Day Zero

[pepperj]

This is kind of crazy when one thinks about it. We take it for granted that it will never run out-but it's just a drop away for millions.

On 'Day Zero', the city will turn off the taps and four million Capetonians will have to queue for supplies at about 200 collection points.


http://nationalpost.com/news/world/...l-be-the-first-major-city-to-run-out-of-water

 

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[smokeythecat]

Wait till it happens in our desert Southwest and California. It is inevitable. Just a matter of supply and demand.

 

[GA_Boy]

I may not be around when the H2O runs out here, but if I were younger I would drill a very deep well OR TWO.
Marvin

 

[pepperj]

For myself it would be a approx. 50% reduction of our household usage. We have had a water system in place for the past 8 yrs that I can look at the usage that flows through the filters. On the average it works out to be less than 100 US gal. per day.

Cape Town has implemented the following.

• All residents are required to use no more than 87 litres of municipal drinking water per personper day in total irrespective of whether you are at home, work or elsewhere.
  
  
  
  

 

[pepperj]

I may not be around when the H2O runs out here, but if I were younger I would drill a very deep well OR TWO.
Marvin

We lived on an Island for a number of yrs and on one side the wells were 35-85ft deep, on the otherwise the wells ran 150-45ft deep. One risks sulphur, salt, iron on any of the drilled wells which increases the expense of running a water system. 85ft well, heat trace line, water system came in at $15K, with a yearly upkeep of $500+ to maintain it.

Standard price of drilling in Eastern Not. is $4100.00 for a 80ft well then it's $10+ per ft after that. A 400ft well could run $10-15K just to drill, then there's the the added costs of getting to the tap.

 

[RW]

I am prepared here and can only imagine the lengths I would have gone through if I lived in SA. Always be prepared right? At least enough to outlast 99% of the sheeple. Gotta be crazy to depend on government or grocery store. Stock up, collect rain, have multiple filters...

A 600ft well is 30K in my area, so collection it is.

 

[pepperj]

I am prepared here and can only imagine the lengths I would have gone through if I lived in SA. Always be prepared right? At least enough to outlast 99% of the sheeple. Gotta be crazy to depend on government or grocery store. Stock up, collect rain, have multiple filters...

A 600ft well is 30K in my area, so collection it is.

All one needs is a Berkey water system-been using one for yrs now. Basically one can take contaminated swamp water and make potable.

https://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkey-answers/performance/filtration-specifications/

 

[GA_Boy]

When I was on our Mini-Farm I had a well drilled 385' and 35' soil and the rest Georgia Granite. Best water I've had.
IIRC $800.00 in 1984.
Marvin
PS, Some have made sewer water Potable, but I doubt I would drink it knowing what it started out as.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Thats why when I bought my house we hand drilled our water well to the third aquifer level. MY father did the same at his house as well as at my grandfathers.

 

[Terry Soloman]

I sure am glad I'm Sixty!

 

[pepperj]

I sure am glad I'm Sixty!

Gee you've only just begun Terry.

 

[pepperj]

Thats why when I bought my house we hand drilled our water well to the third aquifer level. MY father did the same at his house as well as at my grandfathers.

How deep would that be to the third aquifer?

 

[pepperj]

Then there's the Killer Strawberries of Fl.

https://alldownstream.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/killer-strawberries-destroy-city/

 

[Jason in Enid]

How deep would that be to the third aquifer?

At my house it was about 65 feet. Below the topsoil we have a clay layer with a water/sand aquifer under that. That sits on top of another layer of clay with another water/sand aquifer with yet another clay level below. Once you get below that you hit the main aquifer which is plenty deep, has flowing water and sits on a bedrock layer. Digging by hand sucks, and it took us most of a summer working during the mornings until the weather got too hot to keep working.

 

[pepperj]

At my house it was about 65 feet. Below the topsoil we have a clay layer with a water/sand aquifer under that. That sits on top of another layer of clay with another water/sand aquifer with yet another clay level below. Once you get below that you hit the main aquifer which is plenty deep, has flowing water and sits on a bedrock layer. Digging by hand sucks, and it took us most of a summer working during the mornings until the weather got too hot to keep working.

A farmer was telling me about the history of two brothers that did well digging. Putting in the stone as the one went down digging, putting everything in a bucket to be raised to the surface. I can only imagine how hard and one could not fear the closeness of the workings. Going down 65ft is crazy amount of depth done by hand, my hat goes off to you for doing that task.
Question: Why didn't you just drill?

 

[Jason in Enid]

A farmer was telling me about the history of two brothers that did well digging. Putting in the stone as the one went down digging, putting everything in a bucket to be raised to the surface. I can only imagine how hard and one could not fear the closeness of the workings. Going down 65ft is crazy amount of depth done by hand, my hat goes off to you for doing that task.
Question: Why didn't you just drill?

Sorry for any confusion, we "drill" of sorts. We weren't digging the classical bucket dipping down into the water kind of well. The modern hand-drilled well uses an auger head (2 actually) and lots of 6 foot sections of pipe with quick couplings. You twist the auger head into the ground about 6 inches then pull it up to dump, repeat as needed. The deeper you go, the more sections of pipe you have to add and remove for every auger head fill/dump. Once you get to sand you have to begin pounding casing down into the ground to the sand layer, then use a sand-bucket to take out tiny amounts of sand and drive the casing every deeper as the sand comes out. It get harder going through intermediate clay layers! Once youre done you put a 240V 3/4 horse pump in the bottom and your ready to pump all the water you need. Of course you could use a windmill style of manual pump if you needed.

Honestly, I'm sure the old fashioned well digging would be a lot easier!

 

[pepperj]

The company that drilled ours bought a new driller about 8yrs ago and it was $400K for the set up then.

How many inch pipe casing do you use?

Windmills are a great invention on a breezy day, sucks when there's no breeze.

 

[Jason in Enid]

The company that drilled ours bought a new driller about 8yrs ago and it was $400K for the set up then.

How many inch pipe casing do you use?

Windmills are a great invention on a breezy day, sucks when there's no breeze.

I think its 6 inch if I am remembering correctly. Yeah, it was going to cost over $1000 to have a commercial driller come put a hole in the ground and they couldn't have put it the back yard where I wanted it. It was nice to save the $$$, and it was a good experience to have done it by hand, but if I had to have another one today, I'd just pay to have it drilled.