River water in pool

[pierrexe]

Are there any issues with filling my above ground pool with water from the river. I would appreciate advice regarding extraction from the river, filtration, suitable water treatment protocols, possible health concerns or any other drawbacks.

Many thanks.

P

[Jonzjob]

That would depend very much on the situation of the river? If it were something like the Orbiel close to us, then that would be a HUGE NO! Because it runs through an old gold mine and is contaminated with loads of heavy metals. There are sanctions on what can be sold growing along the course of the river. So very much dependant on where it's come from?

It would also depend on who owns the river and the water rights me-thinks?

[lindal1000]

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me, with all the run off from the fields. The chemicals you will need to clean it and stabilize it could cost more than filling it from the tap. It costs us 50 euros on average to fill our pool from scratch with tap water.

[Jonzjob]

I'm with you Lindal. I know people who have used well water with similar results and had loads of trouble because of the contaminants. Mind you, there are a lot of people around here who will pick and eat the grapes straight from the vines and they know what has been sprayed on them!!! Sorry, off topic there.

Swimming in the river would be my bet if you want river water, but not in the pool. Even then I would choose the river carefully.

We get quite a few holiday makers on the Canal du Midi swimming in there even although they are told not to. I suppose that it's not so much swimming as going through the motions [:-))]

[pierrexe]

It was an option I needed to investigate so thank you both for your learned opinions. I'll continue with the safer option of using the tap water !!

Thanks,

P

[Théière]

[quote user="pierrexe"] I'll continue with the safer option of using the tap water !!

Thanks,

P

[/quote]

Yes that is the sensible thing to do.

[sid]

We have a small river (large stream?) alongside our property; our boundary is halfway across the river bed. The notaire pointed out that we own half of the river bed but have absolutely no rights to fish or extract water. I'm fairly sure that extracting water is not allowed in most places.

 

[Théière]

Spot on as far as I know Sid, also putting your own hydro generating plant into someones water flow even if on your property is also not allowed.

Then it gets me onto my soap box as to how "They" can claim the water as theirs [6] They have no manufacturing plant nor did they treat the water before they put it into the river or stream, You can't hold "Them" responsible for the contaminants in the water they didn't make.

Their water is trespassing on your property!

[Jonzjob]

"Their water is trespassing on your property!"

Not so as far as I remember TP? There isn't such a thing as trespass in here in France [:P][Www]

[NickP]

We fill our "swimming pool" (blow up job for the kids) every year from our well, which we have tested, and told by the laboratoire  that the water is drinkable, so are happy to go with what they say. We also have a river Le Loir at the end of our garden. This year it has been shut down several times to allow work on a weir downstream, I was amazed to be told by a neighbour that the weir is owned by a local person, something I find totally bizarre. Only in France. [:D]

[Théière]

Morning Jon,  So Tres pass isn't a French word then?

I didn't believe it existed in Britain either (one of those pub discussions) as break ins to Buck House seemed to get done for other things?

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Théière"]Morning Jon,  So Tres pass isn't a French word then?

I didn't believe it existed in Britain either (one of those pub discussions) as break ins to Buck House seemed to get done for other things?

[/quote]There is no trespass in Scotland but it is a civil offence in England rather than a criminal one. Pedantically you can not be prosecuted for trespass only sued for any damage you may have done.

[Hoddy]

Like NickP we fill our blow up pool for the kids every year with untreated water from our little stream. It comes out of the cliff about 200m away. We check it regularly for oxygen and ph.

Some of our downstream neighbour's friends come with bowsers in dry spells, park under a tree and fill up for their gardens.

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="Théière"]Morning Jon,  So Tres pass isn't a French word then?

[/quote]

Possibly TP, but it ain't law here. Here is another thread about it and you contributed [:-))]

We have had a BAD neighbour for almost 2 years now and the good friend/nieghbour who lives just behind and between the 2 of us has had problems of Tweedle-dee (my name for the clown) "trespassing' on our friends land. He actually dug up a couple of her plants and planted them on the border between the 2 of them!!! The land he went on to is accessed by a small drive and had a chain across it, but that didn't stop him! So I made up a sign telling him that the property IS private and NO access. He got a bit upset about that, but we just laughed over his discomfort!!

Sorry for the diversion.

Back on track. Even if you have had the well water tested you may find that there are restrictions as to what you can use it for? Some places reckon that even if it's your well the ground water belongs to everybody??

[andyh4]

Jonzjob wrote:

Some places reckon that even if it's your well the ground water belongs to everybody??

As it should. In times of drought, the restrictions on usage of water will often include anyone drawing water from their own well.

The logic for this can be seen in the US, where decades of using water drawn from the aquifers under the wheat belt (the Dakotas etc.) to improve the crop yields of that wheat, now means that areas of Texas to the South have now found their bit of the aquifer has run dry.

[NickP]

[quote user="andyh4"]Jonzjob wrote:

Some places reckon that even if it's your well the ground water belongs to everybody??

