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Letter Re: On Spring and Well Water, and Some Water Treatment Basics
Mr Rawles:
You are dead on with the advice on water on July 19th.
Even a fairly small spring is a great resource. We have used ours for 25 years
now, even though I had a well drilled last year as a backup. Sometimes in the
fall, our spring gets down to less than a pencil sized stream of water output.
Several other points to mention for springs. For gravity feed, figure about
1/2 pound of pressure on the output end for each foot of elevation between
the spring and the output. Also, run at least a 1" line if you have any
distance and/or your elevation difference is minimal, to reduce friction loss
in the pipe. And you might want to consider going larger.
Storage is also an important factor, since a spring may not put out much volume,
but does run 24 hours a day. For example, my spring may get down to a low of
1 quart a minute in a dry fall time, but that is 15 gallons per hour, and 360
gallons in 24 hours. In a typical day, we might only use 100-200 or so gallons
between showers, toilets, etc.....but come wash day, the washer along with
the 'normal' household use will exceed that 360 gallon figure by far. This
is where adequate storage overcomes "peak" loads.
My first storage was a 1,000 gallon concrete septic tank, in ground, I had
the tank company cast a 1" pipe fitting n the bottom for connection. Later,
I changed to 2-1,500 gallon plastic tanks housed in a 10'x20' concrete block
building built back into the mountain. If you plan to use plastic tanks above
ground, they should be housed away from sunlight which will promote algae growth.
These tanks are available at most farm supply stores, already have a 20" manhole
top fitting and a 2" bottom drain fitting installed.
We also use a UV light as a sterilizer, though only installed that a few years
ago....the first 20 years, simply had a sediment filter on the line, and never
suffered any ill effects from the spring.....the UV light is simple me getting
cautious in my old age. - Andy in Tennessee
