Need some advice on collecting/filtering water from spring

Hi all! I’ve been reading a bunch of past posts on here and am very impressed by all of the knowledge! I’m a total novice so please be patient with me!

I have 10 acres of forestland with a year round underground spring and I’m trying to collect water from it into a 3000 gallon tank. I’ve built a dam around the spring and drilled a hole about two inches below the water surface area and installed a pipe there. The water comes out at a pretty decent clip and the water level stays constant. I got the water tested and it looks great (no nitrate, arsenic, or iron. No E. coli. Total coliform is 199).

The spring is about 400 ft up the hill from the tank and the drop is about 36 ft, so I’m not looking at a lot of PSI. I don’t know how many gpm is coming from there. I plan on putting in two sediment drop tanks (using water barrels with covers). And just gravity feeding the large tank. I’m looking at pumps to come from the storage tank to my outputs (one for shower, one for kitchen, one for garden). I have a small off grid power system and don’t want to run electric up to the spring, but there is power available at the tank, though I would like it to be as low energy usage as possible.

I would love general remarks on what I’m doing. And I am wondering how I can filter the water to get out the coliform. I have a berkey filter for drinking water, so I need water suitable for cooking, showering, washing dishes, watering my garden. Are there filters that I should be putting on my sediment tanks?

Again I’m just learning so I appreciate any advice!

Thanks

Robin Blair wrote:Hi all! I’ve been reading a bunch of past posts on here and am very impressed by all of the knowledge! I’m a total novice so please be patient with me!

I have 10 acres of forestland with a year round underground spring and I’m trying to collect water from it into a 3000 gallon tank. I’ve built a dam around the spring and drilled a hole about two inches below the water surface area and installed a pipe there. The water comes out at a pretty decent clip and the water level stays constant. I got the water tested and it looks great (no nitrate, arsenic, or iron. No E. coli. Total coliform is 199).

The spring is about 400 ft up the hill from the tank and the drop is about 36 ft, so I’m not looking at a lot of PSI. I don’t know how many gpm is coming from there. I plan on putting in two sediment drop tanks (using water barrels with covers). And just gravity feeding the large tank. I’m looking at pumps to come from the storage tank to my outputs (one for shower, one for kitchen, one for garden). I have a small off grid power system and don’t want to run electric up to the spring, but there is power available at the tank, though I would like it to be as low energy usage as possible.

I would love general remarks on what I’m doing. And I am wondering how I can filter the water to get out the coliform. I have a berkey filter for drinking water, so I need water suitable for cooking, showering, washing dishes, watering my garden. Are there filters that I should be putting on my sediment tanks?

Again I’m just learning so I appreciate any advice!

Thanks

I’ve built a dam around the spring and drilled a hole about two inches below the water surface area and installed a pipe there.

Years back my parents had flooding issues from a culvert that ran downhill near their property and kept flooding the basement through the garage door (as much as 5 feet of water).
My dad wanted to dam up that culvert but he was told by the Army Corps of Engineers it is against Federal Law to make a dam without permission.
BUT you can divert the water flow within reason. And that is what he did.
Diverted the water via a small concrete wall along the driveway. Next flooding rain that happened, it shot all that water out into the street!
Stopped traffic for about 1/4 mile too.
The City came out and fix their storm drain (they refused to with several complaints in the past). So no more water in the basement and without breaking the law!


About coliforms - ever try using Rid X septic tank bacteria?

https://www.filterwater.com/t-coliform-bacteria.aspx

Look up designs of spring collection systems and try to emulate those and close off the collection system from atmospheric contact as much as possible.  Also fence off the collection are to prevent animal entry into the collection system and any other possible entry points in the system. There are already bacteria in most shallow groundwater sources and coliform is just a present/absent indicator analysis.  The lab cultures your sample and counts colonies that form over an incubation period.   The analysis does not identify the species present, but generally indicate the possible presence of bacterial pathogens. Filtration will not remove bacteria (or viruses), unless you are referring to microfiltration (reverse osmosis).  It sounds like you may need a disinfection system such as UV (requires power) or chlorination (chemical oxidant) addition which can be done with a small 12 volt feed pump or pellet drop into your tank. Try consulting your county sanitarian, some are knowledgeable about drinking water disinfection systems.  You could also consult your state public drinking water system inspectors, they deal with larger public supply systems, but may be willing to help.  They do actually work for you the taxpayer.