Water storage solutions in a drought

[MoKelly]

We live close to the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Flooding is the issue in Spring.

To date, we are about at the normal level of precipitation. The beans are doing very well.

MoKelly

 

[ponytug]

Wait... some of you western state guys are running your wells dry just to look at green grass out the window? That strikes me as a bit.... ridiculous.

I get that you can make the "fire break" argument, but bare dirt works even better, right? Easy to say from my wet state.

Pretty dry March-May, but Over 4" of rain in June so far here (sorry).

It happens. I would say that there are many, many different ecosystems in California, some of them very wet. Even in the Santa Cruz mountains it can range from desert like to temperate rain forest in a few miles.

Here, we are in the savanna type ecosystem, where it is dry tax day to turkey day. Annual rainfall is in the ten to fifteen inch range. It is too dry for most trees, except for a few in the draws or ravines. One of my neighbors is on a marginal well and still has a lawn. I don't get it either.

Fire breaks help, somewhat, but they aren't a panacea. We have bare soil around the house and buildings. The fire risk here is too high to do otherwise. But in a wind driven fire nothing is really fireproof, other than perhaps a concrete earth home with metal hurricane shutters and something exceptional for the roof vents. By now, you have all seen the cars with liquified alloy rims and warped water heaters after the fires. Wind driven fire gets really hot.

We just have two 5,000 gallon poly tanks that we keep between 8-10,000 gallons in. I know that they would be toast in a big fire, but that would be a small item in the bit picture.

Stay safe out there.

All the best,

Peter

 

[plowhog]

We just have two 5,000 gallon poly tanks that we keep between 8-10,000 gallons in. I know that they would be toast in a big fire,

That's the difficulty I have with how to store spring runoff water for later in the season. If I install above ground tanks, that investment is at risk from fire or (maybe more likely) falling trees. Below grade water storage seems to get very expensive very fast.

 

[ponytug]

That's the difficulty I have with how to store spring runoff water for later in the season. If I install above ground tanks, that investment is at risk from fire or (maybe more likely) falling trees. Below grade water storage seems to get very expensive very fast.

I have thought about wrapping them in strips of compressed fiberglass rigid boards and then putting galvanized roofing around that. I would probably build a steel 2x4 frame with the same insulation as the roof. I have also thought about filling it full and then putting on gunnite. But that is way down my do list.

I know some folks back east who used concrete filled cement blocks with rebar to make a 10,000 gallon (+/-) spring tank, then plastered it with cement, and coated the cement with a lining material. They were very happy with it.

Personally I think that below ground storage tanks are an art, and nobody hereabouts that I have found seems to know how to do it. I think it is highly dependent on high quality concrete pouring. It also depends on what you have underground...rock gets expensive quickly.

All the best,

Peter

 

[TheMan419]

All I have to say is. I'm thankful we live where we do (Great Lakes watershed). Water is never an issue here and you can hit water here with a driven point just about anywhere. Might not be the best because of the limestone strata but it's wet and plentiful.

Amen! We have a filter and a softener to make it good water. But there is plenty of it.