Any ideas how to devolpe a Natural Spring...

[blueriver]

When I purchased this property they showed me where the owner (deceased) had started to devople a natural spring.

With the current heat and drought I thought I should go inspect it more ...

There appears to be a 4" PVC pipe dumping into a 1000 gallon septic tank ...

The other end looks as though it was dug into the bank ...

Even in these drought conditions the tank is half full of water and the creek bed has standing water trying to make its way to my pond ... over 500' total ... the water only makes it about 100' before it disappears.

One would think there would be a way to get this spring really flowing and the water to make it to my pond ... it does make it other years when we are not so dry.

Or could it just be that under these conditions that just the way it will be?

 

[lhfarm]

Here is a link to an old thread - http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/124864-freshwater-spring-development.html There is a link there to a nice article on spring development.

I would love to find a good spring on our property. There are a couple nearby. Let us know how things work out.

 

[Egon]

The flow rate and amount will depend on the geology of your area and the source and extent of the spring water aquifer.

Without that type of information proper answeres are hard to come by.

 

[jbooth]

We recently cleared some trees on an area that has a natural spring. This increase the spring flow tremendously. I had read where red cedar trees could wick as much as 30 gallons of water a day. I have no reason to doubt that the trees do use large volumes of water. I expect during dry times the amounts of tree water usage goes higher. We only cleared the willows, cottonwoods, osage orange, thorny locust, and left the walnut trees. I expect you could increase the flow on a spring if the "waste" trees were cleared.

Edit: Just tried to find the source of water consumption of trees. Did not find my original source but did find another that suggested some trees used as much as 800 gallons a day each, if water was avaialable. If not available the tree sort of "shuts down", hence the narrow growth rings. I like trees and springs too, but maybe could hit a happy medium.

 

[Danno1]

If not available the tree sort of "shuts down", hence the narrow growth rings. I like trees and springs too, but maybe could hit a happy medium.

Narrow rings means a slower growing tree. But it also means superior lumber from that tree.



.

 

[magicheater]

Narrow rings means a slower growing tree. But it also means superior lumber from that tree.

The rings also indicate the rainfall for the year which along with the temperature for that year can influence the growth rate, hence wider or narrower rings. Are they any species you know of that are naturally slow growing?

 

[blueriver]

The flow rate and amount will depend on the geology of your area and the source and extent of the spring water aquifer.

Without that type of information proper answeres are hard to come by.

That is correct ... 1/4 mile from me a neighbor springs. Even in the drought conditions his is running alot of water.

He dug down and placed a 5' diameter tin horn 4 ft in the ground ... I went over yesterday and darn that thing is flowing big time ... filling his pond and the pond is overflowing.

 

[blueriver]

Here is a link to an old thread - http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/124864-freshwater-spring-development.html There is a link there to a nice article on spring development.

I would love to find a good spring on our property. There are a couple nearby. Let us know how things work out.

Thanks for the link ... I have managed to get in there with the small tractor .. I have moved alot of silt and mud.

The PVC line was not where I believed it to be it had made a 90 degree turn, I followed that and found a lot of pvc at different angles and it appears the prior owner had dug this out years ago... a large area with 1-1 1/2 inch rock.

I have water flowing out of the pipe ... I still need to go further to find the end of that pipe. I believe that is where the head of the spring is.

Now the problem is MUD ... loss of traction and lack of room to manuver. At least the water is flowing.

 

[J_J]

Have you contacted some of those stick/wire users that can find PVC, just by walking over it? They claim they can do it.

 

[blueriver]

Have you contacted some of those stick/wire users that can find PVC, just by walking over it? They claim they can do it.

No I sure have not ... The maze of pvc runs all over the place. The pieces I am digging out with the FEL have saw curfs on the bottom side all layed out on top of the rock bed. The main line keeps going and about every 3 feet is a Tee with more PVC running out ot that ... I am convinced if I keep following that line (whick I believe will be the head) Thats where I plan to make the attack digging down about 5' then placeing the tin horn in standing up.

I'm thinking once thats done and I start moving water the flow will get better.

I have willow trees that have uprooted that also need to be moved.

I'll shoot some pictures today.

 

[MotorSeven]

What's a tin horn?

I just completed a spring that a P/O had messed up. It was flowing out of some vertical limestone fissures so he built a block wall "tank" around it. All this did was cause it to blow out underneath. We dug it out with a backhoe and found where it was bubbling up vertically out of the rock. A local concrete place had some cull 4' in daimeter by 2' high concrete rings 4" thick. These things stack on each other, so we stacked 3 for a 6' tall tank, then backfilled around it with clay. The spring water came up inside about 2.5' before leaking thru the first joint. A overflow was drilled there to let the water flow on thru. I set a Harbor Freight $70 pump w/tank on a shelf inside the top ring, then built a insulated tin roof.
So far it is working fine, but anytime to attempt to "capture" a spring you need to only capture part of the flow. If you grab it all it usually finds a way around or under to escape. If you can clean it out and stick a 2-3" pipe with screen on the end into where the flow is exiting that usually lets enough escape around the pipe to let it continue to flow.
I did our own drinking water spring with a pipe jammed into a vertical fissure. I built a small dam around the pipe with hydraulic cement to back the flow up enough to flow down the pipe into a 55gal pickle barrel. Excess water will just flow over the low 4" dam & it has worked now for over 4 years. That flow is only a pencil width in size but always continuous. A tap at the bottom of the barrel with a short hose on it allows me to fill 5-6 5gal jugs at a time without running the barrel empty. A overflow pipe at the top of the barrel keeps water moving thru it so it does not stagnate.

