Spring Water Collection: How To Build A Spring Box

Springs will supply water for livestock on the farm and today Rob builds a spring box for spring water collection on one of the springs. A spring box is basically a dam built on the side of the cliff where the spring water emerges. Water from the "dam" will be gravity fed to a rampump, that will pump the water to tanks at the highest point in the farm, so that a gravity water system can distribute the water to livestock as they are moved through the pasture during grazing season. Along the way Rob provides an important teflon tape trick, and describes some things he learned building this well box

Topic links in this video

2:18 On site at the spring
3:23 Ram pump efficiency -
4:15 Planning to power the ramp pump
5:38 Do the posts work?
7:10 Giving it a go with the post pounder
11:44 The reason we’re building this spring box and ram pump
13:58 Preparing the water collection barrel
15:48 Cut the top off the barrel
16:28 Cut down the middle
16:54 Cut scallops in the base of the barrel so it will open up
18:26 Determining elevations of the 3 springs
22:00 Building a solid ledge for the barrel to sit on
23:40 Fitting the barrel to the ledge
28:28 Hillside alterations to the barrel
30:20 Fitting the modified barrel to the hillside
33:50 Putting bulkhead fittings into the barrel
41:08 Plumbing
45:52 Installing the fittings inside the barrel
47:44 Why do all of this work? Environmental and food system benefits, benefits of the gravity fed water system
52:30 Fully assembled - ready for a dry fit test
53:00 Fit testing
54:00 Describing how the spring box will be attached to the wall.
55:17 Attaching the spring box to the wall
56:15 Adding landscape fabric to the base
57:52 Inside view before adding gravel
58:28 Wide view of the spring box on the hill
58:52 Adding the gravel
1:00:00 Adding bentonite clay
1:02:52 Looking good! Observations and changes planned
1:03:46 How we will connect the well box to the water pipeline
1:05:37 Teflon tape tricks to get a good seal
1:09:02 Making the connection
1:11:36 How we’ll fix this leak
1:12:31 Learnings from this build and future plans

About Rob Avis and Verge Permaculture:

FREE RESOURCES:

Why should you reserve a place in your bulging in-box for Verge’s newsletters? One reason: because we challenge the headlines and cultural paradigms with a whole different kind of alternative fact: Permaculture-inspired businesses can succeed – and restore the planet. And we’ll show you how to do it.

[baresvick]

Rob, a great way to secure your spring box and support it when its full would be to install a five or six foot screw anchor into the bank on either side, providing its not solid rock. If its is in fact solid rock, a ramset with a couple of stainless steel rings on either side would also do the trick. Which ever of the two works for you, jus run a piece of rope, cable or chain across from side to side. Another thing iv used with good success for a spring box is a galvanized window well cover. With a little adaptaion you can use plastic, and before installing it make sure to cut a debris cover, i used sheet metle and 90 degreed the edges.

[angieschmidt]

Thank you Rob...i now understand spring box construction, been asking folks for a couple of years how they are built, was getting no clear answers. I appreciate you showing all the fits and refits and challenges and problem solving. This is a beautiful property.

[d.k.]

Bravo! That is a ton of work on its own - let alone having to film, explain explain what's going on, and then edit it all afterwards.
Thanks for all of your hard work. I'm looking forward to the ram pump segment as well and hope that it includes calculations for your given source flow and the elevation gain you need.

[markwadsworth]

The purpose of a spring development is to adapt a ground water source to a pipe to which you connect fittings. If the water source is already adapted to a pipe you just need a coupling and a tee to connect to your other springs. You sure did do a lot of work when a sharkbite fitting or pvc would have connected to the pipe you already had there!

[yessumify]

Very knowledgeable and thorough video!

[kristythiessen]

A good dam doesn't have a hundred percent seal. If the water is allowed to accumulate past a certain point it can actually burst it. Bentonite takes at least a couple of applications before it will seal properly. You have to wait for it to saturate before adding subsequent layers. Not sure why, but it seems to work better that way. As for the diy coupling you did, the rate of expansion is very different between plastic and metal. Very resourceful for the time being, but after a couple of seasons it would be prone to leakage. Good luck!

[MrSki-tyvm]

I have never built a spring box but I know there's no way I would build it like that. Talking about doing things the hardest way possible. I would have used a hammer drill and rebar from the stone then built some cheap 6 inch forms leaving the pipe run water over it until my concrete tank was completed. Then I would seal the inside with mortar and paint the exterior with a sealer penetration paint. This way would be easier with cordless tools and take time for it to cure but it would last a really long time.

[Seitansatan]

would love an update video to see how it held up

[StephenWoodinSR]

I am new at this, but why not put the box down at the lowest spring at the tree, then just pipe the water from the other 2 higher ones into the box?

[mickeyjanowski]

Here in WV, it’s a crick, a creek is in a wagon wheel.

[farmboycharlie]

I like your idea of keeping the cattle from polluting the stream
I know when there were 200 million bison roaming America they never pooped in the streams

[IS-]

Why did you cut the barrel in half.
Wouldn't it have been better as is.
I wonder if you just figured out a way to better seal the pvc pipe into the hillside and allowed it to fill the bucket.
You might have had better success at raising the water level inside the barrel (without leaks).
I find it hard to believe that the water will continue flowing into the dam (or barrel) and raise the water level above the original pvc pipe without finding another path of least resistance instead...
The flow coming out of the dam looks the same as it was with the original pipe.
I realize the original pvc pipe into the hillside wasn't a perfect seal but feel like you would have less water loss with the barrel un-cut.

Maybe I'm missing something?
Thoughts?

Ps Rob. Great videos, great info, awesome new property. Keep up the constant hard work. You're doing a great job. I've learned so much from your channel. Thank you

[noillsmatter]

Hi Rob, where's the part 2 of you spring box project? Thank you

[corinutza]

use a Ram pump
you can pump water anywhere with its own force

[quietneighbor]

Nice property. Sorry I watched you butcher that barrel tho holy cow. I would have used it in tact.

[owlswait]

Did this apparatus ever become operable?

[jasonbuchanan]

Dry the area out just run your pipe all the way through if you can and then put some concrete in there some quick Crete that should set it up pretty nice and you can resculpt your whole bottom on the tank

[menos]

Lots of hard work and I commend you for it, but I question why cut the barrel open? Why not just support the intact barrel with the T-posts and plumb the springs into the barrel? Also if you block the bottom of the pipe the air will escape up hill until you have enough water in the pipe to suction itself free of air. Alternatively, you can bring another barrel up to the springs and fill it then put the water into the pipe rapidly to get enough water weight to push the air out through the pipe. Ultimately you have to have enough flow to not allow any new air into the pipe while running the ram pump.

[khalilgeagea]

i don't get the point of cutting the barrel and then finding ways to seal it; why don't we leave it as it is and fill it with gravel? and what's the point of filling with gravel if the water is directly coming out of the spring (already filtered by soil)?

[johnstack]

Your looking for a gallon per second?? Most people are happy with 2 tor 3 gpm. You can run a ram pump on 3 gpm. It runs 24 hrs 7 days a week.