A Few Things You Should Know about Water Wells

by Pure Water Annie

If you get your water from a private water well, like it or not, you’re a water plant superintendent.

Most well pumps are of two types: jet pumps, which are used only on relatively shallow wells, and submersible pumps.

Since submersible pumps are most common, that’s what I’m going to concentrate on

A typical submersible pump is a long cylindrical shape that fits inside the well casing. The bottom half is made up of a sealed pump motor that is connected to the above-ground power source and controlled by electrical wires.

In modern installations, the well casing outside the home is connected to the plumbing system by a pipe that runs beneath the ground to the basement (if there is one).. This horizontal pipe joins the well pipe at a connector called apitless adapter. The function of the adapter is to permit access to the pump and well piping through the top of the well casing, while routing water from the pump into the plumbing system.

While submersible pumps are more efficient than jet pumps in delivering more water for the same size motor, pump or motor problems will necessitate pulling the unit from the well casing–a job that’s best left to a pro. However, submersibles are known for their reliability and often perform their role 20 to 25 years without servicing. Submersible pumps may also be used in shallow wells. However, silt, sand, algae and other contaminants can shorten the pump’s life.

No matter what kind of system you have, the components on the output side of all pumps are similar.

Pumps are not intended to run continuously, and they don’t start each time you open a tap or flush the toilet. In order to provide consistent water pressure at the fixtures, the pump first moves water to a storage tank. Inside a modern tank is an air bladder that becomes compressed as the water is pumped in. The air pressure in the tank is what moves the water through the household plumbing system.

When the pressure reaches a preset level, which can be anywhere from 40 to 60 psi, a switch stops the pump. As water is used in the home, pressure begins to decrease until, after a drop of about 20 psi, the switch turns on the pump and the cycle is repeated. You’ll find the pressure gauge mounted on the tank with wires leading to the switch that controls the pump.

The picture above is from a Popular Mechanics article on well pumps. You can see jet pump illustrations there as well.

Typical air pressure settings for well tanks are 30 to 50 or 40 to 60. What this means is that with a 30/50 setting, for example, the pump comes on to refill the tank when tank pressure drops to 30 psi, and the pump shuts off when the pressure in the tank reaches 50 psi.

In most cases, tank pressure is adjustable and can be controlled with the Pressure Switch in the picture.

If you’re installing a water treatment device such as a softener or backwashing filter, it always goes downstream of the well’s pressure tank. There are a few exceptions. Chemical feed pumps and venturi air injection devices, for example, are installed between the well and the pressure tank.

Although many wells produce excellent water which requires little if any treatment, most well water requires some modification. Some of the most common problems are iron, manganese, hardness, hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg odor), excessive sediment, low pH, and bacteria. Among the most commonly used treatment devices are ultraviolet lamps (bacteria and cysts), sediment filters (sand and other sediment), granular carbon (taste/odor/color improvement, hydrogen sulfide reduction), backwashing media filters (iron, manganese, excessive sediment), aeration, chlorination, hydrogen peroxide, ozonation (pretreatment for iron and sulfide reducing filters), and chemical feed pumps (to control bacteria, raise pH, pretreat for iron removal). These, of course, are only a few of the many devices that can be used to treat well water problems.

What You Need to Know About Your Well

First, every well owner should have a reasonably comprehensive water test to determine the nature of the water. Many problems, like hardness, odor, and iron, are apparent, but a high quality test is needed to confirm and quantify such issues. Two parts per million iron can be treated quite differently from 12 parts per million. And the most urgent problems of all, like bacteria or high levels of arsenic or pesticides, are not apparent but must be discovered by testing.

If you’re going to purchase treatment equipment, especially a backwashing filter or a water softener, for your well, you also need to know how many gallons per minute your well pump is capable of producing. Backwash runs require a sustained flow of several gallons per minute. For example, a typical residential-sized iron filter may require a ten minute backwash and a ten minute rinse at the rate of five to seven gallons per minute. If your well pump will produce only 4, the filter with become overloaded with iron and fail. You can’t rely on the GPM rating of the well pump. You need to know the actual gallons per minute that the well will put out.

Here’s a simple method to find out your well’s output capacity.

Determining the GPM Output of a Water Well

Turn off all taps and water-using appliances in the home.

