Hydropur, on another forum, Bob (speedbump), told me to post here; that you might have some info to help me.

We are going to move back to our 40 acre farm in northern Missouri. We have a pond that has no crop or livestock runoff, but does have fish in it. How would we go about filtering and purifying the water for household use? Would we be better off to bury some tanks for cisterns and use rainwater? We will need about 6000 gallons per month for two households. If chlorine or other chemicals are used we want to filter them out before drinking or cooking.

We lived on this farm for 7 years and at first just used sediment and charcoal filters and gravity flow from the pond. After 3 years of drought we had to put in a pump and pressure system and my husband dug a shallow well below the pond. The water in it was good and clear but it wasn't enough of a supply and it was somewhat hard. We tried running pond water out on the ground a ways above the pond but then the pipes and filters would get black stuff in them and the fixtures would get stained red. I couldn't use bleach in anything or it turned the water reddish.

We want to have a good, safe water supply for us and our family without hooking up to rural water, which would cost about $9000 plus the monthly charge. Everyone else around has rural water and no one knows how to build a sand filter for the pond or dig deep wells. There are no well drillers in this part of the state and anyway, that might cost as much as rural water.

Thanks in advance for any help.