Developing a small Spring?

[forester2]

I just rebuild an 100+ year old spring box last year and helped a friend develope a new one. You want to dig back to the 'eye' of the spring. Then you build a box to capture it with a pipe coming from it's base. There are commercially made aluminum and stainless premade boxes but wood wooks just fine. Do a web search and you can find the commercial ones and there are old University papers on how to develope springs. The problem of course is getting it uphill. You'll need a collection tank with some kind of float switch (maple syrup guys have some of these commercially availible).

 

[CliffordK]

Ok,
I've made some progress on the spring.

Against some of the advice here, I decided to leave the origin of the spring (stump) alone, and to design a simple surface catchment just below the spring.


Mostly dug out. By planning on a drain at the bottom of my tank, I was able to dig a ditch downhill which kept my hole mostly dry.


Barrel and drain pipe placed. 2" bung to a somewhat sweeping 90 degree turn to valve. The valve was "recycled". I removed a T from the valve, and machined the shoulder to match my 2.5" drain pipe & 45 degree sweep (also mostly recycled).


Backfilled. Fiberglass pipe for valve access. As I was testing everything for leaks, and backfilling, I added a small dam and pipe to direct the water. A small percent works its way around the dam, but I've left the pipe in place for now.

I made a tripod to hold the float and inlet pipe. The "foot" has a built in one-way valve.

I think the orange poly pipe is 3/4". It was cheap. However, it seems to match 1" PEX hose barbs best.

I have one of those free floating float valves with the ball inside. Unfortunately, I discovered that it only works with the float ball adjusted to go nearly vertical before engaging. I had several adjustments including a cheese-block mount for it onto my tripod.


12V pump.
This one came from Northern Tools.
NorthStar NSQ Series 12V On-Demand Diaphragm Pump 2.2 GPM @ 70 PSI | Sprayer Pumps| Northern Tool + Equipment
I've connected everything with brass fittings and hose clamps, so that the clamps can be easily separated. They had a quick connect option, but I thought the hose ends would suit my needs better.

One thing I discovered, if the pump looses prime, then it is unable to blast air uphill into an uphill pipe filled with water. So, one must bleed the uphill pipe while re-priming the pump. As it is, I close the valve and disconnect, but perhaps adding a "Y" with valves would be easier if I need to do this very frequently.

Otherwise, this seems to pump a little faster than my spring flow which was what I had intended. It gets warm on use, so intermittent is probably better than continuous duty.

It draws about 6 to 7A.

I Goofed on my first pump. Beware of some pumps advertising different systemic pressure vs pressure generated by the pump. I got one with a 110 psi systemic pressure rating, but only something like a 10 foot head rating.


ZEP at the top of the hill.
I need to put a seal and some fittings on the bottom of my cone bottom tank. However, I'm trying to decide if I wish to purchase a larger tank. Poly? Steel? Stainless? 1500 gallons should catch about one full day worth of water. A couple thousand gallons for several days of water.

So far, I've been turning it off when not in use, but I plan to plumb an overflow to water some trees, and pump continuously.

I would like the tanks to function as a fire backup. I don't know if poly would hold up if it caught on fire (perhaps it would just burn to the water level).

Things left to do:

• Add solar panels. Currently the system is being run with a trickle charger and several extension cords.
• Bury all of the pipes.
• Bigger tank?
• More tank elevation?
• I'll watch it some. If debris becomes a problem, then cover everything.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to cross-connect to my well and house. The well pump has been on the fritz for a few days now.

 

[vtsnowedin]

The real test comes late August. Fingers crossed for you.

 

[CliffordK]

The real test comes late August. Fingers crossed for you.

Yes,
In Western Oregon, summer has hit, and we may well have very little rain until mid September. And, this could be one of the driest summers ever.

I've watched the spring and it seems to have had year-around flow, but I've never had an accurate measurement of the flow. Even now, I'm still only estimating about 1GPM.

That is, however, one of the reasons I didn't want to do much "development" into the headwaters. I didn't want to get 5GPM now, and none later as it seemed to be quite stable as it is. And, averaging over time, about 1000 gallons a day is a lot of water.