Want spring developing info

[ns_in_tex]

I have a spring which I would like to develop and make use of the water, maybe to water the lawn. It is presently producing 2-1/2 gpm and we have been very dry for the last 6 weeks. I know it has run year round for the last 30 years and presume it would produce this much all time.

I would like any helpful information, since this will be my first time to do this.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

You're a lucky man Neal. But then you knew that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Sounds like to me it's time to build a nice pond or cistern and buy a pump that will keep that water down to a manageable level.

 

[DiskDoctr]

Neal,

Springs can be fickle and the way you develop them can make them productive or dry them up.

Step #1 Be careful how you dig
Step #2 Be VERY careful how you dig /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

We've done this, the best one being close to 100 yrs ago by earlier generations- about 8gpm, went dry about 5 or 6 times in the last 50 yrs. due to head waters problems. Never more than a day, after the flows were corrected.

The setup we changed about 25 yrs ago to its current state. We added a holding tank and do all our pumping and demand from there.

If you put too much demand on a spring, you can kill it. Trickles from a draft will last, fast flow will wash out or dry up (divert).

The spring itself was hand dug out about 3'x3' about 3 feet deep, then another 1 foot brick above ground to protect it and add a cover. The reservoir keeps the lower drafts covered with water at all times and when full is just above the upper drafts.

The flow pipe is just a few inches (about 4-5") below the top of the water area and is gravity feed.

Keeping the reservoir full also prevents the drafts from washing out (eroding). Each draft should be no more than about a pinky sized stream without too much pressure- usually beside/under/on top of a rock. Resist digging out these rocks, as they help maintain the integrity of the draft.

About once per year we climb in with a bucket and shovel and dig out silt and mud to keep the drafts clear and reservoir open.

You will want to look for your head sources of water above the stream and protect it from any disturbances and prevent any equipment traffic from crossing between it and your spring.

Spring harnessing is more of an art than a technology. Since you're not using it as a source of water for your house, much of the pressure of potentially ruining your water supply is reduced.

Start by digging a hole about 2 feet below where you believe the draft to be. About 2-3 ft across, about 2 feet back towards the drafts. You'll want to leave the last foot for hand digging (easier to pull soil in to an existing hole). Make the hole about 2-3 ft deep.

This hole should easily fill with water before any hand digging. We have clay in our soil, so water proofing the hole is not an issue here. Follow the same guidelines you would for the breast of a dam in your area and soil conditions.

You'll have to play it by ear, but keep that hole mostly filled with water. If you don't dig it first and just dig at the drafts and let them run to open surface, chances are good you'll stress the spring and may kill it.

Good luck and let us know what you find and how you make out.

-JC

 

[ns_in_tex]

Good to hear from you again, Harv,

Yes, I realize I am a very lucky man.

I have been dreaming about making better use of the water around here for over 30 years. Each time I come up with a plan, it seems I find a problem which might put it on hold, till I get that urge again.

This spring, along with a few hundred others, trickle down to a creek on the lower side of my place, which is also fed from a spring fed pond, across the road from me. Water has run across the lake spillway, continously, since we have been here.

All this water, & I am not making use of it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[ns_in_tex]

Thanks for the info, JC.

It sounds like my plans may have been just the wrong thing, since I was hoping to increase the flow a lot and dig a considerable larger hole.

My thinking was, that this is just the water table here, since I have a well about 100 yards away (& uphill), which is 12' to water.

If I were to put in a holding tank & pump from there, I suppose I could just as easily, pump from the well. It will run 2 or 3 sprinklers, 24 hours per day.

 

[DiskDoctr]

Neal,

You could just adjust your flow rate not to hurt the spring. At 2.5gpm, it will deliver 3600 gals/24hrs /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

If you only take water from the top of the reservoir, you should be okay. Just don't drain it below the drafts on a regular basis, or you really risk losing the spring.

I understand this isn't your house water source, so the most you are risking is any piping you install, especially since you have several nearby springs.

