Spring development

[Denim Deb]

Yeah, but if you separate it by a space, you can still spell it.

I can't use sulfur for chigger bites. I'm allergic to sulfa drugs and putting the sulfur on my ankles would be a big no no! Your body absorbs the sulfur, so if you're allergic, this is one thing you DON'T want to do. (I checked into using the sulfur myself, and that's what I found out.)

 

[Emerald]

Yeah, but if you separate it by a space, you can still spell it.

I can't use sulfur for chigger bites. I'm allergic to sulfa drugs and putting the sulfur on my ankles would be a big no no! Your body absorbs the sulfur, so if you're allergic, this is one thing you DON'T want to do. (I checked into using the sulfur myself, and that's what I found out.)

Thanks for that advice.. I have no problems with sulfa drugs but am highly allergic to penicillin and can't even eat some blue cheeses and some of the dry cured salamis.. Have problems with all kinds of molds too.
And on springs I talked to my Aunt this morning and she had a spring on her property that just make a big mushy marshy spot in her yard for years and now she has a pond there! She had it dug out and while it took about a year to fill she now has a nice figure 8 shaped pond that is filled from the spring.. but she had someone come in and do the digging for her so that is about the limit of the information on springs.

 

[Joel_BC]

DW and I want to develop a spring to act as a standby water source in the event our well pump goes offline. The spring area is a wet area of about 35 feet where the water trickles along the surface before it disappears back into the earth. We are in a drought at this time, and I think I will be lucky to get 1 gallon per min. Does anyone have any experience with spring development? Can I do anything to increase the yield of the spring?

If your spring delivers a gallon per minute, that will amount to 1440 gallons a day. Yes, one gallon per minute is a low inflow, but if you can capture it then it's a significant amount of water.

I have a spring-fed system, shared with neighbors. Because it's shared, there is a somewhat limited supply of water in mid summer, most years. Even with kitchen, bathroom, laundry use, plus the watering of gardens and fruit trees, I doubt that our household is very often exceeding 1440 gallons in a day. We've learned to budget the water we have available to us in a day.

Next aspect: development of a spring-fed water system. Off hand, I'd say you need a collection basin at a relatively high point above your home and gardens and a buried pipe coming out of it. The pipe can feed into a reservoir or holding tank, storing (ideally) say 1500 gallons - or more. That way, your gallon-a-day yield can be captured for use during those hours you need it. In our own system, the collection basin and the holding tank are both made of cast reinforced concrete. If your holding tank cannot be located well above your house/gardens (due to the location of the spring), then you'll need to pump the water to pressurize your water line - rather than being able to rely on a gravity-feed system.

 

[windyoak]

We live on hilly terrain, and our water storage gives us about 40 pounds of pressure. My water source is a well, but there are problems with this arrangement. I have to pump water up to the storage tanks. This is done with a gas guzzling generator. It is currently our only water source, and like all mechanical things, the pump can break down which means panic time. This happened to me in 05 and it took me about a week to get a replacement and to pull the old pump (378 feet down) out. I was trucking water in for livestock during this time, and I dont want to find myself in the same position again. The spring I want to develop would give me a second water source while dealing with the eventual well repair.
We have been on solar for more than 15 years. Utility service isnt available where we live. So we are planning to trade our 230 volt well pump for a solar pump. We are saving for that, and in the mean time, we are developing the spring as a second source for water. As it is, the spring is located about 300 feet below where we live; so I will need to collect the spring water in a holding tank, and then pump it up to the holding tank above from where we live. It isnt the best situation, but at least the water will be available when the inevitable breakdown occurs.

 

[Dawn419]

I wish I had advice to offer but I'm following along to see what you come up with, big help, I know!

We have several springs on our place and would love to develop one of the lower ones as a back up water source but have no clue about where to even start and am worried I'd end up doing more harm than good. The lower springs usually at least seep during drier weather but with the exceptional drought we dealt with this past summer, despite all of the rain we've been recently getting, they still aren't doing anything.

