Water Spring Construction or Repair / Q&A

Spring or Spring Box Cleaning & Restoration FAQs

Tip: Start at SPRING BOX MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST

See SPRING BOX BUILD, REPAIR

How do I clean & restore my 100 year old spring?

I have been using a 100 year old spring for 15 years quite successfully. It was modified 40 years ago with 5 ft diameter concrete tiles and a 1/2 hp well pump, replaced 25 yrs ago.

Issue has become muck in the bottom so that pump that was hanging from bottom is now touching the bottom/muck.

The spring is a gusher, runs constantly outside tiles, producing small pond downstream.

Question, best way to de muck the bottom without disturbing the rock and possibly replacing older pump.

Ground water may be seeping in as land has now eroded to grade slanting in, not away from spring.

Also, cover is very heavy, 500 lbs plus. Could I replace with wood or metal for better access? On 2023-06-07 by JkTmk

It is located in Jericho Vt. Easy to drive equipment as close to 30 ft access path, which is very wet with downhill grade unaccessible to vehicles/tractors, possibly some excavators could navigate.

As far as I can tell, it is 3 tiles deep, one above ground, see pic, one below ground holding water, and one buried in muck. Thanks for the link, Ill give that a try.

Drilling a well here is quite a crap shoot and very expensive.

by InspectApedia Publisher - best way to get the muck out of the bottom of my spring box

@JkTmk,

Thanks for a helpful spring box maintenance question.

A combination of excavation or actual shoveling if you can do so safely (how deep is the well box?) and/or vigorous pumping using a trash pump can "suck" muck and mud out of a spring box much as we do when cleaning an old dug-well.

See our detailed suggestions in the section titled "Dug Well Cleaning & Disinfection Resources" in our article

HAND DUG WELLS

where you'll see a selection of free PDF downloads that give very detailed dug well cleaning and restoration procedures that can help clean out the spring box you describe.

Around the spring box you'll want to add rock and fix grading around the spring to keep surface runoff away - else you're adding contaminants to your spring water.

About the spring box cover: yes 500 lbs sure sounds like over-kill and is so heavy as to make access for inspection and cleaning a chore.

But

Watch out: your replacement cover must be child safe lest a curious kid - as I sure was and did - open the spring and crawl or fall inside.

You might construct a mechanically-secured steel cover with a hinged access door that can be locked.

Please, if you can, post some photos, one per comment, of your spring so that we can see what's going-on.

And tell me the country and city of location for this spring.

Basics of cleaning and restoring a spring box

In cleaning and restoring a spring box, the order of business is first to be sure that the box is properly constructed and not damaged nor leaking. Details of how to do that are above on this page

Once you know that the container or spring box itself is intact and in good condition, then you need to remove debris from the interior of the spring box.

That might be scooping out branches and leaves for example if the Box didn't previously have a good roof.

In order to offer more specific spring box cleaning and disinfecting advice, we need to know more about your particular spring enclosure, how it is constructed, its dimensions, water quality and in flow rate, and what sort of sediment or debris you are trying to remove.

by JkTmk

@InspectApedia Publisher, I have hired an excavator to divert some run off away from spring and to dig out the mud/settlement on the backside of pictured tile which is at base of a hill. He wants to replace that mud with gravel instead of stone for better packing against well tile.

I'm guessing this is a bottom feeding spring, but if it is coming from the back side hill, could this disturb the water supply? I want to do this correctly before removing muck from interior because I feel it would fill back up again if the surrounding area is not corrected.

Followup by JkTmk

@InspectApedia-911, Phase One was finished today. Very pleased with the outcome. Basically I was looking to divert ground water away from the spring and prevent sediment from running into it.

We excavated mud from around the first tile out of ground, laid fabric around it and backfilled with sure pack gravel. The two swales had fabric and backfilled with gravel also. Ditching on a hillside with one water bar diverted that run off.

We removed the cover and found 4 ft tiles with 6 feet of water depth and 6-8 inches of muck. Water is running constantly out front in seam of top tile.

I may change the pump this fall, but as for mucking out, I'm not sure that is worth the bother. The path to the area is now cleared and dry to get to the spring.

by InspectApedia Publisher - use of concrete well rings was a good solution

@JkTmk,

Nice job!

And thank you so much for taking time to follow-up here. Your photo and discussion and example will be of help to other readers who are restoring a spring water source.

