Master Builder Show sponsored by the 1st National Bank of Weatherford. I am your host (Jim Gibson) President of Gibson Home Builders; Inc. A registered builder in the state of Texas, a Graduate Master Builder certified by the National Association of Home Builders. I am a current member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Texas Association of Builders, National Association of Builders and outgoing President of the Parker County Builders Association.
My guests today are Judge Mark Riley county judge for Parker County and James Lindley with Moore’s Water Well Services.
This show is designed to educate and answer questions of the listeners on residential design, construction or anything dealing with building, remodeling, repairing and maintaining a home in the State of Texas.
We also have 4 gift certificates to Home Depot to give away in the amount of $25.00 each. We will be giving away one gift certificate before each break. There will be 4 trivia questions.
1st Question: What is the Hydrologic Cycle?
2nd Question: What are the four classical elements?
3rd Question: What is Transpiration?
4th Question: What is the purest form of water?
We will answer any questions you may have so call us on the Master Builder Show. The toll free number is (877) 341-8950 that’s (877) 341-8950
To check out builders or a remodeler go on line to www.texasrcc.org
Here you can find out if the builder or contractor is currently registered and if he or she has any complaints filed against them.
To get a list of registered builders in your area, you can also contact your local Building Association.
Parker County Builders Association is a chapter of the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association and they have a list of builders for the following counties.
Parker, Hood, Somerville, Palo Pinto, Johnson, Tarrant and Wise counties
Their Number is 817-457-2864 that’s 817-457-2864.
The topic we will be talking about, today, is water. Where does our potable water come from? Is it good enough to drink? What are our choices if we do not have a community well? What are the cost, involved in the different types of water systems?
Groundwater Facts and Trivia
The Earth is a closed system there is the same amount of water here today as there was 3 billion years ago. The same water you drink today, may have been consumed by the dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era.
Water moves through the hydrologic cycle (commonly called the water cycle), changing from solid to liquid to gas (which is water vapor) over and over again.
Ninety-Seven percent of the earth’s water is saltwater, only 3% is fresh water. Of the fresh water, 77% is frozen in ice caps and glaciers, 22% is groundwater and less than 1% is found in lakes, marshes, streams and rivers.
About 95% of the United States’ water supply of fresh water is groundwater. The remaining 5% is found in lakes, rivers and steams.
About 27 trillion gallons of groundwater is withdrawn for use each year in the United States.
Three-quarters of the cities in the United States use groundwater as a part of their water supply.
There are more than 800,000 new water wells drilled in the United States each year.
Unconsolidated sands and gravels compose around 90% of all aquifers developed for water supplies. Porous sandstone, limestone, highly fractured crystalline and volcanic rock make up most of the rest.
Groundwater supplies water to many of our streams, lakes and wetlands. In fact, about 30% of stream flow in the United State is from groundwater.
Rainfall is the main source of fresh groundwater. Somewhere around 25% of rainfall in the United States becomes groundwater. That equals about 300 trillion gallons per year.
Groundwater moves constantly. The rate of movement may be as fast as 50 feet per day or as slow as 50 feet in 500 years.
Groundwater almost always contains more mineral deposits than nearby surface water, but is generally cleaner.
About 1 quarter of the Earth’s population drink contaminated water.
The two major groundwater problems are overdraft (which means withdrawing more water than can be replaced naturally), and unnatural contamination.
Since water will dissolve more things than any other natural substance it is very susceptible to contamination.
Groundwater contamination has been found in every state and it should be every ones goal to think of the consequences before using substances that could contaminate our water supplies.
Moving To The Country.
Most city folks don’t have a problem getting water at home. They pay their tap fee and get the meter placed, from a municipality or co-op, pay their water bill, turn on the faucet and the water flows.
But people who move out to the country sometimes must leave the conveniences of city life behind, including their water services.
This can be a problem. Try going a day without, taking a bath, flushing a toilet, cooking or taking a drink. Buying water and hauling it in will not work for long for most people.
People generally have three alternatives for getting water to their property; drilling a well, getting a supplier to extend an existing water source to your property or install a rainwater harvesting system.
You see, water comes from three places, the surface, groundwater (when I say groundwater I mean from a well), or it falls from the sky in various forms.
However, for several reasons, these options aren’t always available in all places. For example; if groundwater is available it may cost too much to reach or be contaminated and not fit for human consumption. Connecting to a centralized water system may be cost prohibitive for s single landowner. Finally, scarce rain may rule out installing a rainwater harvesting system.
