Understanding Rural Water Systems

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on September 1, 1987
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You can keep rural water systems flowing if you learn to perform just a few basic maintenance steps.
You can keep rural water systems flowing if you learn to perform just a few basic maintenance steps.
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Well and pump diagram: Deep down reliability and cold weather precautions.
Well and pump diagram: Deep down reliability and cold weather precautions.
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Diagram: Operation control switch.
Diagram: Operation control switch.
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Diagram: Hydropneumatic tank empty.
Diagram: Hydropneumatic tank empty.
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Diagram: The water delivery system.
Diagram: The water delivery system.
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Diagram: Hydropneumatic tank full.
Diagram: Hydropneumatic tank full.

Keep rural water systems clear and running by performing a few simple preventive maintenance measures on your property.

Understanding Rural Water Systems

If you live in the country, or even in a neighborhood outside city limits, chances are pretty good that you get your water from a private well. And whether that well is dug, driven, bored, drilled, pounded or jetted — or even if it isn’t a well at all, but a spring or a buried cistern — you probably rely on a pump and delivery system to get the water from its source to your tap.

Normally, a modern water system is so reliable you’ll probably tend to forget it’s there; in fact, like water itself, you probably won’t miss it until it stops running. Back in MOTHER’S 100th issue (July/August 1986), professional well-driller Silas Stillwater offered some valuable insight into the process of sinking a well. Here, we’ll look beyond that to the role of the pump, controls and delivery equipment . . . and to the steps you can take to keep rural water systems properly maintained.

Three-Part Harmony

A typical home water-delivery system is so uncomplicated that it takes only moments to describe. Unfortunately, variations from the typical do exist, and they have a way of clouding a clear understanding of the basic layout.

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