Find an outdoor spigot in a place that will allow you to observe your well pump’s activity. You’ll need to know when the pump turns on and off. The output capacity of the spigot itself doesn’t matter.

Run water from the spigot until the pump comes on, then close the faucet and let the pump fill the tank and shut off.

With the tank now full, find a container, or multiple containers (e. g. 5-gallon buckets) that will allow you to measure the content of your well tank. Turn on the spigot and catch the water until the pump comes on.

When the pump comes on, immediately close the faucet and time the seconds it takes for the pump to turn off. (This means that the tank is full.)

Now you know the amount of water the tank holds and the number of seconds it takes to refill it. You can determine the well pump’s gallon-per-minute capacity by using the following formula:

Gallons collected, divided by seconds it took to refill the tank, multiplied by 60. (You multiply by sixty to convent the seconds to minutes, because your answer needs to be in gallons per minute.)

For example, if you collected 15 gallons and it took 75 seconds for your pump to refill the tank, your equation would look like this: (15/75)X60 = 12 GPM.

If you collected 18 gallons and it took 55 seconds for your pump to shut off, the formula would be: (18/55) X 60 = 19.6 GPM.

Pure Water Annie’s article was originally published in the Pure Water Occasional’s December 2011 issue.

Aeration Overview

Aeration is an effective chemical-free method of preparing water containing iron and hydrogen sulfide for filtration. Exposure to air “oxidizes” the contaminant to a filterable form (ferric iron or elemental sulfur), then an appropriate filter removes the contaminant from the water.

Closed tank aeration for residential treatment is available in several formats. The least expensive, though not necessarily the simplest, uses a small venturi that is installed in the water line itself in front of the well’s pressure tank. As water fills the tank, air is literally sucked into the water stream via the venturi. A small treatment tank where “oxidation” occurs follows the pressure tank. The water then goes to a free-standing filter for final filtration.

A much more aggressive treatment uses a small air compressor, or “air pump,” that injects air into a treatment tank. When water enters the tank it falls through a pocket of compressed air where rapid oxidation occurs. The water then passes on to a filter tank for final removal of the contaminant.

A Small Compressor Powers the “AerMax” System

Single tank units are the simplest form of aeration treatment. Single tank systems perform the aeration and filtration in a single tank. Water enters the tank, falls through a pocket of compressed air, then is filtered by the media contained in the lower 2/3 of the tank. Single tank units need no pump; they bring in air during the nightly regeneration performed automatically by the control unit.

More Information

Simple Venturi Systems and Parts

AerMax: Top Quality Compressor-Powered Aeration

Single Tank Aeration Units: Filtration and Aeration in One Convenient Vessel

Aeration Parts from Pure Water Products

How Aeration Works

Solar desalination could cut costs, provide solution for drought-stricken areas

Introductory Note:  The short piece below on an industrial-sized solar distillation product indicates that solar distillation is a “relatively new concept.” Not so. Solar distillation has been around for a long, long time.  Whether it can be made commercially attractive remains to be seen, but the concept, using free heat from the sun to perform the natural process of distillation to harvest fresh water from the sea, would seem pretty obvious.  –Hardly Waite. 

The spreading plague of antibacterial products

by Jim Hightower

Have you had your daily minimum requirement of triclosan today? How about your dosage of triclocarban?

Chances are you have, but don’t know it. These two are antimicrobial chemicals, which might sound like a good thing, except that they disrupt the human body’s normal regulatory processes. Animal studies show, for example, that these triclos can be linked to the scrambling of hormones in children, disruption of puberty and of the reproductive system, decreases in thyroid hormone levels that affect brain development, and other serious health problems.

Yet, corporations have slipped them into all sorts of consumer products, pushing them with a blitz of advertising that claim the antibacterial ingredients prevent the spread of infections. The two chemicals were originally meant for use by surgeons to cleanse their hands before operations, but that tiny application has now proliferated like a plague, constantly exposing practically everyone to small amounts here, there, and everywhere, adding up to dangerous mega-doses.

Triclosan and triclocarban were first mixed into soaps, but then – BOOM! – brand-name corporations went wild, putting these hormone disrupters into about 2,000 products, including toothpaste, mouthwashes, fabrics, and (most astonishingly) even into baby pacifiers! Today, use of the chemicals is so prevalent that they can be found in the urine of three-fourths of Americans. They also accumulate in groundwater and soil, so they saturate our environment and eventually ourselves – one study found them in the breast milk of 97 percent of women tested.

