s cesnick

I live on top of a mountian and I drilled a well 5 years ago when I built my house. I have a VERY high Iron content that my wife is sick of. I also have a very nice creek that originates just off my property in a state forest. I want to use this creek water for home use and once it gets to my house I will be running it through the whole house filtering system i already have. This water is in no way contaminated and the small town that is 4 miles down stream used this water for years as household water that ran into their resevior.

I was thinking of building a small dam up stream on my property line and piping water to a buried septic tank ( new of course. lol ) that would be about 300 ft. down stream. allowing for the overflow to run back into the stream. Then putting a pump inside the tank and piping that water up to the house and tying that into my home filter system that is already in place to eliminate contaminates ( hopefully)

any thoughts, ideas, comments on how you would do this any differently????

edwinsmith

Use a good filter. Preferably one that takes out all particulates and germs. A good solid carbon block filter is best because it gets the disolved VOC's also which are very poisonous. Some places have a problem with trichlorethelene in the water which is a carcinogen. The carbon block filter gets it out along with flouride.

I used to live on a farm and we had a big cistern in the yard that collected rainwater from the roof. We used it straight with no filtering and had no problems at all. It was great for washing since it had no minerals or anything in it.

Edwin

bigfoot

As a water treatment plant operator I do not recommend that you do this unless you study up on just what it takes to remove contaminates. Don’t take this badly but most people don’t have a clue as to what is in the water before or after treatment.
You must make sure that the filter you will be using will remove all contaminates that are in the water you plan to use. Also it would be best if you install some type of meter so that you will know when the filter is in need of changing, filters are only good for X gallons.
You are talking about using spring water after the water has surfaced, this will mean that in order to assure the water is safe you will need to disinfect it some how.
Once the water has reached the surface it is open to contamination, this could be anything from animal poop to run off from a chemical dumpsite.
Don’t let this discourage you because it can be done, I just don’t think it will be as easy as you first thought.
The one thing that I can not stress enough is that there is no safe water without treatment.
If I can help you with this project please feel free to PM me and I will give you my #.

electrifried

Put a finger system under the creek piped to the tank (think septic system in reverse). a sand bed above the fingers will prefilter the water. No damming of the creek to arise suspicion. floaters and excess water will run on downstream.......

s cesnick

Thanks for the advice guys. Maybe a bit more backround about my situation is needed.
I live on top of a mountain and my nearest nighbor is 3 miles away. I am totally surround by a state widlife preserve. This water source originates on my property and i have had it tested and is very clean. That does not mean a sick deer or something will not ever drop dead in the water upstream of my small dam. I will then have some issues for sure. That is what I am trying to avoid. I am also looking for some technical thoughts on how to do this correctly..

Timmay2

Id suggest of course do OFTEN testing of the filtered water from a spout in your home.. It can be done... but if youre concerned that much over drinking water, then why not just get a few 5 gallon jugs and a water cooler and fill her up $1 at a time at the store?

Just wondering how much $$ youd have to toss at it to capture the water, pump it, and filter it to safe standards.. and regular filter changes.. vs. how much itd cost to just refill jugs.

s cesnick

Well, I live way back in the middle of no where and heading to the store is not practical for just a jug of water. I have about $4,000 wrapped up in water filtering systems already. I could drill another well but that would not guarantee good water.
This way, I know for a fact that I will have good water and i will most likely have right around $1,000 in the whole project...

shortround

One thing to look at, BEFORE you decide to dam the creek, is if the stream flows into a major waterway, the Corps of Engineers gets involved.
My brother in law dammed a small creek behind his place and formed a nice 3 acre lake. The creek flowed into another larger creek which flowed into the river. He had to cut the dam or face some serious fines. Best check with the COE first.
Another thought would be to divert some of the water into a small "pond" that you use. Just keep enough water flowing through it to keep it from getting stagnant.

