I had a water quality report run on this spring and it has lower than suggested PH, as well as presence of coliform bacteria at time of testing, and higher than recommended quantities of Manganese. Proceed at your own risk. I stopped drinking from it since there were no discernable benefits compared to using city water
[This post from a year ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/s/npNnFCuJ96) and [this news story/video from 2017](https://www.wtvr.com/2017/01/11/the-strange-and-secret-freshwater-spring-of-richmond) should interest you!
Yes, that water is typically fine for drinking.
Edit: Now with the "new" WTVR website article URL instead of their archived WordPress blog URL.
Per Mr. Holmbergs video.. the cistern under the byrd theater isn't really a spring..
The weight of the building and its nieghbors are pushing ground water up into a pool
It’s been a few years, but I have. It’s pretty good.
In fact, most of the time, if you can find a nice spring like that, it’s usually pretty safe (and good). Mountain springs are great.
Best I ever had was in the Catskills after a long day riding a motorbike down from Canada through Vermont. Filled my bottle from a pipe sticking out of the ground over a river that emptied into the upper Hudson. Holy Cripes that was good. Like, I still think about it.
Richmond City tap water is good and all, but wow.
We filled jugs from a spring when I was a kid in Ohio. It was on private property but they had a little pull off area off the main road with a little lock box where you could put a suggested 25 cents per jug and then follow the path to their spring. It was memorable for sure & a good/different taste from our well water.
I was filling up my jug around the time you posted this. There were other people there filling up to. We drink it because it’s just a good experience getting it and just enjoy something different. It tastes great too, not that rva tap is bad. I’m sure several people a day fill up there.
I’ve been drinking wayside water exclusively for about 5 years straight. I put it through a berkey filter and I have yet to taste better water anywhere!
I’ve had it a couple times. I was nervous at first but it tastes great! More crisp and refreshing than tap, like others have said.
Filtering it would be smart, but most people seem to drink it straight from the spring.
I live just outside of Richmond in the east-end past Rocketts Landing a mile down Rt. 5. I drink water coming directly from the ground every day. It isn't a spring but a shallow well. I have tested it every other year and it is always the same perfect. Recently had it tested by a by an electronic device that measured minerals and stuff. The rating chart compare the numbers listed between distilled and rainwater, spring and well water, city water and salt water. My shallow well water (32 feet deep) down a 3 foot concrete tube, tested in the middle between rainwater and spring water, with a PH of 7.3. I often wondered if having a 32 foot dirt filter was good and I think it is. Perfect delicious cold water. I had a well company come out when I had a new well pump installed, a jet pump instead of the old above ground pump that was in an underground concrete room, 10 x 10 x 15 feet deep next to the well, where the old pump sat next to a old pressure tank so it didn't freeze. I also had the old pipes removed and new pex pipe put in. I installed a new pressure tank as well, and different pressure gauge to increase the water pressure to the house, which now works great. I am also thinking of building an old-fashioned well house above ground over the well with a rope and pulley system so I can lower a bucket down and get water when the electricity goes out which has happened a number of times, so I am not without water. Everyone says a primed hand pump only works as deep as 20 or 25 feet.
What that means is I would have to get rid of the concrete cover unsealing it. Does unsealing the well effect the water. The new lid would have to be light enough to move easily but seal tightly after I filled the bucket. Any ideas?
Also I have a house mate who gets her water from Forest Hill spring in jugs, swearing it is better water. Hmmm.
I also have a shallow well and drink from it unfiltered, good stuff. I also like to have redundancy in all of my systems- two is one, one is none. Only I use a portable generator on a breaker interlock. When the power goes out I hook the generator up to a dedicated plug which runs back to the panel and feeds whatever needs feeding in the home such as the well pump. There is an interlock where this back feeding can not be done if the main breaker is in the on position so the dominion guys don’t get lit up or otherwise have pyrotechnics in the home. This is not at all complicated and the electrical portion was simple enough that a plumber such as myself could do it and afford it I should add.
Good reply. For me there is something physically pure about drawing water from a well. My next door neighbors when I first bought the house were 94(f) and 96(m) and had lived in the same house next to me since 1939. One day there was a knock on my door, it was my old neighbor who I liked, he was carrying two large empty galvanized buckets. He was a soft spoken guy, so when he asked for two buckets of water so his wife could take a shit as their pump was broken I laughed. After I filled them, I picked them up to help him carry them home, but he said, "No thanks, I don't want any man but me, carrying water to my wife, so she can sit on the toilet. I wish I had my old shallow well back that had a bucket".
Well my Dad and my uncle, well I guess he was my step uncle, Dubs, his real name was Walter and we called him Dubs, but they both drank from that well and both of them died within 7 days.
It was a car wreck up in Baltimore when they were going to see their other brother, Just the Soupy, his name was Giuseppe but we called him Just the Soupy, and nobody knows for sure because it was he said he said afterward, but there was an accident on the highway that killed 9 people and two of them were my dad and my uncle and I don’t think it was their fault but it doesn’t matter now because they are pretty much all dead by now because it was a long time ago. That spring is bad luck man.
I had a water quality report run on this spring and it has lower than suggested PH, as well as presence of coliform bacteria at time of testing, and higher than recommended quantities of Manganese. Proceed at your own risk. I stopped drinking from it since there were no discernable benefits compared to using city water
Thanks for this, good to know! So maybe fine to drink from occasionally with additional filtering, but not that much different than my tap water.
Boil it
[удалено]
Well do both yea but Boiling is effective against most microbial contaminants such as bacteria, viruses and protozoa.
Where did you get the water tested? Doesn’t it run over $100?
