EastTexFrank
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2003
- Messages
- 1,422
- Location
- East Texas, USA
- Tractor
- Kubota Grand L4740, B2400 and F2680
I\'ve Sprung a Spring
Last week I was walking around the hay pasture at the farm and I found myself up to my ankles in mud???? I thought that was a bit strange as we haven't had much rain this past month so I started following the water back up the slight slope. I found 3 holes, roughly in a line going up the slope, about 2" in diameter bubbling water at a rate that I would guess to be about a gallon to 2 gallons a minute.
I called the Soil Conservancy people and they said that, yup, it's a spring, probably artesian, and that it might quit on its own and then again, it might not. They did say that if it's left alone it will eventually cut a gully across the pasture to another gully along the fence line that carries the run-off from the stock pond. It might, on the other hand, just turn the bottom part of the hay pasture into a bog. Neither alternative is desirable.
So here is the problem, how do you stop a spring coming to surface or handle the water once it does. Capping it in some way doesn't seem to be feasible, even if it could be done, because it's likely that it will just come to the surface further up the slope. I could run some kind of field drain to collect the water once it's on surface and run it to the stock pond about 100 yards away. There's not much of a gradient from the bottom outlet to the stock pond but it could be done or I could collect it from all 3 outlets and run it to the gully that it's draining into now.
I've never had to handle anything like this before so I'm looking for any ideas. It seems like such a pity to waste such good water but on the other hand I don't want to be water skiing in the hay pasture either.
I'll listen to anything you guys can come up with.
Thanks ... Frank.
Last week I was walking around the hay pasture at the farm and I found myself up to my ankles in mud???? I thought that was a bit strange as we haven't had much rain this past month so I started following the water back up the slight slope. I found 3 holes, roughly in a line going up the slope, about 2" in diameter bubbling water at a rate that I would guess to be about a gallon to 2 gallons a minute.
I called the Soil Conservancy people and they said that, yup, it's a spring, probably artesian, and that it might quit on its own and then again, it might not. They did say that if it's left alone it will eventually cut a gully across the pasture to another gully along the fence line that carries the run-off from the stock pond. It might, on the other hand, just turn the bottom part of the hay pasture into a bog. Neither alternative is desirable.
So here is the problem, how do you stop a spring coming to surface or handle the water once it does. Capping it in some way doesn't seem to be feasible, even if it could be done, because it's likely that it will just come to the surface further up the slope. I could run some kind of field drain to collect the water once it's on surface and run it to the stock pond about 100 yards away. There's not much of a gradient from the bottom outlet to the stock pond but it could be done or I could collect it from all 3 outlets and run it to the gully that it's draining into now.
I've never had to handle anything like this before so I'm looking for any ideas. It seems like such a pity to waste such good water but on the other hand I don't want to be water skiing in the hay pasture either.
I'll listen to anything you guys can come up with.
Thanks ... Frank.
