Ping Danny D

[CRNG]

Is this near you? How's your water situation holding up?

California community suffers as wells dry up in drought

[Pico Rico]

Porterville is hundreds of miles away from Danny D.

[Scott Lurndal]

Danny's in the bay area. Porterville is 200 miles south and east, where it is much drier (porterville is just over the hump from death valley).

A friend of mine is a farmer in the Fresno area, he was drawing water from

50' down when his well was first drilled 15 years ago, now he has to go down more than 250' to get water (with correspondingly larger costs).

[CRNG]

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:43:42 GMT, [e-mail] (Scott Lurndal) wrote in

In a previous thread several weeks ago, Danny mentioned that it cost $100/ft to drill a well in his area. I'm assuming that is for a 6" dia. residential well. I wonder what diameter is used for a typical agricultural well?

[Stormin Mormon]

We heard from Danny, recently? Hope he's Ok. Sounds like an activist for good. I like him.

[Danny D.]

CRNG wrote, on Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:07:02 -0500:

Here's a picture of the 520 foot deep (expensive & useless) well.

I just found out from that neighbor that the brand new well can't be used.

So, the neighbor has been resorting to trucking 2,000 gallons of water at a time.

They tried 3,000 gallons, but the Ford F350 suspension couldn't handle it, according to the driver of the truck:

[Stormin Mormon]

Trucking water up a hill has to run a considerable fuel bill. Plus tires, and wear. I hope the man has that figured in if he's sharing water with neighbors. In my days of water hauling, it was maybe 3 to 5 gal of water in one gal jugs. And it was mostly along my way, so I wasn't out much.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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[Stormin Mormon]

Lets hope the water table comes up a ways, and the well comes back to life. Sad to hear of that money not useful. Yet.

[Danny D.]

Danny D. wrote, on Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:55:50 +0000:

Actually, that's 2,000 liters at a time (not gallons).

Each tank is 1,000 liters.

They tried 3,000 liters, but the truck suspension didn't look like it would take it (Ford F350) so they are doing 2,000 liters at a shot.

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Mon, 27 Oct 2014 03:17:07 -0400:

They tried 3,000 liters, but it was too much for the Ford F350 suspension, so, they're optimized for 2,000 liters.

They did have to modify the inlets and outlets to handle the hose though ... as shown here:

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Mon, 27 Oct 2014 03:18:21 -0400:

I heard they stopped at $50,000 before capping the well and giving up on it.

For now, they're making good use of this contraption from the water company for hooking up to a hydrant to fill their 1,000 liter water containers:

[Danny D.]

Pico Rico wrote, on Thu, 23 Oct 2014 17:49:47 -0700:

We're in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Notice this recent hike, where the stream bed is dry.

It normally flows year round.

NOTE: Circled in the center are the people, way ahead of me, which, I include for scale, and, whom I was trying to catch up to, since the only possible path is in the center of the stream bed.

It's crazy when 18 year old kids can hike faster than we old men, even in the rocky hillsides. Drat. Getting older isn't fun anymore.

[Stormin Mormon]

Does anyone on your hill have tanks for non potable water? If so, perhaps the local FD would pitch in, and try tanker shuttles. Or maybe not, who knows?

The reverse is true, your truck and tank rig can be used for fires, to bring water to area which do not have hydrants. Most FD have a tanker (some times called tender) or two. And they call in mutual aid. But when the going gets tough, a couple thousand liters sure is nice to have.

I presume you are charging a fee of some kind, for each tank of water pumped in? You do have fuel, tires, and wear on the truck that will be paid by someone. And if the owner of the truck is running no charge to the residents, the owner will pay the expenses.

There ain't no free liter (ha, ha). We old gents should explain "there ain't no free lunch" to the youth who might be reading.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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[Stormin Mormon]

Perhaps some day the water table will return, and that well shall deliver water, as it supposed to. Soon as we figure out global warming, or whatever is doing you in.

That flow meter looks heavy. Is that part of why your back is complaining? Of course, humping hose and pumps and so on, can't be easy.

How long does each run take? An hour or more?

Do you make more than one run a day?

I'm guessing you priced having someone else do the hauling. But then, the driver would want to be paid a wage, and that co$t$ buck$.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[Stormin Mormon]

A decade or so ago, my part of NYS was dry. A friend of mine used that moment to harvest a bunch of fire wood out of the creek bed area. He mentioned it in passing, and I brought out my consumer model chain saw to have some fun. The highway dept had cut some trees, and were kind enough to leave them for him. Sadly, he was pointing towards his pole barn "Leave em down this hill, next to my place" and they left the trees a couple hundred yards up the road from him. Fortunately, he has a tractor and can pull the pieces in.

In about 1980 or so, my family did visit CA. My one uncle lived in Santa Cruz. We were within sight of the ocean. We rented a 15 passenger van, with a lot of windows. That was fun. We got a bunch of matching Tshirts. I don't remember a lot about the area. I do remember one AM when everyone asked if I felt the earth quake last night. Nope. I do remember the power cut about 8 PM or so.

I'd like to visit again. Richard is no longer in Santa Cruz, not sure where he is.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:39:46 -0400:

I had already spoken to the fire department. They are not in the business of hauling water for residents, although, they did say they'll replace any water they use for fighting a fire.

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:43:40 -0400:

Naaah. The back is mostly from manhandling the trusses for the bridge, and scrambling over the rocks leading the neighborhood hikes.

It takes about ten minutes to fill each 1,000 liter tank from the fire hydrant, and then about 15 minutes to empty it out. The setup is another fifteen minutes on each side, and the driving is about a half hour to forty five minutes (the filled truck goes very slowly because the roads are narrow and windy).

Yup. As many as we need.

It's not cheap. I had priced my pool, for instance, costing about $4,000 to fill, earlier in the year.

The cheapest we found that would deliver in a reasonable time frame was around $400/4,000 gallons...

Bay Area Water Trucks 408-683-0500 Gary Masons Water Service 408-353-4196 Franks Water Delivery Service 408-353-1343 Sala Brothers Bulk Water Delivery Service 831-726-3903

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Fri, 24 Oct 2014 17:11:53 -0400:

I almost died on this last neighborhood hike! We had climbed down (and then back up!) the mountain to see how the stream was doing at the bottom ...

The stream?

Well, it's a great (dry) footpath at the moment!

[Stormin Mormon]

So, about two hours per run. Well, that's what it takes. Hope the truck keeps running OK, and your neighborhood team keeps working together.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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[Tekkie®]

Danny D. posted for all of us...

Why?