Water from a well

[James2]

Hi,

Can anyone advise me as to whether I need permission to pump water from my well?

Having recently purchased a small cottage in the Charente region of France, I have, in the garden, a well which I use for watering the plants. I am connected to the mains water supply and on a meter.

Not knowing French laws, it occured to me that I might need permission to pump water from the well !

                     Regards    Ray Barrington[8-)]

[Dick Smith]

We used to have a well, and there was never any question of asking permission to pump from it. I imagine that at some time it would have been the only source (sorry) of water for your house. Now we have mains water we have let ours go, as the water was contaminated anyway and the pump was a pain.

[Hoddy]

My experience has been similar to Dick's. The water supply for our house used to come from a little brook that runs through our land. We had it changed before we started to live here, but have continued to use it in the garden for the last four years without any problems. Except it's a bit too cold sometimes, but that's a different problem.

Hoddy

[sid]

During the drought last year water restrictions were applied here in Poitou-Charente, and in fact here Deux-Sevres they were not lifted until March this year. As I understand it you are not allowed to take water from a well during the periods of water restriction because it in effect lowers the water table. I would hve thought that the amount wouldn't make much difference, especially when compared to the huge amounts used for water maize and so on, but I don't think that argument would hold any water (ouch!).

We were allowed to water vegetables during the hours 8pm to 8am, but the severity of the restrictions varies with the water shortage and the ultimate sanction is to ban watering altogether. The notices are published outside the mairie.

Many people have electric pumps fitted to their wells and I don't see how the authorities could keep track of them all. You could get 'grassed up' (pun intended) though by a neighbour. One of the tales doing the rounds is that there are microlights buzzing about taking photos of offenders or properties with particularly green lawns and gardens.

Sid

[Dick Smith]

In our case the restrictions would have been impossible, as the water was also (theoretically) used for drinking, cooking and washing, so presumably the ban was for use in plant watering only?

[Cassis]

At the risk of teaching granny to suck eggs, if you are planning to draw water then unless you're into carrying buckets you will need a pump.  You need to know from what depth you want to draw (drop a line to the bottom of the well) and how high you want to pump it above the surface.  Check the water depth at the same time.  Surface pumps are the easy option regards installation as all you need is a reinforced pipe to draw from the bottom of the well and you can connect the pump up to an extension cable for power.  Reasonably powerful surface pumps will draw from a depth of 7 metres.  You can then pump the water directly into a sprinkler system if you want, but after a while using a pump this way can become a pain in the bum as you have to prime surface pumps with water each time you use them.  An alternative is to install a submersible pump which sits at the bottom of the well, in which case you may want to think about getting an electrician in to make sure the installation is safe.  Or in our case we decided to use a surface pump and we bought a couple of 2000 litre cisterns which we fill with water from the well; we then connect the cisterns to trickle hoses - less wasteful of the water and no need to rig up the pump every time you need some water, just refill when they are empty.  Depending where you locate your cisterns you can also use them to collect rainwater from the roof.  Make sure the botom of the cistern is at least a metre above the level you want to irrigate.

[Dick Smith]

Filling a tank also makes the noise of the pump more controllable - ours was a 'silent' model which would have woken the dead, even when standing on a rubber mat. To have it running all the time you were using water would be terrible. I assume that submersible pumps are quieter?

[Cassis]

I think being underwater drowns out the noise.

[powerdesal]

You shouldn't need to reprime every time if you fit a decent foot

valve. Low level / loss of suction pressure trip is also highly

desirable, water pumps running without water dont last very long!!!!

Regards

[Dick Smith]

The trouble(s) with our pump(s) (3 in 3 years) were:

• Freezing, which burst the rubber bladder, despite being lagged.

• Contamination from the water - high iron oxide levels clogged things up.
• Broken pressure sensors.
• Constant cycling (very annoying at night)
• Noise, which was LOUD. Every time you used a tap or flushed the loo.

• Needed to prime them every time we visited.

Trouble with the well:

• Water was contaminated (cows defecating all round it) and was undrinkable unless boiled.
• High levels of minerals (see above) stained toilets etc and bunged up the valves

• It wasn't on our land.
• It dried up during the canicule.

So we had town water installed. Cost a lot, but worth every penny.

[James2]

 

 

Thanks to all for the help on pumping water from a well, the plants are are watered and unless there is a ban, I will keep using the well water for my garden.

 

                      Regards  Ray.