About mucking out the interior of your spring, now boxed in with concrete well rings, you might measure the usable depth of water and decide if, based on your rate of water use and the spring's measured flow rate, whether you need a larger standing or static water volume. From your earlier discussion it sounds as if that's not the case.

by JkTmk

@InspectApedia Publisher, The interior tiles appear to be very clean. If I decide to muck out, do I need to totally drain the water?

It has been about one or two days in a few summers out of 13 years this spring stopped running, but recovered in 24 hours. Those summers were record droughts and we had more livestock/guests.

So I believe this has all the capacity we need now. I would like to find a way to capture this constant overflow and direct to livestock barn 300 feet downhill. 100 feet is through the woods so that may be a challenge.

by InspectApedia Publisher - consider running a pipe from near the top water level of the spring to a large water reservoir or stock watering tank downhill

@JkTmk,

In our discussion I don't see a spring water depth measurement, but a round 5 ft. diameter spring "box" will hold about 19.6 gallons per foot of height (or depth) of water.

You say the spring is usually a gusher - at some unspecified gush rate in gpm or gph.

But that occasionally you run out of water or it stops delivering for a time.

Depending on the aquifer that feeds the spring, cleaning it or deepening it *might* improve its performance but from what you've said it sounds more valuable to me to consider running a pipe from near the top water level of the spring to a large water reservoir or stock watering tank downhill from the spring's location and near a point of use. Even if you had to pump from that tank to a watering trough that might give a storage buffer of a bit of extra water.

A cost-benefit analysis would want to consider the anticipated number of "dry spring" days, the daily water consumption, thus the volume of water reserve you'd need to get by, and the cost of building such a reservoir.

I'd add to that consideration that climate change and global warming could well mean that the usually great performance of this 100 year old spring may deteriorate sooner than we might have thought.

About cleaning the muck out of the bottom of the spring, your original post said that "the issue has become muck in the bottom" reaching the pump suspended in the spring.

Try cleaning out the muck with a sludge/mud pumping system often used to clean wells. Basically water is jetted to the bottom to loosen and stir up mud and muck that are then pumped out.

Spring Box Abandonment FAQs

How Can / Should I Abandon or Hide an Unused Spring & Spring House?

I have an old spring on my property that is no longer producing and is contaminated but it is Giant and ugly any suggestions on how to either get rid of it or hide it? On 2022-09-01 by Delicia

by InspectApedia-911 (mod) - how can I get rid of or hide old spring box

@Delicia,

You can, in most circumstances, remove the spring house, clean up debris and trash, and then direct the spring's output to an acceptable location such as a stream or pond.

By filling in the basin formed by the spring house you can in essence convert a spring box or spring house and spring to a small aboveground stream or brook.

Spring House / Water Disinfection Q&A

Should we us bleach to disinfect the spring and piping after cleaning?

We have an old spring house that had the roof fall in, we cleaned all of the debris, mud etc out. Water quality and smell seems better.

Our question is now that it is clean should we put some Clorox in the spring house and run it through the system and to the house for a while? 2022-07-19 by Alden Grout

by InspectApedia-911 (mod) - When do you need to sanitize the spring box? And Remember to flush out the disinfected water.

@Alden Grout,

When you need to sanitize the spring box, which might make sense, you need to reach an adequate concentration of household bleach in the water and it needs to be there for a sufficient time.

The details on how to calculate that based on the water volume in the Spring house and how much household bleach to use per gallon can be found at

WELL CHLORINATION & DISINFECTION

But

Watch out: at "disinfection level" concentrations of bleach in the spring box or spring house the water is also unsafe to drink, so after waiting a sufficient time - 12-24 hours - you'll need to remove enough water that you've flushed out the disinfectant.

Basically if the water still smells like bleach or chlorine you probably need to flush more water out. - DF

Here are some

References on Spring Water Disinfection

• Conrad, J. F., R. A. Holt, and T. D. Kreps. "Ozone disinfection of flowing water." The Progressive Fish-Culturist 37, no. 3 (1975): 134-136.
• Fotouhi, Farsad, and Neven Kresic. "Springwater treatment." In Groundwater Hydrology of Springs, pp. 269-304. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2010.
• Gelover, Silvia, Luis A. Gómez, Karina Reyes, and Ma Teresa Leal. "A practical demonstration of water disinfection using TiO2 films and sunlight." Water research 40, no. 17 (2006): 3274-3280.
• Hsu, Ching-Shan, I-Ming Chen, and Da-Ji Huang. "Quality investigation and disinfection of spring waters with different disinfectants." [PDF] Sustain. Environ. Res., 22(6), 357-361 (2012), Ching-Shan Hsu,* I-Ming Chen and Da-Ji Huang, Department of Environmental Resources Management, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 71701, Taiwan
  
