06/28/09, 08:21 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Zone 7
Posts: 10,559
|
|
|
For a number of years I maintained a spring for a lady. Her spring was a higher elevation than her home. Over the years the system worked fine with minimum maintenance. The short comings were that in a very droughty year the water would drop to a trickle. She owned the entire hillside from which the water was obtained and prevented anyone from doing anything that could possibly contaminate the water knowing that surface water was the origin of the water. A "spring box" was built around the spring itself and I fabricated a fine mesh screen to prevent unwanted items from entering the plastic pipe that brought the water to the home. This was a long run of not less than 1000 feet. At the home, on an upgrading of her water system, we hired a back hoe to install a 1000 gallon precast septic tank (concrete) with the top of the tank about 6 inches above ground to prevent surface water from entering. A standpipe drain was installed inside the tank to limit the water to rising to above ground level. I fitted a submersible pump in the tank and plumbed the water to a bladder tank inside the house where we installed conventional plumbing. Additionally, I installed a restriction at the septic tank (now cistern) inlet pipe from the spring and put a tee on the spring side of the restriction. This created gravity water with pressure as the elevation drop from the spring box was around 20+ feet. Water from the gravity fed tee was plumbed to a second faucet on the kitchen sink using the spray opening in the sink. This water was allowed to run continuously during cold weather. The sink had two drains that were not common to each other. The dish washing side went to the septic and the rinse and the gravity water left as gray water. The "clean" water from the kitchen sink drain emptied as gray water farther down the mountain. Regardless of how cold it got everything on the outside of the home had running water and never froze. If power to the home failed, which it often did during bad weather she had some water, gravity and/or pressure fed. The lady got great satisfaction that she had HER water available all the time and that those around her that wanted her to put down a well often came and got water when the electricity was off for days. The lady provided me with many meals when I was in the area hunting or working on my place in appreciation for her unique water supply. I do not know which of us was more satisfied!
__________________
Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!
Last edited by agmantoo; 06/28/09 at 08:27 AM.
|
