I have decided to put in a "lake system" and use the water from my lake for my house. It will end up costing around $5000 to get going plus about $350 per year to upkeep. (filters) Anyone else with experience with this? For my situation, I believe this will work much better than trying a well or cistrine.

I am unfamiliar with the "lake system". I did something similar with a houseboat, setting up a 2 stage filter between the lake and the holding tank. We used this water for gray-water applications only. We would carry-on our drinking water (mostly for coffee and ice cubes). I did get into a pinch for fresh water once or twice and did ingest the filtered lake water....I couldn't tell the difference, although this eleventh finger has made buying good gloves difficult.

Ladder, I was raised up drinking water out of a tank "pond" in west Texas. No filter at all. Got pretty gritty after a good rain. The area does not have any ground water to drill wells. People don't have a chose in rural areas in these parts but to build Tanks "ponds" for household water. Most folks these days buy bottled water to drink and use the pond water for washing,bathing, toilets etc...

From your sketches it looks like your pond will be fairly small. You never said how much watershed feeds it. The ponds dug around these parts for your application are much deeper than 10 feet(your sketch), more like 18 to 20 to store water in dry years longer. You may have to haul in water in dry years. The pond water also tends to stain tubs, sinks etc.. Perhaps the filter system will prevent this. A regular pump system is much cheaper than 5000$ I use my pond water to water the yard and garden which saves on the rural water bill. I have threaten to cut off the rural water and start using my pond sense they stopped using well water and started using lake water down stream from my watershed. I might as well drink it from my pond cause I'm drinking it already.

Ladder,
An idea I heard works good is to dig a trench into the bank of the pond. Dig it deep and well back into the side of the pond, if possible as deep as the pond and 40-50 feet into the bank from shore line. Fill with washed gravel after installing the well casing near the bank end of the trench so the water has to be drawn through the gravel to get there. Fill the gravel to regular water level and fill trench the rest of the way to ground level with dirt. You kind of end up with a well that is supplied with water from your pond.

We have used a small pond for our house water for 21 years. There is a filter at the pickup consisting of 2" of white cotton or fiberglas material with 1/4" hardware cloth on both sides, formed into a cylinder about the size of a 2-gallon can (shaped like a coffe can). Inside the basement the water is in 2 holding tanks - the first a 40-gallon bladder style (amtrol). An automatic chlorine injection pump adds chlorine as the water enters the first tank.
From there it goes to a second tank. The chlorine causes the suspended sediments to settle out. The second tank has a drain at the bottom with a clear vinyl discharge line - I drain it for 1 to 2 minutes every week or two. When I drain it I see a lot of "black" sediment leaving the system. Then the water goes through a "greensand" filter to remove much of the chlorine and acts as an additional sediment filter. It has a timed "backflush" to remove the particles - runs every night about 2 am.
Our water is pretty good but we use bottled water to drink as the wife is always nervous about the pond water. Personally I have no problem drining it.
I check the chlorine content and the ph every week or two. Have to seasonally adjust the chlorine and sometimes add soda ash if the ph falls (leaves).

ohio scott, that sounds exactly like what I am going to do. How much do you think you spend per year in materials/electric?

I have increased the size of the pond to 225' long and about 85' wide. Also decided to go 14' deep to keep the pond from turning over too often. It should work out pretty well for my set up.

My watershed will only be about 3 acres

We get about 35 inches of rain annually here in Southern Indiana.