  Abstract
  
  To study Taiwan spring water quality, a hot spring and a regular spring have been selected. The spring water samples are tested in terms of temperature, pH level, conductivity, levels of free chlorine, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, total CFU , total coliforms, and fungi. The results indicate that both springs do not meet the Taiwan water quality standards. Thus, either chlorine dioxide or sodium hypochlorite is used to improve the water quality and its disinfection efficiencies compared.
  
  The data indicate that to meet the CFU standards issued by Taiwan Centers -1 for Disease Control, it requires 5.3 mg L (as Cl ) of both disinfectants for the hot spring water. But, 2 -1 it just needs 2.6 mg L for the regular spring water.
  
  To meet the total coliforms standards, it needs 2.6 -1 -1 mg L for the regular spring water. However, it requires higher amount (> 13.1 mg L ) for the hot spring water to eliminate the coliforms totally. The differences in disinfection efficiencies for the hot spring and regular spring water are attributable mostly to the sand particles contained in the hot spring water.
  
  It has been found that chlorine dioxide is a more efficient and safer disinfectant than sodium hypochlorite. Without disinfection, the hot spring water poses a higher risk to human than the regular spring water based on Gram's method.
• Lydakis-Simantiris, Nikos, Despina Riga, Eleftheria Katsivela, Dionissios Mantzavinos, and Nikolaos P. Xekoukoulotakis. "Disinfection of spring water and secondary treated municipal wastewater by TiO2 photocatalysis." Desalination 250, no. 1 (2010): 351-355.

Can I spread disinfectant on the ground to stop unsanitary spring water from flowing over into our well?

There has been a well on this property since my grandparents moved here in 1973 it sits higher then the ground around it it has a concrete top and concrete 4in cylinder that stands above ground. We have about 3 or4 natural springs on a 4 acer property that run down and then level out

I have not looked inside but I do know that the water running into or around it are springs. W have run off points from the well that used to have a gravity pipe from it some how it disappeared and now there is puddles of nasty mossy water about 6ft from the well site.

The thing is we have had more rain then usable and the other springs are starting to flow towards the well and it isn't going into the well its standing water getting closer to surrounding the well . I believe it is a case of sabotage and I would like to try and fix this issue but don't have a clue.

I have made streams that are leading the standing water away but the springs produce a lot of water and I don't want them to get contaminated.

Is there something I can buy at lows to sprinkle on the ground while I am taking car of this issue. Gail McKee liagrepeels@gmail.com On 2015-08-10

by (mod) - No, but we have other suggestions to assure that your water is safe to use

Gail

No sprinkle-on-ground disinfectant would provide safe protection for a spring as water source and depending on the chemical concentration might make it unsafe.

Watch out: it's not just spring water - ANY surface water that runs into your well means that the well is not sanitary - not reliable - that is to say it's not safe to drink such water unless you have a water treatment and disinfection system installed to assure that the water is disinfected and potable.

I suggest having your water well tested for common contaminants found in wells in your area so that you know what type of water treatment system is needed.

See WATER TREATMENT EQUIPMENT CHOICES - home

Also, if you plan to ever allow use of that spring water for drinking then at the More Reading suggestions below, above take a look at the article SPRINGS AS WATER SUPPLY to see more suggestions

Can I use stones etc. in the spring box to filter the water and host beneficial bacteria

I've read on multiple occasions where stones or other materials are use within spring boxes as initial filter media capturing sediment as well as hosting beneficial bacteria.

The bacteria aspect was more applicable in closed loop systems such as Koi ponds and the like.

