High Schecknology at BOO

Water Works
The site at Little Lake Santa Fe is really beautiful, but also really primitive. We have electricity there, so I shouldn’t complain. But if you are going to be on site for a week, a bit more is needed. One of the things missing last year was a source of water. Not so much drinking water, as that is easy to bring, as washing and cooking water, of which some quantity is needed. I started researching this, as there was no working well on the property, and the lake was our only convenient source. But lake water is full of all sorts of interesting things, many of which we might not want to ingest. Cleaning up water is a multi-step process. You have to reduce the sediment (sand, mud, etc.) and you have to filter out the organic chemicals. You also need to filter out the organic critters (bacteria, cysts, and such) to make it reasonably safe. Finally, to make the water safe to drink, you need to sterilize it. This can be done with chemicals (chlorine, ozone, iodine) or with Ultraviolet light. Or boiling, but that takes a lot of work. I estimated that we would use about 50 gallons per day, mostly for washing (including showers, dishwashing, and hand washing), and spec’d out a system for doing this. After some initial research, I decided not to sterilize the water. It would either be too expensive (UV) or too involved (chlorine or ozone). If you want safe drinking water, it needs to be tested, and this is pretty involved too. I looked into biofilters, which are very promising, but require 2-4 weeks to initialize. Biofilters are slow sand filters where the water trickles through a biologically active layer, which “eats” most of the contaminants. Definitely a good technology for a permanent system, as it involves gravel, sand, and a couple of 55 gallon drums. I settled on a simple sediment filter with a carbon block filter as a secondary filter. The sediment filter takes out all particles larger than 15 microns (sand and such) and the carbon block filters to 0.5 micron, which takes out most bacteria, and reactive organic chemicals. So I think we would have clean water, but not necessarily sterile. I tried one additional filter, a neat product from Prime Water in Germany, called a microfilter. This filters water to 0.3 microns, which removes everything but viruses. The Setup I brought a 3/4 HP water pump with a short hose and a footer valve (so we wouldn’t lose prime). We installed this on the dock, to get the source away from the shore, where the water is the muddiest. Clark supplied hoses to bring the water to the sediment filter, to a captive air tank (well tank) and finally to the carbon block filter. Unfortunately, the microfilter (3rd stage) clogged within about 10 minutes, so it had to be removed from the system. One thing I was concerned about, given the farm animals in the area, was ammonia and nitrate contamination in the water, which the carbon filter will not remove. I got a testing kit for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and pH. Tim Franklin did tests with raw water, and fortunately found that the Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite levels were close to zero. However, the pH was low (acid) with a value of about 5.5 Not surprising, with all the tannin (tannic acid) in the water. With the system operational, we filled a jug with the water and evaluated the quality. The water still had a brownish color (from the tannin) but was very clear, indicating that it had most sediment removed. The carbon filter would take out most pesticides, and other organics, so we had a source of reasonable water. Clark supplied a nice stainless steel sink, and John Eddy and Rob Cotton built a frame for supporting the sink. The grey water from the sink needed disposal, so we cobbled together a grey water disposal area consisting of a bunch of spanish moss (in lieu of mulch). The ground actually absorbs the water; it is more a matter of keeping critters (flies) away from the draining water, so they can’t get to the pooling water before it is absorbed. This way our food doesn’t get contaminated. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I saw a lot of use of our water system, and I think everyone is healthy. I really enjoyed being able to wash hands and face, particularly after all of the work setting up the stage and scaffolding. -Greg Photos: Clark
THE JOYS OF WATER IN THE WILDERNESS!Notice the sediment filter and the disposal in the background.
Pump on the Dock
Carbon filter and the pressure regulator
Brand new faucet
Gray water disposal