As it should. In times of drought, the restrictions on usage of water will often include anyone drawing water from their own well. .[/quote]

Some places? Try telling that to the French, also how can they put restrictions on your own well, our neighbours only have well water? Practice and theory Andy, bit like no bonfires; no mowing on a Sunday etc. etc. this is France and one of the reasons we spend a lot of time here and enjoy the practicality of it.[:D]

[Jonzjob]

It's like the old saying of

God helps they who help themselves,

But  Christ help those who get caught! [:-))]

Edit : - I think that it may be the other way around, but I suppose they are interchangeable [8-)]

[NickP]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]It's like the old saying of

God helps they who help themselves,

But  Christ help those who get caught! [:-))]

Edit : - I think that it may be the other way around, but I suppose they are interchangeable [8-)]

[/quote]

OK Jon lets have some facts then, when was the last time people were stopped using THEIR wells and where?. We've had ours for twelve years and have never had any restriction of use, and by the way we do have mains water. I can only say what affects me so as I say your generalisation doesn't work for everybody, if indeed for all, but given facts I may be inclined to think your claim may hold water. [:D]

[Jonzjob]

A friend of ours in Villemoustassou has a well and he was stopped from using the water for his pool one year by the Mairie. As he tends to have my luck and get caught he was livid, but he didn't use the water. I wouldn't have used it anyway. He was always having trouble with his pool!! [blink]

I would think that the majority of the locals would take as much notice of any restrictions as that do to the pool safety rules? [:-))] Of course, we stick tightly to all of the rules and regs [Www][Www][blink]

[andyh4]

NickP wrote:

Some places? Try telling that to the French, also how can they put restrictions on your own well, our neighbours only have well water? Practice and theory Andy, bit like no bonfires; no mowing on a Sunday etc. etc. this is France and one of the reasons we spend a lot of time here and enjoy the practicality of it.Big Smile [:D]

I think my post may have been misunderstood. When I wrote that restrictions during drought would apply to those with their own well, I meant exactly that.

Not that they could not use the well water for any purpose, but that if the restriction said no watering or gardens except on three days per week between the hours of 19:00 and 05:00 ( a restriction we see most summers), that would also apply to the use of well water.

As for the rest, I have to agree: the observance of laws is more in ignoring than application.

[sid]

Its no wonder this forum has gone to the dogs. Someone asks a perfectly reasonable question and gets a snippet of information as one of the replies. Then a number of other people chime in with opinions, not facts, about how that can't really be true because they know loads of people who do just that. I know loads of people who break the speed limit; that doesn't mean it's OK, they just got away with it.

I have a statement in my deeds that says I can't extract water from the river. I've no idea what the penalty would be, if any. I do know people, personally, (not whispers, or someone a friend knows), who have been visited by the gendarmerie with regard to garden fires; we're supposed to get a "note" from the mairie and approval from the pompiers (or is it the other way round?); no-one does... usually. All wells are now meant to be registered at the Mairie; that's because extracting water affects the water table. Who, in heaven's name is going to police that one when they can't keep track of non-complying fosses? Just because you've had a well for 12 years (as we have) doesn't give you any special rights, you've simply ignored the restrictions and got away with it. As the secretary at our mairie once said when I asked about having a garden fire, "We live in the country, we do as we like!"

River water may be fine when you analyse it but what about a day later when a dead cow or a run-off of nitrates has got into the water?

We could go on for ages with theories and extended myths. Let the guy use the water if he wants. Perhaps he'll let us know what happens; prison or hospital bed.

Oh, this forum; on its last legs. Someone chuck it in the river.

 

[Jonzjob]

It's a free forum Sid and if you don't like it you can always leave [blink][blink]

We have been TRYING to point out what the law is and the reality.[:-))]

[idun]

Who, La Police de l'Eau!!!!

http://www.eaufrance.fr/agir-et-participer/reglementer/au-niveau-local-la-police-de-l-eau

We had them along our little river, checking the berges etc, because I too lived next to a river in France. They were very thorough. Our neighbour also called them as he was worried about the way the river was hitting the bank on his property.

What annoyed me about using tap water for say watering the garden etc, was that once the meter turns, it charged us at least for not only clean water, but waste water too, so charge double the amount we would use. And in fact the water we would use in say the garden would not all be sucked up by the garden but some would surely filter through and maybe even back to the river????

And yes, ask questions, but I have never ever just used a forum and always check with the authorities concerned...... but that is me and pre internet, how else would one do it anyway. Incidentally, I was always tenacious, because my Mairie knew.......... what is the expression ' que dalle'.

[NickP]

[quote user="sid"]

Its no wonder this forum has gone to the dogs. Someone asks a perfectly reasonable question and gets a snippet of information as one of the replies. Then a number of other people chime in with opinions, not facts, about how that can't really be true because they know loads of people who do just that. I know loads of people who break the speed limit; that doesn't mean it's OK, they just got away with it.

I have a statement in my deeds that says I can't extract water from the river. I've no idea what the penalty would be, if any. I do know people, personally, (not whispers, or someone a friend knows), who have been visited by the gendarmerie with regard to garden fires; we're supposed to get a "note" from the mairie and approval from the pompiers (or is it the other way round?); no-one does... usually. All wells are now meant to be registered at the Mairie; that's because extracting water affects the water table. Who, in heaven's name is going to police that one when they can't keep track of non-complying fosses? Just because you've had a well for 12 years (as we have) doesn't give you any special rights, you've simply ignored the restrictions and got away with it. As the secretary at our mairie once said when I asked about having a garden fire, "We live in the country, we do as we like!"

River water may be fine when you analyse it but what about a day later when a dead cow or a run-off of nitrates has got into the water?

We could go on for ages with theories and extended myths. Let the guy use the water if he wants. Perhaps he'll let us know what happens; prison or hospital bed.

Oh, this forum; on its last legs. Someone chuck it in the river.

 

[/quote]

You're obviously still taking the grumpy pills Sid, not having a wind turbine built outside your kitchen window by any chance??

 

          Never mind, but we mustn't contaminate the river by chucking

the forum in. As for chiming in with opinions, isn't that what forums

are about. Someone says this is my situation, someone else says this

happens where I live, nobody is giving legal advice and to be truthful

anyone who accepts what people on forums say as gospel would be foolish,

the advice is just a guide.

            Incidentally there is

nothing in my deeds about not abstracting river water, and as for

special rights I never claimed any, and I haven't ignored anything and

haven't got away with anything that I'm not entitled to. Also I never

said I use river water, I said I have the well water analysed. [:P]