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💧 Water Wells, Pumps, Springs & Cisterns

How to keep water coming when the power is out for good: understanding your well, running the well pump from a generator or solar, getting water up by hand, moving creek water uphill with no fuel (ram pumps), developing a spring, catching rain in a cistern, and keeping it all clean. The manuals are in Water-Wells-Pumps\ (Wells, Pumps-No-Grid, Hand-Ram-Rope-Pumps, Springs-Cisterns, Water-Quality, Oregon) and Water\. Making water safe to drink is in the Water Purification guide.

⚠️ Rules that prevent the worst problems

🕳️ Know your well

Three kinds of wells (USGS Ground Water and the Rural Homeowner, pp. 16–17; all three drawn side by side, p. 15):

Three ways a well is made: a wide dug well dug by hand, a driven well with a pointed pipe pounded into the ground, and a deep drilled well bored by a truck rig Dug wells are wide and shallow, driven wells narrow and shallow, drilled wells narrow and deep (USGS, p. 15).

Find your well's records. Oregon has driller's reports for most wells drilled since 1955 — Josephine County well IDs start with "JOSE". The report gives the depth, where water was found, the static water level and the tested yield — all things you need to plan a hand pump or generator (OWRD Water Well Owner's Handbook, pp. 27, 30; a filled-in sample report, p. 28). Print it and keep it with this drive. Look it up on OWRD's Well Log Query (by owner, location or well ID) while the internet works (rule of thumb).

What the ground here gives (Grants Pass area, the nearest USGS study; how aquifers hold water; aquifer): river gravels 5–50 gpm but easily polluted when shallow; weathered granite up to 50 gpm, solid granite under 5; serpentine rock — common around the Illinois Valley — gives few if any good wells, and high-magnesium water (USGS HA-480 Plate 1; Plate 2). In summer a household uses several times its winter water.

Measure your water level (water table; how pumping draws it down; cone of depression) twice a year (spring and fall), from the same point on the casing, after the pump has rested several hours, and keep a log. A ¾-in slotted PVC measuring tube taped to the pump pipe lets a tape get past the wires (OWRD Handbook, pp. 15–16; measuring-tube diagram). A chalked weighted tape shows the wet line (rule of thumb).

Rules worth knowing: household use up to 15,000 gallons a day, livestock water and up to ½ acre of garden need no water right (OWRD Exempt Uses). Wells must be at least 50 ft from septic tanks and 100 ft from drain fields, with the top at least 12 in above ground (OWRD Handbook, pp. 23–24; setback diagram, p. 24).

📚 Go deeper: OWRD Water Well Owner's Handbook — Oregon's complete owner guide; USGS Ground Water and the Rural Homeowner; Wikipedia: water well.

🔌 Running the well pump without the grid

From a generator (Franklin Electric AIM Manual, pp. 8–9; generator photos) — a well pump needs far more power to start than to run:

Pump size Minimum generator — 2-wire pump 3-wire pump (has a control box)
½ hp 3 kW 2 kW
¾ hp 4.5 kW 3 kW
1 hp 6 kW 4 kW
1½ hp 7.5 kW 5 kW

From solar: a DC solar well pump with its own panels pumps whenever the sun shines (NRCS system drawing, p. 9; set up on a well, p. 35; photos). Store water, not electricity — a tank holding about 3 days' water beats batteries for cost and upkeep (NRCS Solar-Powered Water Pump Systems, pp. 27, 29). Choose a brushless pump; brushed ones need new brushes about every 2 years (Practical Action, p. 4).

Pressure tank and switch (UNL G2152, pp. 2–3; well-to-house layout, p. 1; inside a bladder tank, p. 3; pressure switch): the switch starts the pump at a low pressure (often 30 or 40 psi) and stops it at a high one (50 or 60). A bladder tank's air charge should be 2 psi below the start pressure, checked with the tank empty and power off.

Problem Usual cause (AIM, p. 28)
Pump starts and stops every few seconds Waterlogged tank (low air charge), leak, stuck check valve
Pump runs and won't stop Water level below the pump, worn pump, clogged screen, broken pipe
No water, pump silent Breaker, pressure switch contacts, control box, wiring
Sputtering, air in the water Water level dropping to the pump — rest the well, use less

📚 Go deeper: Franklin Electric AIM Manual — the pump-maker's troubleshooting bible; UNL Pumps and Pressure Tanks; NRCS solar pump design; Engines guide — generators.

