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Hi Chris, A cistern is nothing more than a under/above ground water storage tank. We use them here in AZ, all the time even with a well. We pump the deep well into the cistern then use a pressure pump to supply water to the house. This system arangement does two things. It manages water in wells that don't have alot of water production. You can use a pump timer to run the deep well pump slightly behind the time it takes for the water to replenish in the deep well. That way your deep well pump never pumps dry or sand. Filling the cistren then can be done over a 24hr period thus yielding more demand usage as it's called for by the house demand. If one would need alot of water fast, like for fire fightening, then a cistern can supply that water demand. We don't have a fire dept here, so this can help. In California when you get a permit to build a swimming pool you also give the Fire Dept the right to use that water cistern for fire fighting. Most deep well pumps draw more wattage than pressure pumps so you save a few bucks on electricity. A cistern can also be used where your using one deep well to supply more than one home. Our community wells are set up this way as well as most major cities. One of our deep well pumps 35gpm into three 15000gal tanks where 300 people draw water from. Even at 35gpm this deep well could not keep up with 300 homes if not for the cistern usage. It costs less to replace a pressure pump than it does a deep well pump. On our community wells thats $7,000 for a deep well pump vs $600 for a pressure pump. T_Bone
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