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viking

I know a lot of things, but master very few
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Jan 8, 2018
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S.W. Oregon
I've posted a lot about the importance of water, as far as I'm concerned it's become number one on my list. In fact this is a project I'm working on for a friend. She didn't realize just how important it was until my wife and I explained to her just how much a person uses during the day, what we told her was, besides drinking water, you wash clothes, take baths or showers, wash dishes, flush the toilet and water the garden. We told her that we had read that the average person uses around 80 gallons per day. Thankfully she got the picture and she and her daughter ordered up a big black poly tank, solar panels, inverter and solar controller and four 255 amp hour golf cart batteries and a 12 VDC water pump. We have gotten everything together except the wiring and I should have that done by Sunday evening. With everything going on in the world, they are getting antsy, they want it done now.
 
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I know we have discussed water here, but I am the World's Worst at finding anything through the search. Maybe Angie can help. Doesn't really matter. You have a new thread started. Post/Pose some questions to the group. It is a very important topic, and there will be a lot of discussion. We would all appreciate your expertise.
 
To me there isn't anything much more important than water. Water is a major concern for me.
We live in a semi arid area with little to no rain during summer but a lot of snow in winter. We have several creeks that flow in the spring through about July 1st. We have a large spring fed pond that's lower in elevation than the house and over 1/4 mile away. Our well is 650 deep and also a 1/4 mile away. I've got a 12kw propane generator to run the well pump and a half mile of buried water lines.
We're OK as long as we can get propane. My concern is, what are we going to do for water IF propane is no longer available? My well pump is 5 hp so the cost of setting up solar for it is prohibitive. Plus much of the winter we get very little sun making solar unreliable.
One option is to drill a new well close to the house and hope I dont have to go as deep, and can use a smaller pump. Then I can power it off my current solar system. I'm going to have a water witch come out this spring and check out the area by the house for a new well site.
 
Surface water is very close to me. A creek runs through our subdivision year round, and it is only a couple hundred yards from my front door. Significant amounts of surface water are not far.

I may have an ace in the hole, but I hope I never have to use it. Supposedly our house was built over a spring. We are really not sure, but we do have a sump pump and it does run when the water table is high. If we ever lost power for a significant amount of time I might have more water than I could have ever imagined.
 
To me there isn't anything much more important than water. Water is a major concern for me.
We live in a semi arid area with little to no rain during summer but a lot of snow in winter. We have several creeks that flow in the spring through about July 1st. We have a large spring fed pond that's lower in elevation than the house and over 1/4 mile away. Our well is 650 deep and also a 1/4 mile away. I've got a 12kw propane generator to run the well pump and a half mile of buried water lines.
We're OK as long as we can get propane. My concern is, what are we going to do for water IF propane is no longer available? My well pump is 5 hp so the cost of setting up solar for it is prohibitive. Plus much of the winter we get very little sun making solar unreliable.
One option is to drill a new well close to the house and hope I dont have to go as deep, and can use a smaller pump. Then I can power it off my current solar system. I'm going to have a water witch come out this spring and check out the area by the house for a new well site.
I want a solar generator with enough umph to run the well pump. We live in a river basin, but when in drought, the creeks run dry.
 
It's amazing how varied the water situation can be. I grew up 1/4 mile from Lake Erie - fresh water as far as the eye could see. Never worried about water living there. Now living in Utah where our water supply is 100% dependent on the annual snowfall its a completely different story. I've got about 1500 gallons on hand, but in this environment, that's just a short term supply. We don't get enough rain to grow the hardiest of crops, everything has to be irrigated to grow here...
 
I have always wondered why we as a country don't to more to manage our water. We have so much in some areas, and so little in others. It never made sense to me that we would pay flood relief money to one area while paying drought relief money in another. How many billions of gallons just flow into the ocean every day? Couldn't a small portion of that be piped to an area that needs it? Side Note: I know why we don't do it. There is no profit (money) in it.

Lamzeke, can you shed some light on this subject?
 
I have always wondered why we as a country don't to more to manage our water. We have so much in some areas, and so little in others. It never made sense to me that we would pay flood relief money to one area while paying drought relief money in another. How many billions of gallons just flow into the ocean every day? Couldn't a small portion of that be piped to an area that needs it? Side Note: I know why we don't do it. There is no profit (money) in it.

Lamzeke, can you shed some light on this subject?
I know here in N Tx we are always in danger of running out of water. More and more new people drilling wells, yet a few years ago during a drought a lot of wells went dry!
 
In Iowa, we've got water...but much of it is unsafe to drink. You may as well assume that all surface water here is contaminated by agricultural runoff, which means you can't just boil it to make it safe. We have very few springs in the central part of the state so that's out too, and you may have to drill to 700 feet to get large amounts of good water.

