Russ Cottrill

The best way to deal with making high mineral and awful tasting water safe for man and beast is a water softener followed by a R/O system on the line for drinking water The softener swaps minerals like iron lead  manganese calcium and even some toxins from farm run off with sodium ions. sodium ions are safer than haed water on plumbing systems and make soaps work much better however all that sodium is like drinking a bit of salt with every glass of water drunk! The r/O removes that excess sodium from the water, just be aware you might have to add trace minerals to the water to get an acceptable taste home systems do not remove all ions from water as that makes water known as DI (deionized) water used for industrial processes but if drank can pull vital minerals out of a body creating dangerous medical conditions! I like an ozone injection system followed by black (uv) light treatment to reduce micro organizm levels to a safe level.

Strange this topic is a relative new posting on here, as I just saw a program on this very thing just this weekend on t.v. or dish .
Here is what they said, Some townships, counties and maybe a state or two have in the building codes that you have to have utility supplied electricity to qualify for a permit of occupancy. The kick is continued service is required to not face condiming of the residence (not fit for habitation is what they claim)! They also showed the way residents got a small breaker box with a main and 1 20 amp circuit that ran one 25 watt bulb some put it in the root cellar some in a kitchen cabinet so they could shut the door and block the light ! the little bulb made sure they used some so no  claim it was a fake service and still used less than the minimum amount I dont know what year the data was from but they said this got them a bill around $8 dollars a month. Research the rules before you start a big home steading effort so this type thing can be avoided all together very few places seem to have this rule.