to have grass in your yard, and we have 3 boys and need the grass for play space. Grass has to be watered when temperatures reach 100 degrees or it dies. We are also putting in a number of large trees which will require quite a bit of water until they become established.

I know in certain areas of the country, landscaping with drought tolerant plants and rocks is the norm. It would look exceedingly out of place on our lot/house tucked in an old growth forest near a river. . .

That is a pretty large yard to get to $800 a month. We pay about $5/1000 for irrigation and I have about $50 a month. So even at double that, you are only about $500 a year. But - you are hotter. If you have to have a large fescue yard, put in a well. If you plant a lot of shade trees and your grassy area is 1/4 acre or less, then you probably don't need a well. Large trees might use a lot for a year or two but then they shouldn't need any.

Then there is always bermuda grass which shouldn't need much water at all.

Oops, sorry Athens, my bad. I assumed your numbers were annual, not monthly, since my experience is like David's. That's what I get for "drive-by" reading and posting on something I obviously didn't understand. Lesson learned (I hope).

Good luck!

You need to contact your local Agricultural Extension Service.Not only will they have information on local well water quality, they will also have brochures and experts on Xeriscaping using native plants. Xeriscaping isn't just rocks and cactus! It's about choosing the lowest water use plants that are appropriate for your location. The goal is to have a landscape that looks good with zero supplemental watering. It's not hard to do, and you don't have to make many sacrifices as to the appearance of your home.

In your location, that would be centipede or buffalo grass for super low water needs and bermuda for a bit of supplemental watering. Most juniper species are xeric one established, and there are dozens of nandina sub species that can be tall or small. For flowering plants, crepe myrtles, butterfly bushes, daylilies, phlox,rudbeckia, coreopsis, antique roses and spring bulbs can all get by with just rainfall and no supplemental watering whatsoever.

No rocks and cactus! Just beauty without a lot of maintenance.

The other issue is that our "winter average" threshold is artificially low. It is based on a household of 4 - 2 adults and 2 toddlers. We have since added a third child, and now have a 9 and 11 year old, so water consumption has increased. Perhaps I can get some relief by calling the water office about our changed circumstances. We already have two shower days with sports, and that will only get worse as the boys get older. . . We hit the 4th tier almost every month, which shouldn't be the case if it is based on an accurate average. The other issue is because we have no irrigation separation, we are charged a sewer fee on all - which adds about 1/3 to the bill.

Can you put in a separate meter for irrigation?

I'm betting Athensmom is putting in sod (most likely Zoysia or Bermuda). It will have to be watered daily for several weeks/months.

Butterfly bushes are the first thing to droop in my yard.

We have Z-52 Zoysia. It's hardier than the last Zoysia we had, but not near as soft.

Allison - the seperate meter actually punishes you. You go directly to the top tier . at almost 11.00/1000. We have hydrangeas here too (10 or so) and they droop constantly during the heat unless they are watered frequently.

We will sod - either Zoysia or Bermuda. Bermuda has major issues with shade but sure is hardy. We have bermuda in the front and zoysia in the back now and the bermuda actually needed more water than the zoysia (full sun versus part shade) with the heat . . .

My parents are in Atlanta and their bill was less than half mine, even though they watered 4-5 times a week during the heat of the summer. We have more people in our house, but still . . our water regs in our little, liberal town are nuts!

Athens - I am thinking you should probably get a well.

We have a tiered structure which is unusual around here. But it is like $3.50 to $5.00. Desirable places to live in the South tend to have high rates to deal with population increases.

The well almost worked financially for me and your rates are so much higher. While your rates are nuts, 10 years from now Atlanta will be in a lot of trouble with water.

Agree with HollySprings,

I doubt Athens will be interested but people should consider rainwater catchment in these situations. Usually, its not very cost effective but at those rates I would at least get a bid and consider it. We had a bid recently for 6000$ with pumps, filters and 2500g buried storage. That system is priced mainly for irrigation but would also be plumbed for toilets and washing machine.

Rainwater is tough to quantify monetarily for irrigation purposes. City water from the treatment plant is bad for plants and soil organisms. Well water can have a negative impact over time due to its effects on the soils PH levels. It also takes a lot in energy costs to pump which carries the hidden costs of the dirty energy. Its also bad for our aquifers and ground water supply. If someone is going to spend so much money on something with so much external impact, at least consider some more sustainable alternatives. Its possible you will even save some money.

I hope people dont mind but I just blogged about this and it seems quite relevant

Here is a link that might be useful: Cost Effective Rainwater and Outdoor water use

We are going to be building a house and I was told that water pumped from say 300 feet will need to be treated with salt and such but if you go 600 ft. instead, it can be used without salt treatment. I am sure actual depth will differ in different areas.

Anybody has experience with similar sales pitch? Price difference if $8k vs $13k.

BTW, in our current area, there is no correlation between water usage and sewage charge.

My rain water catchment bid was $14k for 5000 gallon storage - tough to do unless you can't have a well. Still had to have backup water for droughts but that included the hook up to the city irrigation water. You would think the city could waive or lower the impact fee if you were doing such a system....

My bid for the same sort of system was similar to David's, and I have since found out that the use of "grey water" has been getting a lot of attention by our local commissioners and its permitted usage in our county is still up in the air. It is simply too much money to spend on something that may well be regulated out of usage by our town.

Wells are safer. There are still lots of rural areas in this county where people depend on well water, and farmers who depend on it for irrigation. Yes, they may be taxed down the road (although that idea has been discarded already), but I think that is the highest risk on the horizon for those.

It would be wise to get at least 3 bids for such an expensive system. Easier said than done of course because its a new trade in many areas and you dont want to go with inexperience on this one. 5000g in my opinion, is way too big for projects on the East coast. 14k sounds ridiculous based on my research.

"We are going to be building a house and I was told that water pumped from say 300 feet will need to be treated with salt and such but if you go 600 ft. instead, it can be used without salt treatment. I am sure actual depth will differ in different areas.

Anybody has experience with similar sales pitch? Price difference if $8k vs $13k."

I think this depends on your specific area. Our well is 98 ft down and it is hard water..... so we have a water softener (...the salt treatment you mentioned.) We are at about 15 gpm.

My neighbor's well (which is only about 100 ft from mine) is down around 200 ft. Their water is also hard (and they should use a water softener as well.) Additionally, their water smells like sulfer...... but they have higher gpms.

I would suggest asking around to get local information on the water tables around your property... We knew we wanted to avoid the sulfer smell. Thus, we stayed at 98ft....... knowing we were sacrificing extra GPM. Perhaps the sales pitch is based on local knowledge of your well water.... . perhaps it is just a sales pitch :)