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01/06/08, 08:29 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: OK
Posts: 192
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Horizontal Water Well Anyone?
Just curious if anyone has tried harvesting water from thier land with a horizontal well? I am considering an attempt at it myself because deep groundwater seems to be non-existant around here. What I had in mind was simply digging a 2' trench and tossing in some perforated PVC and running it downhill towards the collection tank. I already have some serious clay at 2' so I wouldnt need to realy line it with bentonite and I dont want to spend the money to use a directional boring machine.
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01/06/08, 08:48 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Posts: 34,198
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If you want to drink surface water, just dig a ditch or a pond
The only way a "horizontal well" could work is if you lived on the side of a mountain.
If your source isn't filtered by layers of soil, it's not safe to drink
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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
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01/06/08, 08:48 AM
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In Remembrance
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: South Central Kansas
Posts: 11,076
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Interesting
I read just a little of the technique (horizontal well) a month of so ago and found it to be interesting at the least.
Good luck.
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01/06/08, 09:15 AM
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Zone 7
Posts: 10,559
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Provided you have a slight slope and an area that remains damp you should be able to collect some water doing as you described. The cost is minimal and the labor isn't that great so I suggest you go for it. Let us know the outcome. Did you see the article where drinking water was obtained for wildlife doing this?
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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!
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01/06/08, 10:12 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,064
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Hello ST
Information I've read before suggests that you won't even have to dig a trench, just purchase a special perferated pipe that can be hammered horizontally into the hill. Now that is assuming that there is a water seep nearby to place your h.w. However, I'm concerned about your statement regarding the lack of ground water. What is that based on? Lack of ground water suggests to me that you wouldn't have seeps either, so where exactly would you position a h.w.? What region of the country are you in and how much rain do you get? Do you expect to collect water continuously, or just after rainfall? How much water do you actually need? Unless you have a specific location you know water seeps from I don't think it will work.
Perhaps another alternative for water might be rooftop collection. I have a well on our homestead, powered by a 220V generator, but I'm also in the design phase of implementing a rooftop system for watering my orchard trees. I live in the arid western mountains, so reliable water is critical for my homestead. That's why I'm working on a backup system for the well.
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01/06/08, 01:36 PM
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AFKA ZealYouthGuy
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NW Pa./NY Border.
Posts: 11,453
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I believe that ST's "horizontal well" is not tapping into a spring or seep, but using condensation and evaporation through the soil (along with rain that remains in the soil long after the surface rain has dried) to accumulate water.
Much like an evaporation well I believe.
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01/06/08, 06:49 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Northern Michigan (U.P.)
Posts: 9,491
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I had a neighbor that got his water from a ravine above his house. There was a natural drainage area in the woods that they dug out and set a 1000 gal. concrete septic tank into it. The tank had some holes in the base. The tank was backfilled with washed stone. Surface water would seep thru the stones, filling the tank. There was a water line that was buried from the ravine to the house's basement. The elevation provided enough pressure to insure a flow on the first floor for the kitchen and bathroom. As far as I know they never had any trouble with this, but I'm fairly sure it isn't legal.
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01/06/08, 06:54 PM
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Big Front Porch advocate
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Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 44,425
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this sounds like what accidently happened to my dad's buried wiring for his house. He ran it thru about 2 inch pvc pipe from the road to his place, about 18" deep, in the NW panhadle of TX.
He had to repair a short, and found quite a bit of water in the pipe and had to let it drain and dry before working on the wiring (fortunately coated as coax wiring).
And that part of Tx doesn't have much rain.
Angie
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01/06/08, 07:19 PM
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Zone 7
Posts: 10,559
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__________________
Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!
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01/06/08, 07:48 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: OK
Posts: 192
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by agmantoo
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Yea, thats basically what I had in mind. I dont have any year round water seepage. The soil here is clay for at least 40 feet below the topsoil. This makes it difficult to locate a conventional well because most water seems to leave the area as runoff or evaporation. However this clay seems to be perfect for what is described in that link. This method is basically harvesting the water that would otherwise evaporate. All it will cost me is some perf PVC so I guess I'll give it a try and let you know.
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01/06/08, 07:58 PM
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AFKA ZealYouthGuy
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NW Pa./NY Border.
Posts: 11,453
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Ah, take lots of pictures for us. Document.
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01/06/08, 08:15 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,312
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Dad told me of a setup like u describe
On his grandads farm, there was a bad leakage comeing out the side of a hill, and so they drove a 2in pipe in it, and it ran heavy all year long. People from miles around came to get water during the drought of 36, and it never ran out. 50 yrs later dad met the man who how owns the place and he said they took a dozer and plenty of dirt and capped off the place and stopped its running. Seems like if you get a sand point, and as many lengths of 6ft steel pipe, and use a post hole driver to drive it in, with a cap nut on the end to protect the threads, and unions to connect each piece of pipe, that that would work for you.
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01/06/08, 08:27 PM
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Zone 7
Posts: 10,559
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I think you only need a damp area. Water weeping from the ground would be great but I do not think it is necessary.
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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!
Last edited by agmantoo; 01/06/08 at 09:18 PM.
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