For decades, corporate lobbying and regulatory meekness let this chemical menace spread. But now the Food & Drug Administration is finally questioning the continued use of the two triclos. For more information and action, go to the Natural Resources Defense Council: www.nrdc.org.

Source: Jim Hightower’s Email Newsletter.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

World’s most pristine waters are polluted by US Navy human waste

by Cahal Milmo

Editor’s Note:  Most Americans have never heard of Diego Garcia except as a causal mention on a newscast about war. The island is the staging source for many of the bombs that the American military rains on countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.   The Independent article below accurately summarizes the arrogant disregard for humanity and the environment by both the American and British governments in the shameful history of the seizing of the island and the cruel  disregard for its rightful owners. The Pure Water Gazette has published a number of pieces on the subject.  One, an article sent to us years ago by its author who is a native of the region, is of particular interest. Please see Lindsey Colleen’s excellent plea for justice for the island’s deposed inhabitants on the Gazette’s old site.  The current piece is yet another indictment of the US military’s ongoing war on water. –Hardly Waite. 

The American military has poured hundreds of tonnes of human sewage and waste water into a protected coral lagoon on the British-owned base of Diego Garcia over three decades in breach of environmental rules, The Independent can reveal.

The Indian Ocean base on the Chagos Islands has been one of the world’s most isolated and controversial military installations since Britain forcibly removed hundreds of islanders in the early 1970s, abandoning them to destitution, to make way for US forces including nuclear submarines and bombers.

The British Government has repeatedly underlined its commitment to maintaining the pristine environment of the islands, which are known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and were four years ago declared the world’s largest marine reserve.

Despite these undertakings, it has emerged that US Navy vessels have been discharging waste water, including treated sewage, into the clear lagoon ever since a naval support station was established on Diego Garcia in the early 1980s.

According to scientific advisers, elevated levels of nutrients caused by the waste – which have resulted in nitrogen and phosphate readings up to four times higher than normal – may be damaging the coral.

Friday night, campaigners fighting for Chagossians to be allowed to return accused the British and US authorities of double standards by using the unspoilt character of the archipelago as a reason to prevent repopulation while themselves creating pollution.

Philippa Gregory, author and patron of the UK Chagos Support Association, said: “While the people who were born and bred on Chagos are not allowed to return to their island, the military base of Diego Garcia houses about 5,000 US servicemen and women and ancillary workers. It makes no sense to suggest that Chagossians cannot return because of pressure on the environment.”

The tiny atoll, also home to about 30 Royal Marines, is one of Washington’s most important strategic air and naval bases, used as a key staging post for US bombing raids against Saddam Hussein and the war in Afghanistan. The UK territory was also used for two CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights carrying terrorist suspects in 2002.

The discharge practice came to light last year but has only now become public after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) deposited a written statement in Parliament.

Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds wrote: “In April last year it came to our attention that the US vessels moored in the lagoon had been discharging waste water into the lagoon since the establishment of the naval support station there in the early 1980s.

“This waste water is treated sewage, and water left over from routine processes like cleaning and cooking.”

Mr Simmonds conceded that the waste was being pumped into the lagoon contrary to British “policy” and could be resulting in damage to the coral, which is protected under the intergovernmental Ramsar Convention on wetlands. It is not known how much waste has been discharged and how often, but a large vessel can generate several tonnes of watery waste and sewage per day, suggesting that hundreds of tonnes will have been discharged in the past 30 years.

Mr Simmonds said: “Our policy has consistently been that any form of discharge of these substances into the lagoon is prohibited because of clear scientific advice that it would be damaging to coral in the long term. That advice has not changed, and nor has our policy. UK scientists concluded that, based on available data, there were elevated levels of nutrients in the lagoon which could be damaging to coral.” The FCO said a study was under way to assess the health of the coral.

Britain insists it has “stringent environmental legislation” in place to protect Diego Garcia, which counts as British territory and is overseen by a Royal Navy commander known as the British Representative. But it is unclear whether it has taken any formal enforcement action against the US Navy.

