WELL INFORMED
A fitness guru once said, “If you’re craving something and you don’t know what, it’s water. It’s always water.”
Indeed, water is our most basic human need, a resource that we’d only survive for three days without, so water availability naturally ranks high on wish lists of the self-reliant. Local governments have lobbied hard over the last decades to carry public water to even the most rural areas. As a result, 87 percent of the U.S. population has access to a public water supply, which explains why we never hear home seekers on those real estate-themed reality shows ask, “Does this place have water?”
If your chosen dwelling has access to a municipal water supply, an argument can be made for embracing that. The federal government regulates public water to ensure its quality against bacteria, heavy metals, and other contaminants, but when it comes to the purity of well water, the property owner is essentially on his or her own.
But 13-million homes in the U.S. still rely on wells, whether by necessity or choice. If you aren’t blessed with a spring or an idyllic mountain stream in your backyard and you desire to meet or supplement your family’s water needs without “city water,” then
