ost city folks don't have a problem getting water at home. Pay a monthly utility bill; turn on the faucet and water flows through pipes connected to a central system, usually operated by the local municipality.

But people who move out to the country sometimes must leave behind the conveniences of city life, including centralized water services.

In Texas, 91.6 percent of homes were served by public or private water systems, according to the 1990 U.S. Census, the latest data available.* In contrast, 8.1 percent of homes received water from an individual well and 0.4 percent from some other source.

Short of buying high-priced bottled water, people generally have three alternatives for getting water to their property: drill a groundwater well, convince an existing water supplier to extend a line, or install a rainwater harvesting system.

To put it simply, "water comes from three places: surface, groundwater, or it falls out of the sky," said George Ward, scientist with the University of Texas' Center for Research in Water Resources.

However, for a variety of reasons, these options aren't available in all places, as rural residents know only too well. For example, if groundwater is available it may be too costly to reach or have poor quality. Connecting to an existing centralized system is often cost prohibitive for a single landowner. Finally, scarce rain may rule out installing a rainwater catchment system.

As you can see, even a short discussion of the alternatives includes plenty of challenges. Welcome to the joy of living in the country.

What follows are some basics to get you started in exploring how to obtain water if you are considering buying property in a rural area.

Groundwater wells
Whether there is water is one of the first questions a potential buyer needs to ask when considering the purchase of rural property. It almost goes without saying that a reliable water supply greatly affects the livability and value of any land.

The good news for property owners is that, with few exceptions, Texas' 100-year-old "rule of capture" law allows landowners to capture all the water underneath their land.

"The most logical thing to do is to produce it on site if you're over an aquifer," said Henry Grubb, water supply planner with the consulting engineering firm HDR Engineering. He also is a former director of statewide water planning for the Texas Water Development Board.

"You should develop a complete plan for your household, including where you are going to get water, and what to do with wastewater," a thorny issue all by itself, Grubb said.

In general, rural residents are more apt to rely on water wells than city folks. Nationwide, 27.6 percent of all homes located outside of metropolitan areas were served by wells serving one to five homes in 2001, according to the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey.

Before purchasing a home or property, water experts advise consumers to check state records on water well drilling activity from the Texas Water Development Board and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Also, compare notes with area landowners.

Costs vary greatly — from several thousand dollars to $10,000 or more — depending on the depth of the well, the type of underlying formation and other factors.

"Find out about well depths — that's going to drive your costs. Do research and talk to some drillers," said Tom Hegemier, a water engineer at LCRA. Hegemier speaks from experience. He contracted to have a well drilled on his property when he moved to 15 acres in northern Hays County in 1996; the well remains his family's sole source of water.

Keep in mind: a well is only as dependable as the aquifer from which it pulls water. Wells can go dry. As more people move into an area and more "straws" are placed, aquifer levels may drop, water experts said. There is always the chance that a well will come up dry, and another well or a deeper one may be required, which would mean additional costs.

Water quality is another issue. Water from wells may contain contaminates such as high sulfate concentrations and total dissolved solids. Many wells also yield "hard" water, meaning the water has a high mineral content. Water filtration and softeners, plus electricity to pump the water, are added monthly costs.

While the quality varies greatly depending on the area, many well owners swear by their water.

"I will take my well water over fancy bottled water anytime," said Carla Daws, communications officer with the Texas Water Development Board, who lives on a six-acre tract between Wimberley and Blanco. The property is supplied by a 300-foot well into the Trinity Aquifer. "We take care of the well."

Centralized water systems
An obvious alternative is linking up to a centralized water system, which experts said generally provides the most reliable water, whether its source is from groundwater or a surface supply, such as a reservoir.

However, with few exceptions, the cost for extending a line to a single homeowner is generally prohibitive, experts said. Another consideration: these providers require connect fees, as well as ongoing monthly fees, costs that groundwater and rainwater customers do not have.

There is strength in numbers, however. "There are some ways that individual homeowners can band together to get economies of scale," noted Kate Wilkins, a program specialist with the water supply division of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). For example, Wilkins, who lives in rural South Central Texas, said she and nearby homeowners recently hooked up to a water line extended by a local nonprofit water supply company. The costs were spread among a handful of residents, allowing them to discontinue use of poor-quality well water.