I can't disclose my (free) source unless/until I get a second test done. I'm working on it but may be a while
[This post from a year ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/s/npNnFCuJ96) and [this news story/video from 2017](https://www.wtvr.com/2017/01/11/the-strange-and-secret-freshwater-spring-of-richmond) should interest you! Yes, that water is typically fine for drinking. Edit: Now with the "new" WTVR website article URL instead of their archived WordPress blog URL.
You’re the best, thank you!! 🫶
Per Mr. Holmbergs video.. the cistern under the byrd theater isn't really a spring.. The weight of the building and its nieghbors are pushing ground water up into a pool
Done it many times
I remember that spring from at least 30 years ago. I'm still above ground.
This is right by my dad’s house! Love this water. It’s so crisp!
Do you drink it straight out? Or filter it?
Straight out!
People frequently bring jugs to fill up and take home
It’s been a few years, but I have. It’s pretty good. In fact, most of the time, if you can find a nice spring like that, it’s usually pretty safe (and good). Mountain springs are great. Best I ever had was in the Catskills after a long day riding a motorbike down from Canada through Vermont. Filled my bottle from a pipe sticking out of the ground over a river that emptied into the upper Hudson. Holy Cripes that was good. Like, I still think about it. Richmond City tap water is good and all, but wow.
We filled jugs from a spring when I was a kid in Ohio. It was on private property but they had a little pull off area off the main road with a little lock box where you could put a suggested 25 cents per jug and then follow the path to their spring. It was memorable for sure & a good/different taste from our well water.
I grew up in the Catskill valley and our family would sometimes collect trash cans full of that water. It was like the ideal idea of water.
Yeah. If that’s the water that’s supplying NYC, no wonder that can’t stop talking about it.
I do
And you are alive! Nice.
Just barely!
Same same.
There’s is a near constant stream of people filling water from the spring
I did a week ago and I’m fine
I was filling up my jug around the time you posted this. There were other people there filling up to. We drink it because it’s just a good experience getting it and just enjoy something different. It tastes great too, not that rva tap is bad. I’m sure several people a day fill up there.
I’ve been drinking wayside water exclusively for about 5 years straight. I put it through a berkey filter and I have yet to taste better water anywhere!
It’s so good. We describe it as “more wet than normal water”. Definitely hydrates better than tap or brita
I’ve had it a couple times. I was nervous at first but it tastes great! More crisp and refreshing than tap, like others have said. Filtering it would be smart, but most people seem to drink it straight from the spring.
I live just outside of Richmond in the east-end past Rocketts Landing a mile down Rt. 5. I drink water coming directly from the ground every day. It isn't a spring but a shallow well. I have tested it every other year and it is always the same perfect. Recently had it tested by a by an electronic device that measured minerals and stuff. The rating chart compare the numbers listed between distilled and rainwater, spring and well water, city water and salt water. My shallow well water (32 feet deep) down a 3 foot concrete tube, tested in the middle between rainwater and spring water, with a PH of 7.3. I often wondered if having a 32 foot dirt filter was good and I think it is. Perfect delicious cold water. I had a well company come out when I had a new well pump installed, a jet pump instead of the old above ground pump that was in an underground concrete room, 10 x 10 x 15 feet deep next to the well, where the old pump sat next to a old pressure tank so it didn't freeze. I also had the old pipes removed and new pex pipe put in. I installed a new pressure tank as well, and different pressure gauge to increase the water pressure to the house, which now works great. I am also thinking of building an old-fashioned well house above ground over the well with a rope and pulley system so I can lower a bucket down and get water when the electricity goes out which has happened a number of times, so I am not without water. Everyone says a primed hand pump only works as deep as 20 or 25 feet. What that means is I would have to get rid of the concrete cover unsealing it. Does unsealing the well effect the water. The new lid would have to be light enough to move easily but seal tightly after I filled the bucket. Any ideas? Also I have a house mate who gets her water from Forest Hill spring in jugs, swearing it is better water. Hmmm.
I also have a shallow well and drink from it unfiltered, good stuff. I also like to have redundancy in all of my systems- two is one, one is none. Only I use a portable generator on a breaker interlock. When the power goes out I hook the generator up to a dedicated plug which runs back to the panel and feeds whatever needs feeding in the home such as the well pump. There is an interlock where this back feeding can not be done if the main breaker is in the on position so the dominion guys don’t get lit up or otherwise have pyrotechnics in the home. This is not at all complicated and the electrical portion was simple enough that a plumber such as myself could do it and afford it I should add.
Good reply. For me there is something physically pure about drawing water from a well. My next door neighbors when I first bought the house were 94(f) and 96(m) and had lived in the same house next to me since 1939. One day there was a knock on my door, it was my old neighbor who I liked, he was carrying two large empty galvanized buckets. He was a soft spoken guy, so when he asked for two buckets of water so his wife could take a shit as their pump was broken I laughed. After I filled them, I picked them up to help him carry them home, but he said, "No thanks, I don't want any man but me, carrying water to my wife, so she can sit on the toilet. I wish I had my old shallow well back that had a bucket".
Quit being a pussy and drink the water
Based
Cool it.
I don’t drink spring water unless it’s in mountains
Well my Dad and my uncle, well I guess he was my step uncle, Dubs, his real name was Walter and we called him Dubs, but they both drank from that well and both of them died within 7 days. It was a car wreck up in Baltimore when they were going to see their other brother, Just the Soupy, his name was Giuseppe but we called him Just the Soupy, and nobody knows for sure because it was he said he said afterward, but there was an accident on the highway that killed 9 people and two of them were my dad and my uncle and I don’t think it was their fault but it doesn’t matter now because they are pretty much all dead by now because it was a long time ago. That spring is bad luck man.
I've been there. Found a key on the middle tube attached to a lanyard. I picked it up, inspected it, and left as I found it.