Emily’s Question: I’d like to hear different folks’ approaches to clean drinking water. Filters? Hand pumps? Windmills? Rely on city water? Distillation? how are you pumping it, if applicable?
Nita’s Answer: We use a hydraulic ram to pump spring water at our farm. A hydraulic ram uses water power for pumping and no electricity is required. Simple, old technology and still works great in today’s modern world.
Our ram pumps water from one of our springs to a holding tank and then the water is gravity flow to the house. We don’t have pressure, but that problem is solved by using a bigger delivery pipe for the discharge.
Rams differ, but the brand we use is able to lift the water 10 feet for every foot of head from the spring to the ram. In our area the springs are in deep V shaped canyons and the flat, arable land is on the ridge tops, making a ram an ideal set-up for our geographic area.
Our spring that we use for drinking/stock water is located 1/4 mile away and we need to lift the water 125 vertical feet over that 1/4 mile stretch. The ram continously runs into a large holding tank and there are two delivery pipes, one drains from the bottom of the tank for household use, and a stand pipe (for the overflow)runs to a stock tank in the barnyard. We pay attention to the overflow, and if it has quit, it means we have been using a large volume of water at the house (laundry, showers, etc.) or the ram has quit for some reason. Needless, to say I am hardwired to listen for that trickle of water in the water trough! No one wants to stroll down to the spring if they don’t need to 😉 The overflow/stock tank system makes us accountable for the water we use, if we watered the stock from the bottom of the tank, we potentially could use up all our stored water and never have an inkling that the ram had stopped until the tank was empty.
Using a ram allows us to have water at all times without electricity, the only drawback is during low water times, we have to really meter the water out. Normally we need 6″ of rain to recharge the spring fully in late fall or early winter.
Rams also would work well for irrigation with an open water source like a creek, providing there is a sufficient drop in elevation in the stream to provide the lift you need.
Many people here, have went to wells, but the aquifer is dropping which is probably not going to change. And when the power goes out, which is quite frequently, they are without water, when most have springs nearby.
Not workable in all situations but if you have a similar stream or spring, a hydraulic ram is worth thinking about.
Here is a link to an older blog post with a short video of our ram in action.
Kathie’s Answer: For the last 10 years, I’ve lived with underground wells pumped with electric pumps. When the electricity goes out we don’t have water – we’re working on making that solar/wind powered. We have the water tested once a year to be on the safe side. We have hard water, but we’ve gotten used to that. I know everyone can’t have a well or a spring depending on location. I’ve heard great things about the Berkeley Water Filters and if I ever don’t live on a well, that’s what I’d be buying.
Not Dabbling In Normal 
We’re in Florida and on well water, like many folks here. Again, when the power’s out, there’s no pumping. We bought a Big Berkey Water Filter, and saw that it does, indeed, do a great job purifying the water…with one drawback we were not aware of before purchasing it…our water here has a natural rotten egg sulfur odor before being treated with things to take it out. Our home system is like many others’, with an outdoor treatment tank we have to add salts to. We cannot cook with or drink our indoor water, and we do not water our plants from the outdoor spigots attached to the house since they, too, have the salt-treated water. We water the plants from one on the line from the well to the salt tank that will deliver it untreated to the plants (yep, the water has that smell but the plants don’t seem to mind). When we contacted the Berkey people and the distributor, they told us the purifier does not remove minerals or that sulfur smell, but the water is considered pure. We tried the suggestion with the literature and added a tiny bit of chlorox bleach to the intake water before it went through the purification, but it only minimized it somewhat.
What to do? Ultimately, we will use the Berkey because we’re impressed with it aside from the odor situation, and in the meantime we have it for emergencies. We will also learn how to distill our water. Since we’re set up differently where we are, we purchase water and store a lot of it. This is not what we want for the long term. Jack is drawing up plans so that we can use solar to power a pump, and the area we hope to relocate to has a different soil and water composition…maybe we’d luck out and not be in a high sulfur area? 🙂 We’ll have a well, and we’ll also collect runoff and rain water in collection tanks, both above and inground (still researching how to best do that, too). You may laugh, but one of our “collection tanks” may very well be an inground pool we build ourselves with ferrocrete or whatever material is best suited for it. He’s reading up now ahead of time to see what would be manageable for us then.
Robbyn
We have a well with both an electric pump and a hand pump. They are usable simultaneously, so if the power goes out, we can use the hand pump with no changes needed to the pumping setup. Our well’s 100 feet deep, and the it pumps so easily you could do it with one hand. The full review is at http://eatclosetohome.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/new-well-and-simple-pump-review/, if you are interested.
Also, removing the “sacrificial anode” from water heater takes away the sulfur smell – there’s something about how the bacteria that thrive in iron-rich water react with the minerals on the anode that cause the smell.
We used a Berkey table top gravity filter for about a 6 months. The water was great, no problems but it was a chore to use. It filters very slowly. For a family of four it was hard to keep enough drinking water on hand. We also worried about kids in the bath etc. However, if you are in a place where your water is compromised and you need a low tech solution this is a good one. You can find them at Lehman’s and other places.
Currently we are on city water. It is convenient and somewhat safe. We are exploring rain catchment as a more sustainable option. A blogger I really like, Jack of all thumbs, has some great info on rain catchment systems. Check out his system, including a really cool filtration system at http://selfsufficientsteward.com/ and look under the rain catchment or water heading. If you are considering an alternative water option you need to check out the laws in your area. Some places (most western states) rain catchment systems are illegal. Messing with water rights is a shooting offense out west, so be careful.
In N.Z. and much of the Gulf there were lots of rain catchment systems and other water conserving efforts. There is a lot of info available through the peace core and other NGOs. I also like Anna Eddy’s book Solviva for a good exploration of gray water options.
Found this post by a blogger on blotanical (http://www.blotanical.com/index.php. Good exploration of rainwater harvesting. http://www.simplegreengirl.com/2009/07/08/rainwater-harvesting/