What would be your opinion on using ribbon or ball type media in a potable spring water application? On 2018-05-22 by Jera Anderson

by (mod) - Watch out: stones don't filter out bacterial nor chemical contaminants - warnings about roadside spring water

Stones can help filter some debris but of course don't filter bacterial contamination and might support it in some cases

I don't know enough about "ribbon or ball media" but am doubtful that any media placed in the spring can make its water safely potable.
These authors

• Lisle, John T., and Joan B. Rose. "Gene exchange in drinking water and biofilms by natural transformation." Water Science and Technology 31, no. 5-6 (1995): 41-46.
  addressed stones and biofilms in springwater

Potability of spring water is addressed in this InspectApedia article series along with practical advice. You might want to see this research not about spring boxes but about spring water potability - the focus of your question

• Lamka, Karla G., Mark W. LeChevallier, and Ramon J. Seidler. "Bacterial contamination of drinking water supplies in a modern rural neighborhood." Applied and Environmental Microbiology 39, no. 4 (1980): 734-738.
• Thirunavukkarasu, O. S., T. Viraraghavan, and K. S. Subramanian. "Arsenic removal from drinking water using iron oxide-coated sand." Water, air, and soil pollution 142, no. 1-4 (2003): 95-111.
• Stevens, Alan A., Clois J. Slocum, Dennis R. Seeger, and Gordon G. Robeck. "Chlorination of organics in drinking water." Journal (American Water Works Association) (1976): 615-620.

As an aside, roadside springs appear to be at extra risk of contamination:

Several states in the U.S. issue general warnings about spring water.

• https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/springs.htm is a NYS warning about roadside springs
• https://extension.psu.edu/roadside-springs is a Penn State warning also about roadside springs
• http://www.caes.uga.edu/newswire/story.html?storyid=5729&story=Safe-Drinking-Water warns about roadside springs in Georgia

Spring Box Identification / Recognition FAQs

Researching and Identifying Historic Spring Boxes (overgrown)

I work for a history and archaeology firm in Georgia and we are researching a site below a small dam and adjacent to a stream with two assumed to be historic spring boxes (photos attached).

They are mostly covered with English ivy and no longer contain water. One has a concrete pipe sticking up from the ground, vertically in the center. The pipe is about 1 ft in diameter, maybe a little less.

Could this have been to reach deeper spring water, or used for overflow? I will attach a photo of the box here and another photo with the pipe which is hardly visible in the center of the photo.

On 2022-06-23 by Carter Finch

by InspectApedia-911 (mod) - historic spring box identification / recognition

@Carter Finch,

From the shape we could certainly be seeing a spring box;

I can't make out where the pipes are mounted, nor direction. Perhaps you could post a sketch of what you're seeing.

If indeed there's a vertical pipe extending down 6-15 ft., then someone might also have driven a driven-point-well pipe into the same spot where there was a spring and spring box.

Is this old stone foundation a spring box?

I found 2 slate foundations on my property on a steep hill leading to the Delaware river in PA.

One of the foundations is about 60 ft above the other one. They are both near a small stream. They both have a small exit about 2 ft. wide. From all the research Ive done they seem to be spring boxes

I'm wondering if these sound like spring boxes. I have a video I can send. On 2018-02-20 by Karen kourtessis

Answer by (mod) - probably not

Thank you for the photos, Karen.

By its location, uphill from other buildings, that's a good spot for a spring-fed spring-box water source.

However in your other photos the complexity of the foundation suggests that this was more than or other than a simple rectangle spring-box.

Also I don't see any remains of cement or plaster that typically would line a water-tight structure.

Incidentally the stone-work is a bit unusual: stones appear somewhat stacked in vertical columns - not a strong design.

Experienced stonemasons usually took care to stagger the vertical joints among courses of stone in walls.

On occasion we'll find remains of old iron pipes at an abandoned spring box, at an inlet point or a down-slope outlet point of the structure.

by karen kourtessis

This is the terrain around it - I don't have a pic with the structures in the terrain.. but they are off to the right of this pic - next to a small stream - the road we live on has 3 or 4 culverts.. so there is a lot of water coming down toward the river.

This shot shows (b) the exit or door - the other 2 sides of the box have fallen in... mostly..

by Karen

Thank you Dan! oh then.. I wonder what they are? Seems too small for an animal pen - and also.. the exit (hard to see in the pic) is only 2 ft. wide.. would that be large enough for a pig or another animal to exit? Could they be storage for corn?

Reply by (mod) -

A lot depends on estimated age and the location of the property.

I've seen old spring houses that had a room for a pump - as early as the late 1800's in some areas of North America.

In the UK I would check in with HistoricEngland.org.uk/advice who have a nice PDF on types of stone farm buildings in the UK

I wouldn't expect a rectangular multi-room stone building specifically intended as storage for grain at a typical small New England farm.

The small stone structure I illustrate below is a root store from National Farm Building Types, a nice PDF available from historicengland.org

by Karen

Thank you so much !!
I will keep watching and reading :)
k

Spring Box / House Pumps & Tanks FAQs

Can I pump water out of the spring box to a storage tank? Using a submersible pump?