I am not sure what solutions there are for all that, but since the farm well crapped out and we put it on rural water service, I've been thinking about it...
 
I have always wondered why we as a country don't to more to manage our water. We have so much in some areas, and so little in others. It never made sense to me that we would pay flood relief money to one area while paying drought relief money in another. How many billions of gallons just flow into the ocean every day? Couldn't a small portion of that be piped to an area that needs it? Side Note: I know why we don't do it. There is no profit (money) in it.

Lamzeke, can you shed some light on this subject?
I happen to work for a company that makes about 1/2 of the water transmission pipe installed in the country. The costs of the projects that move a decent amount of water over a distance is mind-blowing to me. It's not just that there's no $ in it, but the costs are astronomical!
 
It was 4 degrees this morning, so I'm always concerned about frozen animal water. It is no fun lugging out water from the house. We keep 300 gallons of non frozen water just in the milkhouse alone for all the fowl, rabbits, and dogs. That being said, it's always good to have more water stored.
 
I have always wondered why we as a country don't to more to manage our water. We have so much in some areas, and so little in others. It never made sense to me that we would pay flood relief money to one area while paying drought relief money in another. How many billions of gallons just flow into the ocean every day? Couldn't a small portion of that be piped to an area that needs it? Side Note: I know why we don't do it. There is no profit (money) in it.

Lamzeke, can you shed some light on this subject?
Some idiots in California proposed to pipe water from the Columbia River to so California. Thank God that never went over.
If people continue moving to desert areas then they need to get used to dry conditions. I for one don't want to pay the taxes that it would take to move water across the country. I live in a dry area, by choice, why should tax payers in another part of the country pay to ship water here.
The real problem is there are too dam many people in this country.
 
There typically is a lot of water around here. Just take plenty of work to get it.
I want to get a well dug, but we also want to move to a more remote location around my retirement time (4 or so years) and hate to shell out that kind of money when we may well need it later
One option I have thought about it trying to do a shallow well on the back of our place. One area is always very wet all year except late summer/fall. I expect there is a shallow spring in that area. Even if it doesn't produce a lot of water, it should be enough to water our crops and maybe enough to drink.
 
A shallow well is easy to corrupt. Yard chemicals from from neighbors and airborne contaminants and animal problems can cause more than uncomfortable illness. You could wake up dead... :eek:
 
A shallow well is easy to corrupt. Yard chemicals from from neighbors and airborne contaminants and animal problems can cause more than uncomfortable illness. You could wake up dead... :eek:

We are fairly rural so airbone isn't a major factor. The area I plan in more or less the highest elevation around my local area, so run off isn't a concern either. If I do hit water, my plans for development would eliminate animal issues as well.

Roughly my plans, if I do have some water near the surface, would be to dig a good hole (maybe 10-20' deep), drop in a 3-4' diameter corrugated pipe and fill partially with small gravel and sand. The drop a small submursible pump onto the rock and tubing to pump over the top. Should be able to run that from solar at a low flow rate. Cover the entire thing to keep any animal and debris out.

It is nothing more than theory at this point. Finding decent water to make the labor and material cost worthwhile is top of the list.
 
Some idiots in California proposed to pipe water from the Columbia River to so California. Thank God that never went over.
If people continue moving to desert areas then they need to get used to dry conditions. I for one don't want to pay the taxes that it would take to move water across the country. I live in a dry area, by choice, why should tax payers in another part of the country pay to ship water here.
The real problem is there are too dam many people in this country.
I have a retired uncle who was an engineer for the water department in San Diego. He once told me that Colorado wouldn't let them have any water, as though that was MY problem. That had been decided around 1910, long before I was born.
I suggested to him that California was right beside a HUGE water source, the Pacific Ocean. Why not? Because desalinating water is expensive. I'm sure it is not cheap, but what option is?
 
I have a retired uncle who was an engineer for the water department in San Diego. He once told me that Colorado wouldn't let them have any water, as though that was MY problem. That had been decided around 1910, long before I was born.
I suggested to him that California was right beside a HUGE water source, the Pacific Ocean. Why not? Because desalinating water is expensive. I'm sure it is not cheap, but what option is?
Californians like to say that the economy runs through their state and their money pays for everybody else's government services. Maybe they should be paying other states for their water...
 