When asked by The Independent whether US authorities had received any notice of breach of UK law or been prosecuted or fined, the FCO said: “Since identifying this issue in April last year, we have worked with our US partners to assess the scale of the problem and rapidly agree a comprehensive mitigation plan that is now well under way.”

Britain has repeatedly used the need to conserve the Chagos Islands  as a reason for denying longstanding calls by Chagossians to be allowed to return. A leaked diplomatic cable from 2010 revealed how British diplomats believed the creation of the marine reserve would ensure no “Man Fridays” arrived on the islands and “put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents”.

Source:  The Independent. 

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

 by Eve Andrews

“I consider myself a fairly water-conscious person,” says the average American, sipping on a venti iced coffee while dipping his toes in an Olympic-sized pool, spritzing himself with Evian. “I probably just use a few gallons a day,” he continues, stepping out of a 45-minute shower. “By the way — have I told you about my toilet that flushes automatically every 20 minutes, just to make sure it’s consistently pristine?”

Just kidding — it’s not quite that bad. But, according to a recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the average American consumes twice as much water as she thinks she does. Furthermore, we Americans are not quite sure which practices are the most water-intensive. As it turns out, the Olympic-sized pool isn’t the biggest concern — 70 percent of personal water use occurs within the home, according to a 2005 EPA study. And the biggest culprit under the roof? Toilet-flushing, accounting for 27 percent of all indoor water use.

Perhaps most troubling, Americans overwhelmingly believe that changing their habits, as opposed to improving the efficiency of their plumbing, is the most effective way to cut down on water consumption. Seventy-six percent of those surveyed said curtailment methods, such as flushing less frequently, are the best way to reduce water use. Only 10 percent chose more preventative measures, such as installing new toilets that use just 1.6 gallons per flush in lieu of old toilets that use five to six gallons.

The concept of “embodied water” — also known as virtual water, or the amount of water required to produce a certain quantity of food — was also relatively unknown to the study subjects. A pound of coffee, for example, has a water footprint of 2,264 gallons.

Study author Shahzeen Attari, an assistant professor at Indiana University, reminds us that, contrary to popular belief, we can’t count on the unlimited availability of freshwater. “Most Americans assume that water supply is both reliable and plentiful. However, research has shown that with climate change water supply will become more variable due to salinization of ground water and increased variability in precipitation.”

California’s certainly learning that the hard way right now.

To sum up: Water is involved in pretty much everything you do, and its supply is limited because the planet is being destroyed. Keep that in mind next time you’re in the bathroom.

Source: Grist

What Makes Water Tanks Collapse?

The Wikipedia defines implosion as follows:

Implosion is a process in which objects are destroyed by collapsing (or being squeezed in) on themselves. The opposite of explosion, implosion concentrates matter and energy. True implosion usually involves a difference between internal (lower) and external (higher) pressure, or inward and outward forces, that is so large that the structure collapses inward into itself. An example of implosion is a submarine being crushed from the outside by the hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water.

That’s what happened to the reverse osmosis tank pictured above.  The tank, which at 24″ X 57″, is larger than it appears in the picture, is an 80-gallon “fiberglass” reverse osmosis tank.  It imploded while in service in an office building in Ft. Worth, TX. The force of the implosion was so strong that the tank slammed against a wall and knocked a hole in the siding.

Familiar water treatment tanks, including  “mineral tanks” (the tanks that backwashing filters are made with), retention tanks, and well and reverse osmosis tanks, are usually called “fiberglass” tanks although they are actually composed of many plastic materials materials.  These are at risk of implosion.  That is because they are made to be very strong from the inside out so that they can withstand high water pressure, but they are not constructed to be strong from the outside in. Only minimal pressure caused by the development of a vacuum inside the tank can cause them to implode.

Fiberglass tank makers always exclude implosion from their warranties.  The tank above shows why.  Although the tank is large, it collapsed because of vacuum created by a small delivery pump.

Tank manufacturers also recommend installation with a vacuum breaker to prevent implosions. The tank in the picture was installed without a vacuum breaker. A vacuum breaker is a simple plumbing device that has a small plastic disk held in place by water pressure.  When the pressure goes away, the disk falls and allows air to enter the pipe, breaking the vacuum and preventing backflow due to siphoning and implosion cause by atmospheric pressure.

Vacuum Breaker