Just this short discussion on the alternatives includes plenty of challenges, so welcome to the joys of living the country life.
What I’d like to talk about now are some basics to get you started and some tips on obtaining water if you are considering buying property in a rural area.
1). Groundwater Wells. The first question you need to ask is whether or not there is groundwater available. It pretty well goes without saying that a reliable water supply greatly affects the livability and value of any land. So if the land is cheap and has no existing well there may be some kind of a problem.
The good news for property owners is that, with few exceptions, Texas has a 100-year old “rule of capture” law that allows landowners to capture all the water underneath their land.
The most logical thing to do in the country is drill a well. You need to develop a complete plan of you water needs for the property. This means where you are going to put the well and where you are going to dump the wastewater. Your well needs to be at least 100 feet away from your septic system and the farther away the better.
Before purchasing a home or property, water experts advise consumers to check state records on water well drilling activities from the Texas Water Development Board and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. You should also check with local landowners to find out any problems they may have encountered.
Cost can vary from a few thousand dollars to $10,000 and more depending on depth of the well, the type of underlying formation and other factors. Talk to local drillers and find out the depth first this will be one of the biggest expenses.
Always keep in mind: a well is only as dependable as the aquifer from which the water is pulled. Wells can and do go dry. As more people move into an area and more wells are drilled the aquifer levels may drop. Then a deeper well would have to be drilled which would mean added expense.
Water quality is another issue. Water wells may contain contaminates such as high sulfate concentrations and dissolved solids. Many wells also yield hard water, meaning it has a high mineral content. In this case water filtration systems and water softeners add to the cost for a good system. While the quality of water varies greatly depending on the area, most well owners swear that their water is the best water in the world.
Rainwater Harvesting Systems
Rainwater harvesting has been around for a long, long time. People would catch the rainwater, hold it in cisterns and use it for their main water source.
Rainwater harvesting has gained a great deal of attention in recent years and the rainwater collection systems have improved 100% from what they were a century ago. There are a number of suppliers today serving Texas.
The cost of the systems can vary depending on the amount you want to collect and how you intend to use the water. I know of several systems that provide all the water for the entire household. Cost could run from a few thousand dollars on up. As a rough estimate a home system should have about 5000 gallons of storage capacity per person. Just remember a rainwater harvesting system is totally dependant on rainfall. It will not work in areas of low precipitation.
For a complete system you need a collection surface, such as a guttered roof, a cistern or holding tank, a filtration system, a pump and a disinfection process.
Typically, people with rainwater harvesting systems do not have lavish landscapes, but instead rely on native plants that use less water.
One of the potential limiting factors is that there are no federal or state public health or safety standards for designing, constructing or maintaining rainwater systems.
The downside to these systems is the maintenance required. You need to keep the collection surface clean and free of debris. Clean the cistern or holding tank every year or two, replace filters as needed and maintain the pump.
How The Hydrologic Cycle Works.
Water travels in a never-ending cycle. The same amount of water exists today, as it did when the Earth was formed. It is in different forms and locations but the volume has not changed in millions of years. The process starts with the sun. It’s energy in the form of light and heat causes the water to evaporate (Evaporation Process). Which means it changes the water from a liquid to a gas or vapor. Warm air rises lifting the water vapor into the atmosphere.
When the air currents reach the cooler layers of the atmosphere, the water vapor starts condensing around fine particles in the air. This is called the (Condensation Process).
When enough vapor particles attach themselves to tiny pieces of dust, pollen or pollutants, it forms a cloud.
When the air reaches a saturation point. The droplets that form the clouds get to heavy for the swirling atmospheric winds to hold. The droplets then fall from the sky as precipitation (Precipitation Process). Precipitation can be in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail depending on the atmospheric conditions and temperature.
When the precipitation reaches the ground, several things can happen, depending on ground conditions. It may be re-evaporated, freeze, absorbed or become run off.
If it is absorbed it is called infiltration (Infiltration Process). Once absorbed it feeds the plants or filters down to become groundwater.
Another form of evaporation that contributes to the cycle is called transpiration (Transpiration Process). In this case water is given off through pores of plants and animals that returns to the atmosphere.
With transpiration and evaporation, the cycle starts all over again. Each time a molecule of water goes through the Hydrologic Cycle it is cleaned, or purified, so it can be used by plants, animals and all living things on the planet Earth for as long as the Earth exists.
