In my area, you live in the country, you dig a well, or that's how it used to be. Now they put "rural water" in most areas, and you have "city water" that you have to pay for. When I bought my place, the rural water had already gone through, and the 3 houses on the mile and a half road all decided not to "join". They were all brothers at that time. If you joined, you had to pay the minimum water bill every month, even if you didn't tap into the lines. They chose not to do that. Now, if I wanted rural water, it would take an arm and a leg to get them to come back and run the line from half mile up the road to my house, plus I would have to pay a large fee (probably around $1,500). But, since the water source around here is outstanding, and lots of water in the ground, and the fact I have 3 wells, all 3' across, shallow wells, and good water, I saw no need to ask to have rural water either. I filled my ponds with my wells. Actually ran out filling the koi pond, waited until the next day, and finished filling it. The well for the horse trough, though, if I run that well dry (have done that by accidently leaving water on for hours), I have to prime the well, which is now very easy, with the new well housing, where I can go inside through the door, rather than moving the roof and shimmying in the small space from past well housing!
But, bottom line, had house water tested before I moved, it tested too high for bacteria. So, I put bleach in, which should have fixed it, but it didn't. Now I'm thinking that I was treating Well #1, and Well #2 was likely the problem. But since that one has no way to treat with bleach, the top needs to be removed by a tractor, it has not been treated. I do need to shut off the source of that well to my house, unless run out, but never have figured that out yet! I'm very lucky to have the good quality of water I have, too.