 

[Denim Deb]

I wish I had advice to offer but I'm following along to see what you come up with, big help, I know! lol

Same here. The only springs I know about in this area are all in lakes.

 

[windyoak]

I wish I had advice to offer but I'm following along to see what you come up with, big help, I know!

We have several springs on our place and would love to develop one of the lower ones as a back up water source but have no clue about where to even start and am worried I'd end up doing more harm than good. The lower springs usually at least seep during drier weather but with the exceptional drought we dealt with this past summer, despite all of the rain we've been recently getting, they still aren't doing anything.

We dont know how to go about this project either, but we have been scratching around for any info that would help us. I am also worried about doing harm to the spring. I did learn that if I stop the flow while digging it out, the underground water route may find another route to flow, and the spring could disappear. So the first golden rule is to allow the spring to continue to flow while working on it. To allow us a dryer environment to dig in, we dammed off the flow with a drain pipe routing the water around us. That didnt work. Either the dam is leaking or we are dealing with a length of exposed aquifer, and I am just digging in the middle of it. We havent been able to figure that out yet.
Ill take some picture for a show and tell the next time I am down there. I was clearing brush away from the site, and I got a case of poison oak. I waited a bit, and returned only to get another exposure! javascript:insert_text('',%20''); I will wait until I am completely over this, and then I will return wearing armor.

 

[windyoak]

I wish I had advice to offer but I'm following along to see what you come up with, big help, I know! lol

Same here. The only springs I know about in this area are all in lakes.

You have already helped. Through you, I learned the use of vinegar while dealing with this poison oak! I am most grateful to you and Baymule for your suggestions.
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[Joel_BC]

windyoak... Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to advise you about the particulars of your situation from so far away. I can picture certain challenges that you face, but not in enough detail. I'm afraid it's like trying to play a piano from an adjoining room!

I thought I'd add this, though: About 10 years ago, I developed a secondary water source for our place, drawing on an underground spring that is not nearly so high (in elevation) as our gravity-feed source above the elevation of our house and gardens. Consequently, the water needs a pump, etc. Where I live, solar electricity is out of the question - too unreliable, what with our place being so far north, plus frequent cloud cover, etc.

But anyway, we hired an excavator to dig down 14 feet, then put in stacked well rings. The main level of the water table at the place varies (due to season) from about 8ft to 12 ft below the surface. The spring kept flowing just fine during and after doing the excavation, and the spring did not find another course.

 

[windyoak]

windyoak... Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to advise you about the particulars of your situation from so far away. I can picture certain challenges that you face, but not in enough detail. I'm afraid it's like trying to play a piano from an adjoining room!

I thought I'd add this, though: About 10 years ago, I developed a secondary water source for our place, drawing on an underground spring that is not nearly so high (in elevation) as our gravity-feed source above the elevation of our house and gardens. Consequently, the water needs a pump, etc. Where I live, solar electricity is out of the question - too unreliable, what with our place being so far north, plus frequent cloud cover, etc.

But anyway, we hired an excavator to dig down 14 feet, then put in stacked well rings. The main level of the water table at the place varies (due to season) from about 8ft to 12 ft below the surface. The spring kept flowing just fine during and after doing the excavation, and the spring did not find another course.

I may be just paranoid over the springs water source, but if it is from a fracture in the covering over the aquifer, then I could cause the spring to disappear, but if it is just an exposed area of the aquifer itself, then I figure it will be safe to do some heavy digging. It sounds like you must have tapped into your aquifer, directly. I hope that will also be my case. When they were excavating your spring, do you think they would have increased the yield if they dug deeper?
We live in an arid climate grass lands with scrub-oak. Droughts are a common occurrence here. In a non-drought year, our rainy season is November through March - after that, no rain period. So a good water source is very important. The plus side is that we get plenty of sunshine.