Redleg

Is there a soft or sandy area you could put in a stap well close to the creek? My place had an 1 1/4 stab well on ly 14 ft deep. Stream right out back. Had the benefit of soft water, but all sand right around me so I get good filtration. I ended up putting a 2" down about 25 ft to get more flow, since adding on to the place. If you go off the surface, like they warn, don't be chincy on filtration. Ever go chaseing brook trout and see the stuff left on logs over the water by the wildlife? Skeletons in the creek once in a while too.

BearKiller

I have developed several natural springs, over the years, and tapped natural water sources in various ways.

The under-the-sand idea is probably the best for your situation.

Unless there is no other way, due to elevation "fall" requirements, I recommend against a completely buried septic-tank as a reservoir.

Better is a partially buried flat-bottom CONCRETE tank, or better yet, an old STAINLESS milk cooler from a dairy.

Incorporate an overflow that is carried away via pipe, then back to the stream.

If you can get gravity flow into the house, then you can have water free, even when there is no power.

Instead of damming, dig "post-holes" in the center of the stream, with piping from their bottoms leading to your reservoir.

The pipe in the postholes is capped, with about a million 1/16" holes drilled all over them.

Fill around them with #8 limestone or cleaned coarse sand.

I have even seen submersible pumps incorporated into pipe that has been "post-holed" into the bottom of a stream, that function the same as if they were at the bottom of a thousand-foot well.

There are several Amish and Menonite homes around here that have gravity flow into the houses/barns, with one, or more, faucets left open at all times, effectively letting the creek run right through the plumbing.

Box5

my neighbor collects water from the mountain behind us, he has piping run from way up it, lol. We have a well so it's only like $8 a month for however much water we use. The forest service knows he's doing it, but he's freinds with somebody who lets him do it. I'm glad we moved to the county, so many less restriction than where I grew up in the city.

Clunk

Open stream water can fix you up with Cryptosperidium & Giardia which come from deer "by-products". The reverse-osmosis filteration systems are "supposed" take care of that if properly maintained. Carbon filters won't even slow them down unless they happen to get trapped but they can dislodge on pressure and flow changes.
You can make alot of coffee with a 5 gallon container of bottled or filled from a city water tap water, which is certified lab tested for disease causing organisms. For multiple 5 gal. jugs, pour in 1 teaspoon of household bleach and it'll store a week in a dark place.
Don't take a chance on spoiling your mountaintop bit of heaven by getting serously sick from drinking untreated water.

s cesnick

I hear that ! I would not even think of using it without some serious filtration. I am going to run this water through my whole house filter i already have which consists of a chem injection of chlorine and then a Pyrolox media tank ( that takes the chlorine back out of the water along with other inpurities) then a UV filter to sanitize the whole thing...

Clunk

Chlorine doesn't affect giardia cysts (seed like form looking for a warm intestine to "sprout", but it is very effective against most other pathogenic organisms.
Your Ultra Violet sanitizer is an ultra violet light, has been shown to work given enough time.
Your filter needs to filter 1 micron or less absolute.
Here's some interesting info:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasi...htm#prevention

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasi...is/default.htm

woodrat

You shouldn't need to dam up the creek, just a small earthen or wooden impoundment off to the side somewhere with your piping in it should do. I have been drinking surface water for about 12 years. When I lived in CA, we had a plentiful spring and we used an earth and wooden impoundment with poly pipe leading out of it. we had a screen over the intake and then we ran the water through two settling "filters". These were plastic 55 gallon drums with clean river gravel in the bottoms. The water would enter the drum about half way up, and the outflow would be near the top of the drum. This let any silt settle out before the water hit the store bought filters. After the settling filters was an israeli made "poker chip" filter that would take out the remaining silt, then at the house we had a multi-pure drinking water filter. The MP filter is rated for giardia cysts, if I remember correctly.

at this house, I have a shallow hand-dug-by-old-timers "well" - really a springbox, about 10 feet deep and we just pump right out of there. The area that the well is in is fenced off against livestock or deer. We have used the MP here too, but when i redid the kitchen counter and sink area, the filter didn't fit the new plumbing right and I haven't gotten around to redoing it yet. Our biggest bummer here is the occasional mouse that falls in and drowns in the well.... yuk!

I would never put Cl in the water here, it tastes so good and Cl just makes it nasty.