Hiya, I'm a long term lurker AND reader!  I finally registered and have a few questions that I hope someone else can provide the answer to, so here goes:

We are building a home on a large rural parcel in southwestern Tehama county.  We just had a well drilled w/ an 8" casement and we get about 150 gpm @ 265'.  We have planned for and purchased  custom underground water storage tanks.  They will be installed in a tandem fashion with a manhole for access to service the tank pumps, etc.

Here's my question: For some reason, we have had SO MANY PROBLEMS with potential contractors who seem determined to convince us that we don't need to have the tanks because we sit on such a large aquifer, (the Tehama Formation, for those in the know).  The comment made to us by the well guy was, "you know, drilling that well is like putting a straw in the ocean".

What is the big deal?  Both my husband and I come from areas where water is an issue; I am a native Angelina and grew up in Merced county and he's from central Texas.  We both feel better knowing that we had that 5000 gal of stored water.  Has anyone else had this problem?   Why is it such a strange thing for us to have underground water tanks?

If you are only using them for potable water storage than I see their point. You are inducing additional expense and complexity where there is no real need nor benefit. If you stated that your water supply was less so that it took a while to replenish then you would be correct to build storage of some sort. Now if you intend to something like using a tank for solar heat storage, that also would be an idea.

Just my $.02 worth.

Bill

If your well runs dry, then I don't see that 5,000 gallons of storage is going to help all that much - unless you just want storage for water that you tanker in.  If it's so that you can use rainwater catch, then 5,000 gallons is unlikely to be enough.  We have rainwater catch (also in central Texas), and use two 10,000 gallon fiberglass tanks - that's pretty much enough to keep our family of 3 going year long, with no landscape watering.  What state is Tehama county in, by the way?  I don't know where all the counties in the US are from memory!
-Kram