There are some important things to know about water utility suppliers. While most people are familiar with city-owned water services, three other types of water providers specialize in serving smaller communities. Here are some basics on each:

• Member-owned, nonprofit water supply corporations (or WSCs). Texas has a strong tradition of organizing nonprofit companies to serve areas where the local government has not provided water, particularly in rural areas. WSCs typically require customers to pay a one-time membership fee, usually ranging from $50 to $250, which entitles the member to receive utility services and to vote as a member or stockholder of the company, according to a fact sheet from TCEQ.
• For-profit companies increasingly are providing water services. For example, Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Aqua America, which bills itself as the nation's largest publicly traded water utility operator, runs dozens of water facilities that serve subdivisions throughout Texas.
• Special purpose districts, including water control and improvement districts (WCIDs), municipal utility districts (or MUDs) and, to a lesser extent, river authorities such as LCRA. Texas has more than 200 WCIDs and more than 800 MUDs.

WCIDs were authorized in 1925 by the Texas Legislature to provide water for domestic, irrigation and commercial purposes. Although WCIDs operate in some residential areas, these districts were initially created to finance the irrigation of farmland in the Rio Grande Valley and rice belt areas, according to Ronald Freeman, an Austin lawyer who specializes in water law.

MUDs are special districts authorized by the state Legislature in 1971 to provide utility services in fast-growing suburban areas where cities didn't or couldn't serve.

Unlike a river authority such as LCRA, MUDs and WCIDs have taxing authority, which allows them to quickly build infrastructure by selling bonds backed with future taxes.

"We easily lead the nation in little-bitty systems," said Ken Petersen, deputy executive director and general counsel of the Texas Rural Water Association, which represents 800 members, including MUDs, nonprofit water supply corporations, small-town water departments and investor-owned utilities. The association's members provide water and wastewater service to 2.5 million rural customers throughout Texas.

Naturally, economies of scale are a factor. Monthly water bills are usually higher in rural areas because the fixed costs are spread over a much smaller customer base.

In addition to higher costs, other factors sometimes surprise city folks.

"Usually, the first thing is shock at the lack of pressure compared to what they have seen before," said George Patterson, executive director of the Texas Water Utilities Association, a trade group based in Austin.

When it comes to researching water suppliers, consumers have to do some legwork, experts said. David Eaton, a professor at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs and a specialist in water issues, noted that consumers can review TCEQ records to compare the rates and enforcement actions taken against individual water suppliers.

Rainwater harvesting
Rainwater harvesting has gained attention in recent years, though it is nothing new. Rainwater serves as the primary water source for many worldwide, noted Grubb, who should know. He grew up on a family farm in Virginia where a household cistern was the main water source.

In recent years, the technology for rainwater systems has improved, and there are an increasing number of suppliers serving Texas.

Today, the cost of a household rainwater harvesting system is roughly comparable to drilling a well, ranging from about $10,000 to $25,000, depending on the capacity and other factors.

A complete system includes a collection surface, such as a guttered roof, a cistern, a filtration system, a pump and a disinfection process.

For planning purposes, a collection surface of at least 1,500 square feet is required for a two-person household in the Texas Hill Country, where the average annual rainfall is 32 inches a year, according to Tank Town, a Dripping Springs-based rainwater-harvesting firm that sells bottled rainwater. As a rough estimate, a home system should have about 5,000 gallons of storage capacity for every family member. Of course, a rainwater system may prove ineffective in some parts of West Texas, which receive less than 10 inches of rain a year.

In times of drought, homeowners could supplement a rainwater system by having water trucked in, an option also available for well users, Grubb and others said. As far as quality, advocates praise rainwater systems as producing purified water that is naturally softened. "Those on such systems rave about them and sing praises about the quality of the water," said Kent Butler, a water planner and UT professor of architecture.

Typically, people with rainwater harvesting systems don't have lavish landscapes, but instead rely on native plants that use less water.

A potential limiting factor is that there are no federal or state public health or safety standards for designing, constructing or maintaining rainwater systems, noted Nora Mullarkey, senior water conservationist for LCRA.

Finally, city folks unaccustomed to maintaining a water system will want to consider one last thing: the required maintenance. Rainwater harvesting requires ongoing upkeep, such as cleaning the cistern every year or two, replacing filters and other maintenance.

Charles Boisseau is LCRA's Web editor. Write him at charles.boisseau@lcra.org.

Related info:
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's water utility database
Texas Water Development Board info on groundwater wells
TWDB's database on groundwater wells
American Rain Catchment Systems Association
Tank Town
Texas Guide to Rainwater Harvesting
LCRA rainwater harvesting pamphlet
Texas Rural Water Association

*The U.S. Census Bureau discontinued asking about the primary source of water starting with the 2000 census, though the question is still asked in the bureau's less comprehensive American Housing Survey. See note from the bureau.

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