Water from a seep - safe to drink?

[Desk Jockey]

I have a seep on my property that is underground run off from the hill behind my house in rural PA. No dwellings, agriculture or animals uphill of me, so this isn’t run off of any kind. It is percolating from the woods uphill of me. There is an old cistern a bit further up the hill (probably 40s or 50s) That I expect was the main water source for the old farm that was here decades ago.

I was thinking about digging out a shallow little well At the seep. Not sure why, but I think it might be cool.

I guess I am curious what I need to do to treat the water if anything before drinking.

 

[canyonhunter47]

Hard to say with certainty, animals could use it and contaminate it, chemicals could be in the ground (naturally or human caused), lots of things, so I would recommend having it tested.

 

[FatCampzWife]

If animals live ANYWHERE near you...Giardia & other fun gastrointestinal ills.
Don't drink it. And if you do, I hope you recover & write all about it in this forum.
Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood microbiologist

 

[def90]

I have a seep on my property that is underground run off from the hill behind my house in rural PA. No dwellings, agriculture or animals uphill of me, so this isn’t run off of any kind. It is percolating from the woods uphill of me. There is an old cistern a bit further up the hill (probably 40s or 50s) That I expect was the main water source for the old farm that was here decades ago.

I was thinking about digging out a shallow little well At the seep. Not sure why, but I think it might be cool.

I guess I am curious what I need to do to treat the water if anything before drinking.

send a sample to a lab and find out.. pretty simple to figure out.

 

[Mosby]

I grew up drinking water out of a spring in PA. I have a couple of springs on my land. I never drink out of them but I do dig them out for animals to use. If I needed water, I would treat it the same as any other water I find out west and either use my gravity filter or boil it but my land is typical mountain land. If the land was used for farming, I would take the others advice and have it tested. Never know what was thrown in those old wells or what chemicals were used back in the day.

 

[Tbonespop]

Chemical engineer here with 24 years of experience in water processing chemical and equipment background. There's no way to know if its safe or not until you get it tested., possibly multiple times You need to test for microorganisms as well as mineral content looking for anything dangerous (lead, mercury, PFAS, arsenic, etc). These would typically done at 2 different labs (one for minerals and one for microbiological organisms). Once you get that information, match it up with the US EPA safe drinking water act standards. Then you will know if its safe or not.

 

[Adrico]

I remember as a kid I drank from whatever water source was in my way as I explored the hills and mountains.
I think now days people are too paranoid about everything, but I guess is better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Indyal]

Also remember water can flow uphill if there is enough ground pressure. So you need to consider potential contamination from all the surrounding area, including downhill

 

[NCSU_Lewis]

As said above its probably best to get it tested, but we have a place in the NC foothills and have a spring feeding a pond. I have drank out of the spring where we dug it out like you were wanting to do plenty of times with no issues. Downstream a little ways our neighbor relies 100% on the spring for his water as he has no well. Don't think I've found any water I like better than that cold spring water straight out of the ground.

 

[bozeman]

I grew up with a seep as our main water supply. We had it tested in a laboratory and the lead Dr. asked if we had ever thought of bottling it and selling it.......pure as pure can be.......one of my chores was checking on it weekly to remove any leaves, debris, salamanders etc from the catch tins...........

 

[nphunter]

I would drink out of a spring and have many many times with no issue. Now if it's just a wet spot in the ground below your neighbor's pasture that might be a different story.

We camp next to springs in the woods all the time during hunting season and have for years and use the water out of them to drink with no filter.

I also drink out of high mountain creeks out here in the west and have never had an issue, been doing it since I was a kid growing up in the woods.

 

[FLAK]

Been drinking straight from the source for a really long time ,
I do remember once in AK on a Brown Bear Hunt after an unsuccessful attempt at a bear the guide and I filled our water bottles in a stream we had to cross on the way back to the tent.. We had been covering quite a bit of ground pretty fast and had got BAD thirsty. Filled our bottles, drank and re filled.
The next day we were at our glassing spot on top of a mtn. and was watching a Moose standing in a Beaver pond. We figured we were dead after seeing that the pond was the source of the creek we drank from the day before.
No ill effects.

 

[MallardSX2]

Take my advice. Dont drink un-purified water. You'll be sorry. I sure was and it almost killed me. Literally.

Flying home from Alaska I felt like someone was pounding a spike from my grundle to my chin with a 5 pound sledge.

Then I finally manned up and went to the doctor and had to crap in a dish and scoop it from the dish into a vial for testing.....

Ya, that really happened and giardia had set in badly.

Doctor said it was the worst case he had ever seen and I likely would have sustained permanent damage from it if I had not come in when I did...

Also, FYI I technically didnt drink unpurfied water. I washed some dishes in creek water....So it doesn't take much.

 

[Ross]

Once you make the mistake once you will neverrrrrr do it again

 

[journeyman713]

I have a seep on my property that is underground run off from the hill behind my house in rural PA. No dwellings, agriculture or animals uphill of me, so this isn’t run off of any kind. It is percolating from the woods uphill of me. There is an old cistern a bit further up the hill (probably 40s or 50s) That I expect was the main water source for the old farm that was here decades ago.

I was thinking about digging out a shallow little well At the seep. Not sure why, but I think it might be cool.

I guess I am curious what I need to do to treat the water if anything before drinking.

From your description, it sure sounds like it would be safe.
I'd dig out a small area, see how long it takes to refill with water. Water purging from ground is naturally filtered, it reminds me of an area in Wisconsin I used to go to. We had a coffee cup hanging next to it for drinking. If it has a continuous flow trickling out, line it with rocks and call it a natural well.

 

[Bubblehide]

This thread reminds me of those that promote drinking your own urine if you get stranded and don't have water. They always mistakenly say urine is sterile. Well, sure it is, until hits the urethrae, then it could be the death of you in such a situation. So, can you do it? yes. Is it smart, heck no.

 

[journeyman713]

This thread reminds me of those that promote drinking your own urine if you get stranded and don't have water. They always mistakenly say urine is sterile. Well, sure it is, until hits the urethrae, then it could be the death of you in such a situation. So, can you do it? yes. Is it smart, heck no.

The best drinking water in the world comes from - a natural spring.

 

[Desk Jockey]

all good input. I guess, I am still wondering how much soil water needs to seep through before it isn't an issue. FWIW I am not on municipal water so I am pulling water for my house out of my well probably 200 linear feet from this seep (at 75 to 100 feet of depth as I recall).

 

[def90]

all good input. I guess, I am still wondering how much soil water needs to seep through before it isn't an issue. FWIW I am not on municipal water so I am pulling water for my house out of my well probably 200 linear feet from this seep (at 75 to 100 feet of depth as I recall).

It depends.. how bad is the water and how good is the soil. Clean water can seep through bad soil and make it undrinkable and vise versa. Jesus, just take a sample and get it tested.

 

[Mosby]

I lived in Maryland years ago that had a well that had been contaminated with DDT. The prior owner had sprayed it around the house in the 50's to kill termites. Once that type of stuff gets in the ground it gets in the water. It used to be common for farmers to spray DDT, Roundup etc., depending on what they were trying to kill.