✋ Getting water up by hand

The suction limit: a pump at the top of a well doesn't "lift" water — air pressure pushes it up. In practice a pitcher pump or any suction pump stops working at about 20–22 ft of lift, a little less at our elevation (USDA FB 1448, p. 27; Peace Corps Wells Construction, p. 262; how a piston pump works). Deeper than that, the pumping part must be down in the water — there's no limit on pushing water up from below.

Two wells side by side: a pump on top reaches water 15 ft down; for water 35 ft down, the pump's cylinder sits down in the water, worked by rods from above A pump on top can lift water only about 20–22 ft; below that, put the pumping part in the water (a diagram drawn for this guide).

Water level Options
Under ~20 ft Pitcher pump (drawing); rope pump; bucket and windlass on a dug well (drawing)
20–150 ft Rope pump (to about 115 ft); deep-well lift handpumps (Afridev, India Mark II up to about 160 ft)
Deeper Generator or solar on the existing submersible; well bucket (below)

📚 Go deeper: Practical Action Human-Powered Handpumps, p. 5 — which pump for which depth; Practica Rope Pump Handbook — building one; Peace Corps Wells Construction — digging and lining a well by hand; Wikipedia: rope pump.

🔁 Ram pumps: creek water uphill with no fuel

A hydraulic ram uses the force of falling water in a long pipe (water hammer) to push part of that water much higher — day and night, with no fuel (Practical Action Hydraulic Ram Pumps; how it works, p. 2; step-by-step drawings).

A ram installation from the side: a spring or dammed creek, a long straight drive pipe down to the ram, the waste valve spilling water, and a delivery pipe up the hill to a tank Measure the fall and the lift from the ram; it sends only part of the water up (a diagram drawn for this guide).

📚 Go deeper: Peace Corps Hydrams workshop manual — build and repair one; USDA FB 1448 — rams and windmills; Wikipedia: hydraulic ram.

🌬️ Windmills

Wind power rises with the cube of wind speed (twice the wind = 8 times the power); a water-pumping windmill (photo; photos) pays off where the average wind is above about 7 mph, and needs a storage tank for calm days (Practical Action Wind Pumping, p. 2). Sheltered valley floors here may be too calm — ridges and open ground are better (rule of thumb).

📚 Go deeper: Practical Action Wind Pumping; USDA FB 1448 — windmills; Wikipedia: windpump.

⛲ Springs

A spring box collects spring water before animals and surface runoff can foul it (Virginia Tech Spring Development, p. 5; spring box drawings, p. 5; springs):

Plan and side view of a protected spring: a perforated pipe in water-bearing gravel feeds a concrete box with a locked, overlapping lid, a screened overflow, a pipe to storage and a cleanout drain, with a diversion ditch and fence uphill The ditch and fence uphill keep runoff and animals off the spring; the lid overlaps the box and locks (EPA Manual of Individual Water Supply Systems, p. 70).

📚 Go deeper: Virginia Tech Spring Development and Protection; EPA Manual of Individual Water Supply Systems — springs, wells and cisterns.

🛢️ Cisterns and rainwater

Our winters are wet: every square foot of roof catches about 0.6 gallons per inch of rain (Texas Rainwater Harvesting, p. 34; a whole system, p. 10; rainwater harvesting). A 1,500 sq ft roof in a 10-inch rain month could fill a 9,000-gallon tank (rule of thumb arithmetic).

A standpipe first-flush diverter: the downspout feeds a tee; the first dirty roof water fills a capped pipe below it, then cleaner water flows on to a covered tank The capped pipe catches the dirtiest first water; empty it after each rain (a diagram drawn for this guide).

📚 Go deeper: Texas Manual on Rainwater Harvesting; OSU Harvesting Rainwater for the Garden.

🧪 Keeping well water clean

📚 Go deeper: OWRD Handbook — testing schedule, p. 34; Virginia Tech Shock Chlorination; OSU Twelve Simple Things to Protect Your Well Water.

🖼️ Pictures & diagrams

Look before you try it. 🖼️ = drawings in the books on this drive; 📷 = photos in the offline Wikipedia.

Kinds of wells and their parts

Power, pumps and pressure

Getting water up by hand

Ram pumps and windmills

Springs and rain catchment

Keeping it clean

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