Is it correct to directly pump water to a tank found above the spring box. If possible can one use a submersible pump for that? On 2021-08-07 by WongAlphonsius

by inspectapedia.com.moderator - yes if you have deep enough water in the spring

Sure, You can do that. But ...

Watch out: You'll want a screen at the water inlet to your pump to avoid clogging it if leaves or debris fall into the spring, and to assure that the water intake to the pump is high-enough above the soil level in the spring that you meet the manufacturer's installation specifications for clearance "above the well bottom"

Otherwise your pump may draw up silt or sand or debris that clog the pump or damage the impeller assembly.

Typically a manufacturer wants a couple of feet of clear water between the pump's intake opening and the bottom of the water source - in your case the floor of the spring box. - Daniel

Spring Source Water Quality FAQs

Our spring water leaves turquoise residue on sinks bathtub clothes

I am supplied spring water from a mountain spring. It leaves a turquoise residue on sinks bathtub clothes. Is it safe to b drinking. Neighbors have incl me, cancer strokes brain tumors, breast cancer. Is it the water? Even heart problems. On 2017-08-22 by Maggie

Explanation by (mod) -

Maggie,

A turquoise residue is most-often from high copper or copper deposits in the water, though I *speculate* that corrosive or aggressive water (not common with spring water) might also leach copper out of a plumbing system and do the same thing.

Please take a look at

WATER STAINING CONTAMINANTS

and
CORROSIVITY or ACIDITY of WATER

Frankly with spring water as a drinking water source in most places in the world (as you don't give country, state or province or city) I'd be worried that just about anything that is on the ground surface, pesticides, for example, can easily enter the drinking water supply. That would be a reason to discuss with your lab what range of tests are appropriate for water sources in your area.

IF - since I can't possibly know from just an e-text - your water were high in copper, the most-common health effect is a gastrointestinal problem.

• Pizarro, Fernando, Manuel Olivares, Ricardo Uauy, Patricia Contreras, Adriana Rebelo, and Virginia Gidi. "Acute gastrointestinal effects of graded levels of copper in drinking water." Environmental Health Perspectives 107, no. 2 (1999): 117.
• Pizarro, Fernando, Manuel Olivares, Virginia Gidi, and Magdalena Araya. "The gastrointestinal tract and acute effects of copper in drinking water and beverages." Reviews on environmental health 14, no. 4 (1999): 231-238.

Watch out: Arsenic occurs in drinking water in some locales - and can be carcinogenic, so that's another question to discuss with your water test lab.

• Smith, Allan H., Claudia Hopenhayn-Rich, Michael N. Bates, Helen M. Goeden, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Heather M. Duggan, Rose Wood, Michael J. Kosnett, and Martyn T. Smith. "Cancer risks from arsenic in drinking water." Environmental health perspectives 97 (1992): 259.

Frankly, ANY claim that drinking water is causing ANY health concern, much less such a wide range as those you cite (that are not usually associated with a single common cause) are speculative until you know the key "poison" factors: dose and level (or duration) of exposure.

You should take these health concerns first to your personal physician.

PK88 about a "cistern"

I'm not sure what we're discussing.

A "cistern" in my definition is a closed container used to store water. That water has to come from some external source like rainwater collection, water delivery tanks, perhaps a nearby well or spring piped to drain into the cistern.

See CISTERNS, WATER STORAGE

A dug well might be my description of what you might be discussing: a dug out hole in the ground into which groundwater enters from surrounding soil and/or rock.

See DUG WELLS, by HAND

That dug -wells article series includes a discussion of things people do to try to restore water flow into the well: excavation, side probing, or as Paul Galow's dad did on their Pennsylvania farm, dynamite (I don't recommend the last item)

Spring Water Quantity Improvement Q&A

Can I Frack the Silt out of our Spring Box to Increase Water Yield?

I have a spring box with four feed holes under the water level - I want to restore the volume output which has reduced to a trickle to re-fill a restored pond.

Is there a way to "frack" the silt out of the surrounding area of the box without completely digging it up? It used to run 3 GPM continuously. On 2016-05 by Walter

by (mod) - tips for improving spring yield

Hey Walter, good question.

You can try working with a wrecking bar around the spring box, or you could excavate to remove silt, filling in around the spring box walls with clean gravel.

Keep in mind that if the water table is dropping no amount of gravel is going to raise the water level back up;