Also be very careful, as these same spring drafts may be feeding your shallow well. You certainly don't want to interrupt that flow /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Hard to say. Sort of depends how you want to go. Maybe you aren't concerned with a spring that will last 50yrs, but I would be really careful about pulling water out of the water table so close to your main well.

Just my $.02

-JC

-JC

 

[SPIKER]

I think Diskdoc has the right idea about this, I TRIED to oepn up a spring, and only managed to divert it and ended the spot I was trying to opopen. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif now it runs out across my tractor path at 2 spots, making the access to my creek brigde a muddy soggy mess, and the same for the other side of the creek which I cross too this I had to dig a small trench down to the creek, the spring had previously been pretty much dead center of the creek. now it runs out each side of the creek and both spots are where my tractor HAS to go.

I tried to dig the spring using my back hoe last fall, which was the wrong thing, (must have collapsed the water path under ground someplace.) I wish I had the benifit of asking first, but I didn't think that it would MOVE the way it did./forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif now I'm thinking i 'll have to buy tile and run that to CLEAR & DRY up my tractor paths. this has gone on all summer and is still trickeling but I've dumped about 10 FEL loades of gravel onto the bridge side and the other side has been left to run. (2~5 gpm I would say rough estimate.) my WELL is about 300 yards away and has not effected it at all, luckly!

ANY DIGGING should be done by hand, and best to DIG the holding tank down hill and let the spring naturally flow into that. or else slowly dig the spring down and connect the tank to the spring head via some tile...


Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ANY DIGGING should be done by hand )</font>

And even then, you might not like the results. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I was only about 11 years old when we moved to a place that had a small spring; cold, clear water, but it was in a pretty steep sided gully and hard to get to. It just ran a pretty shallow, but constant stream down that gully a couple of hundred feet into a little creek. It was too shallow to dip up a bucketful, so I decided to dig out around the edge enough to put a barrel with both ends cut out down over it, thinking it would fill the barrel, then run over the sides and on down the gully. My digging pushed dirt into where the water had been coming out and that stopped that spring permanently. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I really regretted having messed with it at all.

 

[EddieWalker]

I took out a pretty big oak tree with my backhoe two months ago, and when the tree fell over, water came shooting up just like the oil on the beverly hillbillies tv show. It was crysatal clear and under preasure. I thought I found a water line of some kind.

I dug some more to see what was going on, and so far I have about a ten foot hole around six feet deep that stays at a constant level. It was very clear until the rains washed in some dirt and muddied it all up.

My plan is to open it up and make a holding tank out of it to have a water source to pump water into my main pond about 400 feet away, up and over a small hill.

I'll take pictures, and if it looks interesting I'll start a new thread.

These springs sure are interesting!!!!!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[ns_in_tex]

JC,
Since I have never used the spring, it will not be a great loss if I were to lose it, but I don't want to.

It had an old concrete well casing that was falling apart, but was still standing 30" deep in water before overflowing. I pulled the old casing out and dug the hole a little deeper and larger in diameter. It is now producing about 4 gpm.

So I guess I am doing most everything you told me I shouldn't. I have an old 10,000 gal steel tank which I probably should have attempted to locate downhill from the spring & just let it keep it full. I could then pump from the tank.

My orginal thinking, was, I would just put in a larger version of my well, with the water at ground level, and since it was larger, it would produce more.

Well, I guess we live & learn. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[DiskDoctr]

Neal,

Hey, if it's working, you're in luck /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As I mentioned earlier, you're not going to end up without water in your house if the spring quits, which gives you a bit of leeway in what you try to do.

If you're putting in a pump in the well casing (am I thinking this right, based on what you said?), which is now in the hole, consider using a float to cut it off, like a sump pump, and be sure to leave some water in the bottom.

As a general rule, pumps in springs are bad news. Mostly they suck too much water too fast. Since yours will be in a casing, maybe not much of a problem.

Anyway, if it's working as you have it set up, count your blessings and just be careful not to burn up your pump if the water level drops...

Good luck, and glad you made out okay.

-JC