Spring Overflow Pipe

I own a property with a dug well that has high sulfur content. Just off the corner of this property I have deeded rights to a spring. I have not done enough exploring to really pinpoint this spring but I know that whole area is fairly soggy through the summer. In the spring there is a ditch just below it that flows like a small waterfall down to the brook. In the summer this ditch is dry but the area by the spring never dries up I am unsure if there is a defined point or if its more of a seepage spring. In the springtime I plan to investigate more. I would like to tap it and measure flow rate through the year to see if it is worth pursuing farther, also get the water tested for contaminates. By the wording of the deed I believe this spring was likely developed at some point in history (probably late 1800s, no signs of this remain that I have found though) I have been looking into general best practices of how to "develop a spring" This happens to be uphil from anything I would want to feed with it which is advantageous. My main question right now is the overflow pipe. I cant seem to find an answer. I have attached a picture of a basic spring plan. I have looked at many pictures but they all are basically this same design. The overflow pipe always just appears to be a pipe from the top of the tank leading to daylight out the hillside. This makes sense except what keeps it from freezing in winter? even if flow was enough to keep the outlet itself from freezing it would be making an ice sheet on the ground in front of it. Eventually I imagine an icicle tower would built up to the height of the outlet at which point flow may be impeded enough to allow freezing. Even if the pipe itself never freezes it sure seems like the ground below and downhill from it would sure be a mess all winter.... Can someone clue me into how this works in cold climates?

On my farm where we have several hand dug wells from the 1800's, the overflow pipe seldom flows because the ground here is frozen. Since these wells are not all that deep (the deepest on my farm is 24 four feet which is an interesting post unto its own), the water tends to run off the soil instead of into it. So the well never overfills until spring when we get a freshet and the ground has thawed.

Even then I doubt the outlet pipe would freeze because the wells are about 4 feet in diameter. Because they are below the frost line, and heat always rises, there is an awful lot of heat coming up from the well to keep things from freezing. This is the same principal I use on my sheep stock tanks. I bury culverts 10 feet deep end wise and put the stock tank on top of them. With the warm air hitting the bottom of the tank, the water does not freeze and I don't need to spend money on using electrical stock tank heaters at $100 a month. It is geothermal at its simplest form.

Don't go by what I say though as your well might be drastically different.

The spring currently flows in winter, right? If you are drawing some water for your use, the remaining flow would be a bit less, and whatever the ground is like now, it will not be much different after you have a storage tank. My main spring flows year round, and all winter the overflow channel stays open to the air for a hundred feet or more downhill because the water melts all snow above it.

If you have a marshy area without s defined spring source, you might not have enough slope available to you to build the tank as shown. How far from your property is the spring? Could you maybe run a pipe from the source to your property before placing the tank? How much building would you be allowed to do at the spring? Do you have good relations with the neighbor?

We have a spring that flows all winter, and while the area around the outlet pipe is covered in ice buildup, the pipe itself and a circle about 2 feet in diameter where the water splashes down is always ice free, even when the air is below zero. The reason is that the water coming out of your spring is 50-60degrees F.

HI jeremy! I'm about 15 miles east of Binghamton.

Glenn Herbert wrote:
If you have a marshy area without s defined spring source, you might not have enough slope available to you to build the tank as shown. How far from your property is the spring? Could you maybe run a pipe from the source to your property before placing the tank? How much building would you be allowed to do at the spring? Do you have good relations with the neighbor?

Just below the spring the area slopes off pretty quickly. The neighbor is far enough away that he probably would never even know I developed it and he is pretty fuzzy on his property lines anyway from what I have gathered he walks his dog on an old logging road he believes is his but I know to be over my side of the line. He has no plans to do anything beyond walk his dog and its way up top of the property so I never saw the need to correct him. This spring would be about 20 feet into the far corner of his 40 acres so its not much of an encroachment on his domain.


I guess I will see about tapping it and measuring flow through the year to see if its worth my while to pursue things further, thanks for the info guys.