Community water system (long)

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Pupcreek

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Hello, new to the forum so feel free to redirect me if this topic is not proper for this forum. I am a volunteer on the water committee of a community water system. The system provides potable water for 30 residences and a possible 30 more. We cover a full section of land (1mi x 1mi), have 3 well yards and 4 producing wells. Our area is hilly so the yards are separated by up to 60' in elevation and 1500 yards in piping. Most of our main line pipe is 6" with some 3-4". We have 48,000 of storage. The system began in 1975 with 1 home and 1 well and has grown since so some of our buried pipe sizing is iffy. Our yards are identified as East, West and North.

We just added the 3rd yard and well (North). It is the lowest in elevation by 50' but the highest producer by 5x (30gpm+) over the other wells. Since we are in the high desert rock three of our wells produce less than 4gpm - our members are conservative water consumers. Due to the production we want the new well and pressure system to provide the majority of the water. All yards have 7,000gal pressure tanks certified to 250psi. Our to older yards have mercoid pressure switches and are adjusted to 95psi ON and 115psi OFF. This has proven to provide most residences with 45-55psi depending on line drop and elevation change.

The new yard has a digital (dwyer) pressure switch and is set at 118psi ON and 130psi OFF. At these settings the new yard is not contributing to the water consumption. Faced with our elevations and homeowner need of 45psi min at each home how you you folks tune this system? Just bump the North yard pressure? Other ideas?
 

Valveman

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Sounds like a real cluster to me. If you have 48,000 in ground storage, the wells should be feeding the storage tank, then you should have a booster pump drawing from the storage tank to feed the houses. The well pumps should be using level probes in the storage tank to turn on and off, and should not even have pressure switches and pressure tanks.

At those pressure settings a 7,000 gallon pressure tank only holds about 200 gallons of usable water. I can't imagine how much money was spent on those big pressure tanks, which are practically worthless.

A 4 GPM well will supply 5,760 gallons per day, which by itself should supply 57 people with 100 gallons each per day. So with all the wells you have lots of water available. It just needs to go to the storage tank before being pumped to the houses.

A 30 GPM well would probably supply a system with 60 people without any additional storage or booster pumps. This one well could supply 43,200 gallons per day, which is enough to supply 432 people with 100 gallons each per day.

You don’t have a well problem or lack of water problem. You have a control problem. There are several ways to control a system like this. You may have to call me and lets discuss this for a while to figure out the best scenario.

Your new well being 50’ in elevation lower than the other means the pressure settings will need to be 22 PSI higher that all other settings. But I don’t see how that makes any difference unless you are supplying the houses directly from the wells, which could easily be done, but doesn’t explain how the 48,000 gallon storage tank is being used.

Do you have booster pumps in the storage tank? Do you chlorinate the water? Are there separate lines running from the well fields to the storage tank? Do you know the depths of the wells and the size of pumps?
 

Pupcreek

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Thank you valveman for the reply. Yes it is a cluster :) almost 40 years of 'improvements' will do that to a system. We have 4 storage tanks which total 48,000. Two tanks are in the East yard (20,000) and the other two in the West (28,000). The wells that supply the East and West yards pump directly to the storage tanks using separate lines from the main. All yards are connected via the system main-line (3"-6") and all homes are connected to the same main. It is not a loop system (yet).

The pressure tanks are all new but produced in 1999 cost = $6,000ea. The West yard and the East yard each have 3-5hp pressure pumps that pull from the storage tanks and push to the 7,000g pressure tanks. We do not chlorinate full-time, only to disinfect a new component or well.

I am a relative newcomer to this system so after my post I checked elevations and I was off a notable amount. The North well is 3541ft, the East well 3704 and the West 3709. Our highest home is 3850 and lowest is 3655.

Well depths; 950', 700' feeding the East yard. 450', 360' feeding the West yard and our new North yard well is 360'. The new North well is a Goulds 18gs50 (5hp) the other pumps range from 2-5hp. The pump in our 950' well is 1000' from the panel so its run off a VFD (3ph) all others are single phase.

I would be happy to talk with you on the phone so please let me know when is a good time to call.
 
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