I don't have good records on expense, especially electric. I would guess the electric to be minmal - less than $5 per month.
I probably go through 20 gal. of bleach (for the chlorine) annually at maybe $1.50 per gallon.
I get 5 gal of soda ash for $20 and it lasts 5 years - I only put it in when called for - I relate the faling PH to the introduction of oak leaves in the fall.
I used to spend time and money on water softener salt. Took it out last year thinking my mostly rainwater pond should be plenty soft. The wife complained about the change so I added a device that acts like a water softener. It is called a clearwave water conditioner and it straps onto the main water line. You plug it in and it does something to the minerals in the water - ionization? - that makes them slippery and they don't stick to metal (bottom of water heater, the water heater elements, showerhead, faucets) - they just stay suspended and go down the drain. Wife is happy and no more bags of salt. It is made by Fields Controls and sold through plumbing-heating wholesalers.
You will have plenty of water. Your climate and rainfall are close to ours - our pond is only 100' x 100' and 12 deep in the middle. One year (1988?) it was dry and with 4 of using the water it got low enough (down 4 or 5') to worry me. But it recovered. Now there are only 2 of us. But that is one of the reasons (water security) we added our second pond which is now filling up.
My little pond probaly only has 1/2 acre of watershed. I think the year it got low the fish may have been drinking the water.

O-Scott,
Not that I see myself following in your footsteps, I am intrigued by your system. Naturally, PL, I hope you will keep us posted as you proceed with your project.
O-S, is this a kit or did you fab. it yourself? What is the cash out-lay, m/l? Lastly, and I gotta ask, why would you pass on sinkin' a well? Cost? Groundwater quality?

My problem, The water has iron.. my Plants and yard do great with this water.. I have been told that to filter this iron.. would be very expensive..The water looks clear .. but it will stain.. Any thoughts....Thanks

Looptech: My experience on iron removal (we've got a lot in our well water) and rough cost estimates:

Iron up to 20-25 PPM (I hope those are the right units) should be removable with a water softener (using salt pellets) - perhaps $1K.

To remove more iron than that (our water runs 30-35) we also have an iron filter (recharge agent = potassium permanganate) - total cost for both units perhaps $2.5K.

My prices are recollections from several years ago, so round up.

Brettski said:
O-S, is this a kit or did you fab. it yourself? What is the cash out-lay, m/l? Lastly, and I gotta ask, why would you pass on sinkin' a well? Cost? Groundwater quality?

Where I live the water table has quantity and quality problems. I live in a house I built in 1980, sold, and repurchased. In 1980 we started with a well about 40' deep - it went dry with use. We punched another hole at about 75' and the volume dropped off and the water had sulpher and salt in it. Thus the first pond - 1/4 acre.

My area has lots of homes with water issues so the local water guys put in a lot of systems like mine. I did not put it in, I hired a "water professional". I am guessing because I don't remember (missing brain cells) but I would think the 2 tanks, chlorinator injection pump, greeensand filter, etc. probably has an installed cost of $2-4K.
Some people that visit think it's wierd to use pond water for domestic use. Most of them live in the city where the water comes out of Lake Erie. Go figure.

Have you considered a "reverse osmosis system" for your drinking water?

My son is factory rep for these systems and is installing one of these systems in his beach house and the resort is considereing this approach for their complex.

I am not familiar with the tecnlolgy but it is available.

http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/h2oqual/watsys/ae1047w.htm#works

I might go with "RO" water, it is pretty expensive though. My problem is, obviously no city water, alot of coal in the area and possible methane. If I dig a well and am lucky enough to hit water, it will more than likely have high iron and sulfer. If I dig a well and don't hit water, I'm out $4000!!!

Alot of the local old timers are on cistrines having water hauled in and old shallow wells that have nasty water . Which is something I don't want to deal with, always being worried about how much water I have left, etc.

This Lake System seems to be the way to go. I'll keep you all posted on the process, hoping to start construction in 2 weeks! I'm getting fired up!

O-Scott,
Ain't that sumthin! 12 miles from one of the Great Lakes, and you can't count on decent groundwater. When we were going thru our property search, we had small acreage with a Mississippi blufftop view on the radar for awhile. Same kind thing. Within spittin' distance of the great Miss. and 350 ft/$12,000 to drill a well that's gonna need a sulfur tank. Sure squashes some of the finer points.