Californians like to say that the economy runs through their state and their money pays for everybody else's government services. Maybe they should be paying other states for their water...
California was seen as one of the most glorious places to live when I was a child. So many people moved their during the Great Depression, and I know several South Dakotans who moved there after graduating high school and college, and some when they lost the farm. When I was a kid, people would come back from California and visit, and it was like the best place on earth to live. Not any more. The large Victorian by me had 3 Californians buy it and each of them lasted about 3 years. 3500 square feet is a lot to keep heated and they have all since gone back to California, and each of them made at least $100, 000 for owning the house, but one person made about $1000 a week from owning the house.

I'm waiting for the state of California to fall into that vast water source to the west of them. That has been talked about for a few decades now.
 
California was seen as one of the most glorious places to live when I was a child. So many people moved their during the Great Depression, and I know several South Dakotans who moved there after graduating high school and college, and some when they lost the farm. When I was a kid, people would come back from California and visit, and it was like the best place on earth to live. Not any more. The large Victorian by me had 3 Californians buy it and each of them lasted about 3 years. 3500 square feet is a lot to keep heated and they have all since gone back to California, and each of them made at least $100, 000 for owning the house, but one person made about $1000 a week from owning the house.

I'm waiting for the state of California to fall into that vast water source to the west of them. That has been talked about for a few decades now.
Great reminder Weedy, it WAS great once! Hope it's not the precursor for America😟
 
I have a retired uncle who was an engineer for the water department in San Diego. He once told me that Colorado wouldn't let them have any water, as though that was MY problem. That had been decided around 1910, long before I was born.
I suggested to him that California was right beside a HUGE water source, the Pacific Ocean. Why not? Because desalinating water is expensive. I'm sure it is not cheap, but what option is?
About 20-ish years ago I took 2 cruises in the the Caribbean and most of the islands had water desalination plants. That was pretty much their only water source. If those low income islands can afford to desalinate the ocean water for their people and the tourists California can afford to build desalination plants for their cities. Most of their cities are near the ocean, let them make their own water. They should have done this 20 or 30 years ago.
 
About 20-ish years ago I took 2 cruises in the the Caribbean and most of the islands had water desalination plants. That was pretty much their only water source. If those low income islands can afford to desalinate the ocean water for their people and the tourists California can afford to build desalination plants for their cities. Most of their cities are near the ocean, let them make their own water. They should have done this 20 or 30 years ago.
I so agree with this. I have no idea what it takes to set this up or to maintain, but I think that after they were one of the darling states for a while, they thought they shouldn't have to do that.
My uncle was the engineer in San Diego, had a son who became an engineer and a lawyer, and for a while took over the position that his father had had. I had searched for cousin online a few months ago and found out that San Diego has started doing desalination. Cousin is involved with it. Searching for cousin is how I found it out.

https://www.sdcwa.org/your-water/local-water-supplies/seawater-desalination/
 
I so agree with this. I have no idea what it takes to set this up or to maintain, but I think that after they were one of the darling states for a while, they thought they shouldn't have to do that.
My uncle was the engineer in San Diego, had a son who became an engineer and a lawyer, and for a while took over the position that his father had had. I had searched for cousin online a few months ago and found out that San Diego has started doing desalination. Cousin is involved with it. Searching for cousin is how I found it out.

https://www.sdcwa.org/your-water/local-water-supplies/seawater-desalination/

It's about damn time.
 
Just another perspective, just for discussion. Many think Californians should pay way more for their water. Do folks understand that only 5% of our water is used for personal needs. The remaining 95% of water used is for farming and agriculture to feed the rest of the world. Maybe we should quadruple our fruit and vegetable prices to the other 49 states, so we can supplement our water costs?
 
Just another perspective, just for discussion. Many think Californians should pay way more for their water. Do folks understand that only 5% of our water is used for personal needs. The remaining 95% of water used is for farming and agriculture to feed the rest of the world. Maybe we should quadruple our fruit and vegetable prices to the other 49 states, so we can supplement our water costs?
I would say for irrigation purposes that probably should be a cost share type thing.
Any water coming from the mountains should not be allowed to flow to Mexico either as part of the current divide of water rights. If it comes from the states, it should stay in the states
 
Just another perspective, just for discussion. Many think Californians should pay way more for their water. Do folks understand that only 5% of our water is used for personal needs. The remaining 95% of water used is for farming and agriculture to feed the rest of the world. Maybe we should quadruple our fruit and vegetable prices to the other 49 states, so we can supplement our water costs?
Good point. California has lost lots of their agricultural land to development, hasn't it? The orange groves and other fruits that do not grow in all the states have gone to other countries, haven't they?
 
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Another tidbit of information. It takes one full gallon of water to produce just one almond?
My biggest gripe is in the Imperial County. 90% of the land is owned by foreign entities, mostly to grow hay for THEIR countries. Saudi Arabia is the biggest foreign entity down there. They love their race horses!
 
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