 

[blueriver]

What's a tin horn?

I just completed a spring that a P/O had messed up. It was flowing out of some vertical limestone fissures so he built a block wall "tank" around it. All this did was cause it to blow out underneath. We dug it out with a backhoe and found where it was bubbling up vertically out of the rock. A local concrete place had some cull 4' in daimeter by 2' high concrete rings 4" thick. These things stack on each other, so we stacked 3 for a 6' tall tank, then backfilled around it with clay. The spring water came up inside about 2.5' before leaking thru the first joint. A overflow was drilled there to let the water flow on thru. I set a Harbor Freight $70 pump w/tank on a shelf inside the top ring, then built a insulated tin roof.
So far it is working fine, but anytime to attempt to "capture" a spring you need to only capture part of the flow. If you grab it all it usually finds a way around or under to escape. If you can clean it out and stick a 2-3" pipe with screen on the end into where the flow is exiting that usually lets enough escape around the pipe to let it continue to flow.
I did our own drinking water spring with a pipe jammed into a vertical fissure. I built a small dam around the pipe with hydraulic cement to back the flow up enough to flow down the pipe into a 55gal pickle barrel. Excess water will just flow over the low 4" dam & it has worked now for over 4 years. That flow is only a pencil width in size but always continuous. A tap at the bottom of the barrel with a short hose on it allows me to fill 5-6 5gal jugs at a time without running the barrel empty. A overflow pipe at the top of the barrel keeps water moving thru it so it does not stagnate.

A tin horn is another name for a culvert ... I want to use that the same way you used the concrete.

 

[MotorSeven]

We call them "Tiles" here.

 

[bcp]

What's a tin horn?

Tin Horn Culverts

 

[jinman]

My experience with springs is that sometimes digging them out will improve the flow and sometimes it tends to seal them off. Water flowing to a spring will normally come to the surface through rock formations and may contain a lot of sand that has been brought to the surface by the water. In most instances, digging out the source to the main supply will increase the flow, but sometimes shifting the ground causes the opening to seal off and hydrostatic pressure goes to another opening. Sealing off one area can easily cause another area to increase its flow. You just never know. If the spring is on a slope, digging downhill from the opening can be a good thing. However, if you overshoot the opening on the uphill side, your digging can pull dirt/silt into the opening and seal it off. I would carefully dig and probe until the spring's source is located. From your description of the PVC pipe, it seems the previous owner did a lot of "chasing" the source and trying to direct its flow. I think a backhoe is the best tool to dig. I'd use the tractor and FEL to haul away/spread what the backhoe digs out.

 

[blueriver]

My experience with springs is that sometimes digging them out will improve the flow and sometimes it tends to seal them off. Water flowing to a spring will normally come to the surface through rock formations and may contain a lot of sand that has been brought to the surface by the water. In most instances, digging out the source to the main supply will increase the flow, but sometimes shifting the ground causes the opening to seal off and hydrostatic pressure goes to another opening. Sealing off one area can easily cause another area to increase its flow. You just never know. If the spring is on a slope, digging downhill from the opening can be a good thing. However, if you overshoot the opening on the uphill side, your digging can pull dirt/silt into the opening and seal it off. I would carefully dig and probe until the spring's source is located. From your description of the PVC pipe, it seems the previous owner did a lot of "chasing" the source and trying to direct its flow. I think a backhoe is the best tool to dig. I'd use the tractor and FEL to haul away/spread what the backhoe digs out.

Thanks Jim ... all good points. I have been "scraping" the surface a little at a time just removing the top layer inch by inch. I called the BIL of the fellow that had done this ... he said it had been 20 years ago that they worked on it. The head of the spring is at the end of the PVC and at that time they had dug out a large area filled it with the small rocks and laced the top with the PVC covered that with the small rocks ... so when I get the Backhoe in here ... I hope to accomplish my goal !!

 

[blueriver]

It appears to have slowed down .... I quess I just need to keep opening it up and keep moving dirt.

I quess in the drought conditions I should be glad that anything is flowing.

 

[bindian]

When I purchased this property they showed me where the owner (deceased) had started to devople a natural spring.

With the current heat and drought I thought I should go inspect it more ...

There appears to be a 4" PVC pipe dumping into a 1000 gallon septic tank ...

The other end looks as though it was dug into the bank ...

Even in these drought conditions the tank is half full of water and the creek bed has standing water trying to make its way to my pond ... over 500' total ... the water only makes it about 100' before it disappears.

One would think there would be a way to get this spring really flowing and the water to make it to my pond ... it does make it other years when we are not so dry.

Or could it just be that under these conditions that just the way it will be?

Here is a link on developing natural springs. It shows how to do it also.
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Water From the Hills_Prehn Method.pdf
hugs, Brandi

 

[blueriver]

Thank you, thats a good article.

 

[bindian]

Thank you, thats a good article.

Blueriver,
I have to agree.:thumbsup: When I found it, I saved it to a file. I plan on trying it on my Hill Country retirement property. After I find and buy it.
hugs, Brandi