Using Stream as water source

[Ray_N]

Near my 1/2 built cabin is a rather fast year round stream.  Has anyone had any experience on using stream water as a water supply?  I'm looking for do's and don'ts and any equipment that would be useful;  I thought some off-the-grid kind of equipement would be available.

Thanks

[Amanda_931]

Ram pump.  No power required.  Can be quiet.

My friendly local ram pump booster swears that my little stream has enough head and flow for one--but he didn't see it before we got the last couple of rains.

In general pushing water is easy.  Pulling it is hard.

That guy has to put his back together every time they get four or so inches of rain in a day, but that's usually not much of a problem.  They've generally got a couple of hundred gallons in a tank up above the house, so he's pretty well got time to do it.  Sometimes he'll even move the pipe and pump out of harm's way before the rain starts.

He started with a genuine antique that gave a loud sharp "clack!" every time it operated.  Now has most everything in one or another plastic which is quiet.

Might look here, but surely somewhere there's an article (or plans for sale) in Countryside, Back Home or Mother Earth News:

http://www.clemson.edu/irrig/Equip/ram.htm

The now retired water quality guy said that all the wells in the county were contaminated, so he couldn't see much difference in using a stream--especially if it had just come out of the rock.  And most of us got used to the stray bugs in our own wells and streams and springs.

But you could always use a series of filters or filter(s)+UV light to clean your water.  That last, especially, requires power, both for the light and a pump to give you (oh-my-gosh) water pressure.

The Big Berkey, pour water in and let it drip is supposed to take most of the bacteria and cysts out (viruses only if they're hiding in the bacteria), will process more than enough for drinking, cooking, and brushing your teeth on a daily basis.

If you're very very lucky--or been living right--your stream is above the level of your house.  Or is an artesian well.  Run yourself a good-sized pipe (1" black plastic can be buried) from the spring/artesian well/cistern to, if necessary, a second tank above the house, more good sized--friends use 1", I think, to the house and while you can't use a demand water heater unless your cistern/tank is over 40 feet above the level of your highest faucet, washing machine and dishwasher  and to a lesser extent showers are just about indistinguishable from pressurized water.

[Amanda_931]

IIRC this is a very useful site. (lot of dead links, though, including, unless I was hijacked, home).

But here's the page on ram pumps--swiped including at least some of the links, from how things work.

http://www.green-trust.org/2000/rampump.htm

[Amanda_931]

Sling-pump will work too.

Might be a bit less apt to be moved around by floods, and it might be better for a stream without much fall.

It too sounds like it might be a home-buildable.

but this company builds both sling and ram pumps, has for a very long time..

http://www.riferam.com/sling/slingspec.htm

University of Kentucky extension service has an 11-page .pdf file on pumping water for livestock.  with fairly nice discussions of ram and sling pumps.  (they think you need 30 inches of water for the sling pump and it can get stopped by debris pretty easily.)

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/PB1641.pdf

[ShawnaJ]

This is the kind of system we want to use on one of our springs. Since we are on top of the hill, we haven't noticed any run-off raising the level of the spring, it seems pretty consistant year round. And the best part is no electricity (and no electric bill) to run it!

[Amanda_931]

Actually there are two people around who are building ram pumps, one mostly for himself, one mostly for others.  So I assume there are a bunch in the county.  A couple of people are moving water hundreds of feet in distance, not all that far in elevation.  All of them seem to have plenty of water, although I didn't talk to the farther ones during the recent drought.  My nearer stream was a series of puddles.  

It's probably a good thing that you cannot collect all of a stream with a ram pump.

[ShawnaJ]

How near the stream are you? Does it run through your property or is a boundary marker?

Is anyone downstream or upstream using it for anything? Power, wells, watering animals, etc? Any rock quarrys upstream?

What regulations does your county have on restricting water flow on a stream? Some will allow you to dam it up, (possibly hydroelectric?) others won't let you touch it.  

If the stream runs through your property, is there an area you could use a spring box/well or build a pond/cistern and divert some of the water for water collection? Then use something like the ram to move it where you want it.

Our county came out and tested our springs for $50.00. We had to fill out a form stating what the water would be used for. They gave us a detailed report of everything in the water and what wasn't in the water. Turns out, it's drinkable straight from the ground, but to be on the safe side we do plan on installing a filter system for any water that will be coming in the house. We also got lucky in that the source is on our land, and we own the rights to whatever is under our land (minerals, water)

[Amanda_931]

One of my springs is for sure all mine, the second, probably--this is one with a tile in it, but I've never messed with it much--it may be bigger than I think it is.

The third is right on the property line, with water coming from off of it.  More of a seep than a "spring."  This is the one we messed up trying to "develop" it.

In this part of Tennessee, the only "rights" that are likely to be sold separately from the land are timber.  I was a little surprised, since this used to be a fairly big iron area--yet another reason for deforestation--I think they used charcoal, not coke.

[ShawnaJ]

Our paperwork actually states mineral, and water rights!! Maybe because of the springs and our land being the source so we could develop them. Timber was limited by the developer, no clear cutting, but since we have no plans to do anything like that, it's no big deal.

[glenn kangiser]

I got some pictures of my dad's spring when in Oregon.  When I get back to high speed internet I will get some posted if there is anything worth looking at.

[glenn kangiser]

A short walk up the creek to the spring in the Oregon coastal rain forest.



Here is the spring as it has unfailingly come from the mountain since forever as far as I know.



How fancy is good enough for a spring box?



Well -- maybe not perfect but no one has died from it.  Never even got sick from it.