I have a spring that just wastes water. It flows at well over 8 gallons a minute year round and is 49 degrees year round. Water has been tested and is perfect for drinking and it tastes great. I was thinking of tapping into it and selling the water but have no idea as to where to start or if it is even worth it. Any of you guys/gals have any ideas or point me in the right direction.


Thanks Jim

 

There are regulations that govern this type of thing. Definitely on a federal level; as well as likely on a local level.

Start by calling your 'state EPA' and asking what it'd take. You'd have a *strict* sampling protocol procedure that would have to completed on a VERY routine basis. Further, the liability associated with something like this isn't exactly 'small'. I'm no lawyer but, if you happened to pull in a tad of some kind of a water-borne illness and passed it on to your customers -- even if they were only neighbors -- I think you'd be in need of strong legal representation because you'd stand to loose everything.

A better route... after talking to EPA and realizing what it'd take (and the amount of money in analytical costs alone), check with a local small water company of sorts to see if they'd be interested in 'developing' your artesian situation.

Sounds nice... sounds like a great plan, even... but, I think you're barking up a VERY tall tree.... and I work within an industry that is VERY close to water regulations - both groundwater and surface/drinking waters.

-RP-

 

Why can't it be simple....
Thanks Rock i will head your advice and and check out your suggestion about a a small water company. We have many around here. Again thanks.

 

Also, being that it's going out for public consumption, there would definitely be licensing issues (drinking water) and probably would have to adhere to FDA standards (which I know nothing about but certainly feel like they'd have their hand in the pot since it's a public-consumable product)...

Nothing's simple, man.... nothing.

Good luck though... 8GPM is a decent flow (similar to about a third of a 3/4" garden hose running wide open) but, it's probably not enough to justify consumption development.

I hate to be the pessimist but, I think it's going to be a big hill to climb, man.

 

sorry to add flood waters to the parade but you can't forget about environmental impact either.

around here, the red tape surrounding developing wet lands is ridiculous. you also have to look at where that stream goes and what it supports.

 

30 years ago - Buck designs some labels and get's some bottles made. Pays some neighborhood kids to collect the water and haul it down to the local market in their pick up. They price it a $0.25/bottle. Buck splits the sales proceeds with the local market and pays the kids a little tax free jack for their time. Buck, the kids and the market make a few bucks. The local residents and a few tourists get some nice clean water.


2009 - 17 state, local and federal agencies must be consulted. It takes 24 months and $15,000 in up front money to explore whether it is feasible to collect a natural resource that is freely flowing out of the ground on Buck's property. Local market is reluctant to sell this perfectly healthy local product due to liability reasons. If Buck pays the local kids without deducting payroll taxes and SSI, he could serve jail time. After 36 months, Buck and the market decide the $0.01 per bottle they have made on the $2.50 sale price is not worth it, especially when newly required federal health care insurance for local kids will increase overhead by $0.50/bottle. Consumers will not pay $3.00/bottle for water. Buck closes up shop. Buck realizes that over the last 3 years, he has spent 1,000 hours on the project and 92.5% of his sales revenue has gone to direct and indirect government expenses. Kicks himself in the nuts for trying to open a small business in the USA. Vows never again.

Welcome to Amerika, comrade.

 

It's so sad, and so true. I wish the FMOTL movement seemed more feasible than it does. Working against the grain, with a family, just doesn't seem possible ... yet.

 

Hi buck!
It's me, your neighbor upstream.
Sounds like a great moneymaker.
You cut me in for 10% and I'll stop peeing in it.

 

Oh no don't stop it tastes great and is less filling.

dirt bike dave, You are so right!!. I have one of the springs tapped into my home and the water is great.


chiefFX4: There is no stream it is a deep water spring that goes into my pond then overflows into a drainage ditch (hence the waste of water).


I have 8 local familes that come for the water every week with there 5 gallon jugs and they love it. WHY buy it when its free. There in no pasture land near it,no houses,barns or factories etc... it's what mother nature sends to feed all its creatures big and small. I also have family that fills everything they have before they leave after a visit.

Thank you gov... redtape

 

you don't mention how accessible the water is to a road but a possibility would be to pipe it to someplace along the road and then have a secure donation box next to it...... i've seen a couple places set-up like this and have seen folks drop a couple bucks in for filling up 5 gal jugs.....

 

Nothing is simple any more.

I have been watching "Lonesome Dove" again...My all time favorite film...anyway when Gus & Call caught bandits and horse thieves they hung'em right then and there. No trials, attorneys, long drawn out, costly court case. Besides civil rights that was definitely a better time in my opinion. Just do what needs to be done and move on.

With the water thing like everything else...everyone has to get their "cut" of the pie.

 

Well the spring is located about 80 feet from my house but i am 1700 feet from the main road so while a good idea you have it won't work here and someone would most likely sue me for whatever reason so i am just going to watch it spill into then out from the pond and go to waste..

 

All bottled water is just tap water filtered through a sock at the end of a garden hose. I wish I would have thought of the idea.

 

Always remember when you are on a trail drive: "Drink upstream from the herd."

 

If that's the case, you should fill ice cube trays and set them in racks on the lawn..... they''ll be frozen by Sept 3rd.....you'd have a monopoly ("poloponies" if you're an Ed Norton fan) on the fall tourists!!!