What type of water pump for my spring?

[r1013]

Hello,

We get our water from a Spring. It bubbles up out of the ground and runs down a 20 foot trench into a holding tank.

The problem is that we haven't had ran is 3-4 months so the spring is getting lower and lower every week. If it doesnt rain soon, it looks like we might be out of water in another week or so.

We have lived here five years and last year was the first year this happen. There was no rain all summer and we ran out of water for a week at the end of the summer. Taking baths with jugs of water from Wal-mart is no fun at all. This year its almost June and we haven't had rain in three months already! Sooo it's not looking good this year here in Tennessee.

What we do have is a creek that runs through the yard. I have never see it dry up. It just slows down a little during these times. I thought about digging a trench to run the water by our spring. I don't like this idea since it will mess up the the yard.

What I was thinking of doing was getting some type of pump and putting it in one of the deep holes of the creek. Then run a piece of tubing the approx. 50 feet to the trench of the holding tank. I could keep the pump in my shed and run it on occasion as I needed to fill up our holding tank during times of no rain like this. I'm not really sure what type of pump to buy. Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Matt

[CarolAnn]

First of all, there is a ram pump that is a system of check valves in a pipe. The force of the running water forces the valve up to let in a little water, then it drops back closed until the water overcomes gravity again and forces it back up with another drab of water. They're noisy, as you can imagine, with the valves opening and closing.

Next, can you dig, or do you have a pool in the creek that will be a reservoir to pump from? There is something called a digger dam that might help with that. When the water flow is blocked with only a narrow point of flow left, the force of the water digs below the dam and creates it's own small pond.

You can get an inexpensive pump at many places. It's run with any small gas engine and will lift water about 15-25 feet. My dad often used a set up like this to fill barrels in the back of his pickup from a spring when his Arkansas well dried up each summer. He used a very small Briggs and Stratton engine from an old lawn mower to power the pump, and it was hooked up to the pump with a v-belt.

This is a link to Harbor Freight. Check out the "dirty water submersible pump for about $60. If you're using creek water in the house, you'll want to do some sort of purification / filtration!

http://tinyurl.com/2795ed

[DM]

I'd want to know what's up stream in the creek that i'm pumping into my nice clean spring water...

DM

[r1013]

After more research I discovered some decent Flotec pumps that would work nicely. The one I decided on was at Home Depot for 60ish. It was a 1/6HP Thermoplastic Utility Pump FP0S1250X. It pumps 1050 GPH @ five feet, which is how far I need to pull the water up and then another 50 feet or so to the spring. It runs like a garden hose on medium. I took a 5 gallon bucket and drilled lots of holes around it except the last three inches or so. I put a piece of a broke cement block about two inches thick in the bottom to keep the pump out of any mud that may come in. The cement also makes it heavy and keeps it in place to. I tied a rope around it and lowered it into the creek. It ran an hour to an hour and a half before the hole was almost pumped dry. I took it out and within an hour it appeared to be filled back up again. After cleaning up the flow of the creek a little more I can pretty much pump from the hole continuously without it running dry.

As far as whats up stream... The creek originates from a pond about 500 yards away. The people who live there have a well which they get water from. It then passes by one neighbor who gets all of his water from it. Then it passes through 350' feet of my front yard. There are snakes, turtles, frogs, raccoons, deer... you name it! that drink or live in it. The water goes through two filters and looks clear as drinking water by the time it comes out in the house. I still wont drink it since even the spring is exposed to animals. We only use it to bath in. Its a pain but we buy seven gallon jugs from Walmart each week.

Ohh.. If any of you want a pump for a similar situation, I did seen a few on eBay this past week that said they were new. The bids ended from 13 to 28 dollars. These pumps were even better models than I have. They sale new for around 100 - 150 dollars. I would have bid on them but I needed the pump now since our spring was just about gone. Plus if it dies I can take it back to Home Depot.

Matt (r1013)