CD-ROM Aktief 1995 #3/CDA3.iso/survival/wells.zip/WELLS.004

Text File | 1994-05-21 | 9KB | 151 lines

Ground Water Wells for Under $100.00

      Many areas around the country have water within just a few
feet of the surface. For gardening and watering a lawn, ground water
is perfect as is. Water this shallow however usually isn't drinkable
without first being treated.
      One section of land we chose here in the Texas panhandle
bordered Canadian River. The water table is 6-15 feet below the
surface (depending on the time of year and how much rain we've had).
      When we moved onto the land, we didn't have any bills, but we
didn't have any money to spare either. Professional well drillers
wanted thousands of dollars, more than we had or cared to spend. It
took quite a bit of research and shopping, but we finally figured
out a simple way to put in our own well.
      I had a 1 1/2 inch earth auger welded onto the end of an eight
foot long piece of 1/4" water pipe. This let me add more sections
with couplers the deeper I dug. Using two pairs of Vise Grips, I
hand spun the auger through the loose sandy soil until I felt it
pass through a layer of clay. Pulling the auger back up, I could see
it was wet and that was as far as I needed to go.
      The materials you'll need besides the auger and pipe are:

1- sand point (farm and ranch supply should have one; it looks like
a pointed piece of pipe with a screen or other means of having many
holes all along the length of it.)
2 to 4- lengths of 4 foot long galvanized 1 1/2" pipes (as long as
necessary. Use of short pipes allows you to hammer in a length
without having to stand on top of the house).
2 to 4- 1&1/2" couplers
1- can of pipe dope
1- pitcher pump, 12 volt DC pump, or any other type of hand pump
1- pipe cap (get a special hammering cap if possible that bottoms
out)

      After drilling the hole, screw the sand point onto a length of
pipe, using plenty of pipe dope to seal the threads. Tighten well
with monkey wrenches. Special couplers are available that allow the
pipes to bottom out on each other inside the coupler. If you can
find these, get them, but if its anything like around here, they're
next to impossible to find (most well drilling companies don't even
know what a sand point is, let alone know about the couplers).
      Screw the cap on the top of the pipe (without pipe dope) and
start hammering the sand point into the hole with a sledge hammer.
You can use pieces of wood on the top of the pipe if necessary. Wood
will split quickly, but you must protect the pipe threads or else
you won't be able to add more lengths or a pump when you're done. If
the hole you drilled is the same size as the pipe, it should go in
without too much trouble. When the pipe is all in except for about
a foot, add on another 4 foot section and dope and tighten the
threads on it too to make a water tight seal. Sealing the pipes
isn't for keeping water from leaking out, its to keep air from
getting in. If air gets past the couplers, your pump won't be able
to suck out the water.
      Once you have the sand point in where you think it should be
hitting water, use the pitcher pump or electric pump to see if you
can get water to come out. The pitcher pump is handy since you can
screw it on and off quickly, and it will pull the water out quickly.
One way to check it out is to tie a weight to the end of a string
and lower it into the pipe. Once it hits bottom, lift it back out
and see if its wet. You'll want the sand point to be at least a
couple feet under the water level.
      Most hand and electric pumps will pull water up from 20 feet
below the surface. Anything deeper than that and you'll need to use
a pump similar to the pitcher pump but with the suction boot on a
long rod that runs down into the pipe of the well (like a windmill).
I don't believe in city electricity, so I won't bother discussing
submersible pumps. If a person is wanting all that, then they'll
probably be going with a high dollar deep well and aren't interested
in economical ground systems.

      (Side note: During Spring storms, the power lines in our area
get hit and everyone on city electricity is left without heating,
lighting, and water. One morning after such a storm, the kids on the
school bus were all complaining about having to get dressed in the
dark and not being able to brush their teeth or anything before
school. They then looked over at my daughter, freshly bathed and
wearing clothes that matched, and said something like "That's not
fair, Cecilia's family is on battery power". That was the day my
daughter first decided our "backward ways" weren't so bad after all.
City electricity is OK, but not something that can be relied on.)

      Once your pump is sucking water out, you'll probably have to
pump out a few hundred gallons before the water clears. The well
will suck out all the loose silt and sand from around the sand point
along with the water. Once everything clears, you'll have a very
good supply of water. Before using any of the water, chlorinate the
well by either pouring a couple gallons of bleach down it, or mix up
a couple gallons of water mixed with a few tablespoon fulls of
dissolved chlorine granules. This should kill durn near everything
inside the pipes.
      I've used gasoline powered pumps on my wells and they put out
as much as 60 gallons a minute. A high flow like this may
temporarily run your well dry until the water can seep back into the
area surrounding the sand point. The more often you use the well,
the more silt will be pumped out, and the longer you can run high
output pumps like this. One solution is to tie 2 or 3 ground wells
together at the top and pump out from one pipe connected to all the
others.
      For a remote area, the pitcher pump is fine for a few gallons
at a time. For a more permanent supply though, I like using small 12
volt DC water pumps. They pull good, and although they only put out
around 5-10 gallons a minute, they're quiet and when run on solar
panels, they're cheap energy.
      The system I used for my family consisted of one 8 foot deep
well with a high output 12vDC pump running through a sand filter.
Using several clean 55 gallon drums, I'd fill one drum a day and
chlorinate it. Using common swimming pool granualized chlorine
treatment, one bottle lasted several months (about half a tablespoon
of chlorine per 55 gallons for 'shocking'). From the drums to the
house I cleaned it a little more with a charcoal filter. The water
now going into the house was clean, smelt good, and was plenty good
for bathing and washing. Using 55 gallons a day, this chore took
about ten minutes a day, or I'd wait a few days and do 3 or 4 drums
at a time.
      Ground water is most likely going to be high in bacteria from
root rot, nearby septic systems, and all, and is unfit for drinking
without being treated. In a situation like this, simply take a few
gallons straight from the well, filter it through a sand filter, and
then boil or distill it. I guess you could chlorinate it if you
wanted, but I'm not one to promote putting more chemicals into our
bodies than necessary.
      People in the city use an average of about 200 gallons of
water each per day. You can do just fine on 20 gallons. Using a
water miser shower head, small toilets, and turning off the water
while washing your hands or whatever, will cut your consumption down
to practically nothing. The old timers talk about how on their
birthday their mothers would treat them to a full bathtub of water
(they had to carry water into the house by hand back then). When I
was working at an aircraft plant, we had some immigrants working
there that would turn off the water while soaping their hands, and
keep it off until they were ready to rinse. I didn't understand why
until I found myself doing it in the country. The habit stays with
you even if you move back to town.
      If it weren't for toilets, you wouldn't need more than 5
gallons a day maximum. Men can and will use less water than a woman.
When planning on setting up a ground well system, figure about 20
gallons per day per man and at le