How to truck 1,000 gallons of potable water to a residence

[DannyD.]

DannyD. wrote, on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:59:04 +0000:

After a few hours of the circuit breakers being off, the old well pumped for about two minutes before shutting down (which means it's almost completely dry), but, luckily, the new well pumped for 100 gallons before it shut down.

On the topic of the two tanks, one of which is for the fire department hydrant, I have confirmed that mine is set up to split horizontally across the two tanks (not by individual tank):

The incoming water from both wells merges into a single pipe which enters the top of just one of the water tanks:

There is no other inlet, so, that water goes into both tanks:

Water exits at a single 4" pipe near the bottom of each tank:

From there, it goes to both the house & the wharf hydrant:

So, the *only* thing determining what water goes to the house and what goes to the hydrant are the shut-off valve electronics:

Which is set to turn off the house at about 1/3 of the total water:

So, gravity feeds the hydrant; but the house is fed by the booster pump, which turns off when 1/3 of the 4,500 gallons is left. Interestingly, about 1 foot is about 500 gallons, so, at the moment, I'm about 500 gallons from full:

Seems to me, if I "need" water, I can either pull it out of the fire hydrant (which is below the house) or I can modify the electronics (somehow) to just *not* turn off when 1/3 of the 4,550 gallons are left.

Does anyone know *how* that could be accomplished?

[CRNG]

On Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:32:05 +0000 (UTC), "DannyD." wrote in

It means you folks are in trouble and it's going to get worse unless something raises the water table.

[CRNG]

On Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:59:04 +0000 (UTC), "DannyD." wrote in

Calculate the volume of your tanks here

use feet (not inches) and multiple the vol by 7.5 to give you gallons.

[CRNG]

On Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:44:43 +0000 (UTC), "DannyD." wrote in

I think you are correct. Your pumps are shutting down because they are running dry.

[CRNG]

On Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:52:41 +0000 (UTC), "DannyD." wrote in

Average *in house* water usage is 50 gal/day/person. That is without any conservation. That covers washing, cooking, toilets and all other activities that occur in the house.

[DannyD.]

CRNG wrote, on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:28:54 -0500:

Interestingly, I just found out that a few of the neighbors already dug deeper wells. It seems, anecdotally, the 200 foot wells have been drying up over the years, and the 300 to 500 feet wells are predominating.

I don't have enough information to draw solid conclusions, but one hypothesis would be that the water table dropped 100 feet in the past decade or so.

[rbowman]

1000 gallons of water on a flatbed gooseneck trailer isn't going to weigh much more than the dry weight of most 30' fifth wheel trailers. If anyone has a fifthwheel capable rig, hauling water shouldn't be a problem.

[DannyD.]

CRNG wrote, on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:28:54 -0500:

That's interesting, and I thank you for that number of 50 gallons/day.

I just measured my well after letting it sit for 5 hours turned off:

OLD WELL:

- Lasted 1 minute and 30 seconds before running dry!

NEW WELL:

- Lasted from 8:32pm to 8:54pm (22 minutes) before shutting off.

- It was pumping at a little more than 5 gallons a minute at first.

- And then dropped to a little less than 5 gallons a minute after 10 minutes.

- Total was 90 gallons in those 22 minutes before the pump shut down.

- So, it averaged 4 gallons per minute before shutting off.

Of course, the 200 sprinklers & the pool take their toll of water ...

[DannyD.]

CRNG wrote, on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:28:54 -0500:

I'm pretty sure they're running dry, because one, for sure, is only running for less than 2 minutes before shutting down, even after having been off for five hours!

Here, you see it has "tripped" by the red light:

The other well, after I allowed it to refill for 5 hours, lasted

22 minute s, but I timed the water meter and it was going at about 10 seconds faster than 5 gallons per minute at first, then about at the halfway mark it was about 15 seconds less than five gallons a minute, until it finally shut down at 22 minutes, averaging at about 4 gallons per minute.

But, that was after a 5 hour quiet period. In practice, the well

*tries* to pump all day so the 'rest' period is only a half hour or so between shutoffs.

[Stormin Mormon]

the city fire department garage caught fire (later determined to be caused by a plugged in extension cord hanging over a nail). All the trucks were inside and could not be gotten out...except one, the antique "Wimpy", a truck from the 20s or 30s stored in another shed. Fully operational and full of vintage equipment... none that was of any use as the connections did not mate up with the fire hydrants. We lost the garage and all fire department equipment. By the time other agencies got there all they could do was keep the fire from spreading.

That is seriously tragic. I bet a lot of FF were crying into their beer that night.

[Stormin Mormon]

CY: Since no one in the area has water, maybe that's a waste of money, to drill deeper into dry earth?

CY: That's a long time to wait.

CY: Wonder if the vineyards people would consider some money to divert the water to local homes?

CY: Might be the answer. Sounds like it would be rough on the vehicles, drivers, etc.

CY: Worth knowing. I've heard that full tank is much less of an issue.

[Stormin Mormon]

Wonder what's with the vineyards? I'd go ask them what's their source of water.

[Stormin Mormon]

Ideally, if there are enough concerned people, folks can drive up the hill with the five gal water jugs from the department store. A few of those in the kitchen for cooking, drinking, etc might reduce the strain a bit. Also good exercise.

[Stormin Mormon]

Looks more like a big grey tank, to me.

Sounds like your aquifier is used up. Which is not good. And at the top of a hill, not likely to come back any time soon.

[trader_4]

You might want to consider a timer to better manage the on/off cycle. You have a protection system on the pump, but still it can't be good for the pump to keep starting every 30 mins to just run two mins. I would think there is more wear/tear on the pump that way, and more electricity used too. With a timer and some experimenting, you could probably come up with a much more optimal cycling schedule. IDK what the effect on the life of the pump is with the very short cycling, but I know a timer is cheap compared to pulling and replacing a pump on a 400ft well.

[Pat]

Could any of your neighbors' pumps be pumping from the same underground water? In other words, are your 5 hour rest periods really rest periods? If you repeat that experiment at 5:00 am, will the results be different? Now that I think about it, I can't even be sure 5:00 am would make a difference since everybody's pumps might be running 24/7 except for the shutdowns due to running dry. Sorry for the rambling - I guess my only point is the rest periods might not be rest periods if, for example, multiple 400' wells are using the exact same aquafer.

[DannyD.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Sun, 29 Jun 2014 06:37:22 -0400:

They have deep wells.

[Stormin Mormon]

From the sounds of it, (40 acre lots), the houses are spread apart. Still, aquafier, might be spread over many houses. The 5 AM test run sounds interesting.

[bob haller]

I have a friend who lived in a neighborhood where everyones well was going dry/

So the neighbors got together and paid to have one super deep well drilled sharing the costs, and one neighbor used his backhoe to dig and install water lines to the 7 or 8 homes in the group. he didnt have to pay for the drilling.

my buddy lived in this neighborhood for over 10 years. everyone was pleased. except probably the well driller who would of prefered dilling 8 sererate wells.

my buddy finally moved his wife wanted a 2 story home. insisted on it.

shortly afer the move both husband and wife had knee surgery, making their new fancy multi story home a real chore to live in......

[bob haller]

Negoiate with someone on city water to be your water source:)

offer to pay their water bill, and you use their home to pickup water from....

this would completely elminate the water meter rental fee:) and all of you share the water bill.

although you could try talking to the water company about expanding service to your now drying up area....