It's the Water: Collection and Recycling, by Vicki Barg

If we want to disconnect from the power-and-water grid upon which so much of civilization seems to depend, what do we absolutely have to have?

We certainly can get along without the "power" part. Civilization did not wait for Thomas Edison to show up.

Nor do we absolutely need indoor plumbing. Our Colonial ancestors mostly made use of outhouses, and these are still the septic solution for many people in today's world, including those in outlying areas of the US.

Shelter is necessary in northern climes, but shelter is not a commodity that gets used up — once we've provided shelter, we may go on to other concerns.

People have even survived for weeks without food.

But nobody can survive for long without water. Of all the necessities of life, an adequate water supply is the most basic. Food and other supplies can be brought in, and if they are cut off, we will not die while we wait for them. But without water, we cannot remain where we are.

And if we are to live sustainably — growing at least some of our own food, for example — an ample water supply must be our first consideration.

Choosing Your System

The water collection and dispersal system we choose depends upon our location, available resources, and anticipated water consumption.

A wealth of alternatives exists. The subject is therefore too large and much too complex to be covered intelligently in the space of one article.

Instead, I have provided some basic touchstones for the simplest kind of water collection, and searched out the best links for you to use in researching your own needs and solutions.

Water Wells and Dowsing

The most common source of water "off the grid" is from underground water. And since time immemorial, people have used dowsers to locate it.

Sometimes people who would walk away in high dudgeon from a conversation about metaphysics will hire a dowser to help them drill a well. It's kind of like the adage that their are no atheists in foxholes. Drilling a well can cost thousands of dollars, whether water is found or not!

Dowsing is an ancient art of finding hidden objects. It's using a sense of "just knowing" where it is. Did you remember ever playing a game called "hide the thimble"? This childhood game is excellent for developing dowsing skills.

Dowsing skills can help in a lot of areas of our lives, from finding keys and lost children's shoes to locating a place to build your house and troubleshooting your car. But it's most often used for finding water or minerals.

Dowsing is something 80 percent of us can do if we practice. The Dowser's Workbook is full of information and excercises to develop your dowsing skills. You can also go to home.interstat.net/~slawcio/dowsing.html if you want to learn more about dowsing and dowsing rods.

To find out about dowsing, we spoke with Carol Beecher, who began living in Mojave County in 1965 and has been dowsing ever since. Before that, Carol's grandfather had been a dowser in Pennsylvania — but she didn't learn from him. She just knew she could do it, and went ahead. She has dowsed for wells in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and California.

Carol uses natural Native Willow (desert) for her forked rod. She holds the fork with the point facing upward at about a 45-degree angle, and walks the perimeter of the property she's dowsing, back and forth. "When the water source is located," she said, "the rod pulls downward with a lot of force. I have to hold it tightly. Sometimes it takes the bark right off the rod, and I get blisters on my hands!"

Most people who call Carol believe in her ability. "But they are still in awe," she said, "watching it happen. Sometimes they want to try it, and I let them. And occasionally they, too, can do it."

Carol has an accuracy rate of 97 to 98 percent. She said she once had someone call her after they had already drilled 500 feet without success. She found water 50 feet from the spot, only 400 feet down.

"To dowse for metals," she said, "you need to place a sample of the metal you're looking on the point of the rod." Once, as a test, she tried dowsing blindfolded for a gold necklace that had purposely been hidden. But the blindfold didn't matter. The dowsing rod found the necklace.

She also dowses for water lines and septic tanks.

Carol has been called from all over to give talks or classes, but she cannot often accept as she has a full-time job. But she's thinking about retiring, and then she may start teaching others how to do what she does.

You can reach Carol Beecher by email at vcbeech@ctaz.com

Well pumps

Once you have your well, you need to consider the kind of pump you need.

There are two types of well pumps: jet, and submersible. Shallow-well jet pumps are used for wells up to 25 feet, and deep-well jet pumps for wells up to 75 feet. Beyond that, you need a submersible pump, which will work for wells up to hundreds of feet deep.

Well pumps can be powered by utility power (AC), solar power, wind turbines, or water (ram pump), or they can be worked by hand. In selecting your pump, you need to determine the depth of well and the gallons per minute (gpm) of water flow that you are going to need for your household, garden, or irrigation.

For example, I use a one-half horsepower, 12-volt RV pump connected to a deep-cycle 12-volt battery, charged by a solar panel. This works for household use, showers, and watering gardens, and will pump water through a garden hose an acre away to water animals. What you can't do with this small pump is use the water for more than one thing at a time (like taking a shower and watering animals). There's not enough gpm to do both at the same time. It works, and costs only $80.00. It does have to be replaced every two years.

Prices for jet pumps are in the neighborhood of about $300, slightly more or less depending upon the horsepower. Submersible pumps run about $475 and up, varying according to size and specifications. Once you find the model you're looking for, it's a good idea to shop around for price.

It may be a good idea to have a hand pump in addition to whatever electrical-powered system you install. That way, if anything goes wrong with your power supply, you will still have water: the one thing we cannot live without for long.

Here are some websites you can try for your pumps: WaterPumps-GPM.com, GPMCanada.com/catalogue/gwejet.html, and LynchWells.com/pumps.htm All of these sites have a good variety of pumps and information, and LynchWells also has mechanical or hand pumps.

How Much Water Is Enough?

Perhaps you remember as a child reading the story of the Little Engine that Could. One of the things the Little Engine did after he managed to jump free of his tracks was to "holler down a rain barrel."

But what on Earth is a rain barrel?

Quite simply, it's the easiest, and certainly the cheapest, form of water collection. The Little Engine that Could was written back in the days when people still placed barrels under the downspouts of their homes as a matter of course, so that the runoff from rainfall would collect there.

Having lived off the grid myself for years, and knowing many others who do the same, I have first-hand knowledge that it is possible to collect an incredible amount of water in this way. Friends of mine once collected ten thousand gallons of water in a single rainstorm, using nothing more sophisticated than gutters and downspouts directing the water into a cistern from their 20-by-40-foot corrugated roof.

This downspout setup provides all of the water for a seven-acre farm east of Flagstaff, Arizona, including not only water for the family, but also for an assemblage of goats, chickens, dogs, various other animals, and birds.

Other friends who generate the same amount of water in this way have enough for their horses, plus all indoor needs, including a dishwasher, laundry, and flushing toilets. Despite living in a dry, desert climate, they haven't needed any other source of water for more than twenty years.

Using and Recycling Your Water

For cooking and drinking, you can install a water filter system to purify the water you collect. And graywater (all the water that runs through your establishment except that which is used for the sewage system) can be recycled and used for flushing toilets, laundry, and cleaning. Graywater also can be channeled into gardens.

The use of biodegradable soaps and cleaners simplifies the process of filtering the graywater.

Water Collection and Recycling: Resources

For excellent examples of different systems, here are some informative articles on the Internet: Rainwater Collection, Septic System Information, Water.

All of the above sites have different links to more water collection and graywater recycling applications.

For an excellent filtering system, you can visit WaterFilter.

For a commercial graywater collection and recycling system, you can visit Graywater Collection and Recycling.

And Path to Freedom has a lot of valuable off-grid information. Their site covers gardening, water and solar needs, biodegradable cleaners, and recycling, with lots of good links and references.