Red Dome Inc. Lava (Foamed Obsidian) Used in Water Collection and Filtration Systems
Water Collection systems are old technologies in most of the world today. In areas of arid dry climates water harvesting practices are common. But for reasons that are unknown to me, harvesting rainwater, purifying that water are not practiced.
True most of us never give it a second thought as to where our water comes from. It’s just there at the end of the faucet when we go and turn on our tap. We expect it to be clean and clear, drinkable. When the day comes that for whatever reason it doesn’t magically appear when we turn on the tap some of us will go into “Panic Mode”.
I like most of my fellow Americans hate to be caught unprepared, I may though, take this as well as other things to the other extreme. Water in this area pits neighbor against neighbor, farmer against farmer, why? Because there isn’t enough to go around, this is mainly because farmers are ingrained in old farming practices. And aren’t willing to plant corps that are less water intensive such as grains like wheat, oats and barley, plant less water hogging corps such as corn and Alafia. The reason for this boils down to money and getting the maximum buck for the crop.
Trees in this area are viewed as undesirable because of the water they consume, sad isn’t it. The very thing that could help our farmers is the first thing they get rid of.
The past six years have been drier than normal, here in central Utah more specifically Millard County. Snowfalls in the mountains has been below normal, spring rains are the same. Fires have been common, in fact the largest Utah state fire happened in our county last year. The state tried to replant after the fire and went to great expense to do so many, many men worked day and night reseeding the burn area, but to no avail. Why? Because there wasn’t enough winter moisture to create and support the new plant growth, also interestingly enough the seeds that were chosen to plant were not the ones that nature would of chosen to restart the growth process in this burn area. The seeds that were chosen were grasses that cattle men wanted and needed to raise cattle, a variety that is less likely to brown up when it dries up. But that’s not the point here, “Nature” has a method, a step by step process to re-grow the burn areas, and man (aka over paid government tree huggers) in his inhalant wisdom feels he can skip these steps to speed up this process. What is this process? How does it connect to water harvesting?
In this dry desert area the first thing that grows in disturbed ground such as these burned areas are shade producing plants such as the black-eyed Susan, a tall thick stemmed plant that has a pretty yellow flower with a dark center, which the bees love. Funny thing about this plant is that they are only there for a couple years then they are gone. But it is more than enough time for the other plants such as sagebrush, ironwood, rabbit brush, etc. to start to take hold. True these aren’t the best feed for livestock, but they are what is needed to start the re-growth process. In the words of another man: “ What is best for nature isn’t always best for man, but its no use fighting nature because she will always win”.
Understanding Nature and working with her is always the best answer here but trying to force a rose to grow in an arid land where no rose has ever grown before is a fools efforts.
It is very true that the climate is warming up, and it is true that this has happened many times though out the course of time here on Earth. This was done in conjunction with cycles of cold and heat. Though many may argue that “Man” has done its fair share of damage, the least of which is pumping water from far below the surface, dropping our aquifers out of reach of the tree roots, (trees in of themselves are mini water pumps) killing those trees and collapsing micro climates around them. Nature seems to hates idealness, to her things need to change so she has created plants that do grow in their place, many of which considered to be undesirable by man. Lean waxy plants with thorns such as the Russian Olive are growing in areas never seen before. Cheat Grass aka June Grass is taking over also because they mature in a short time and need little water. Smoke Bush is another plant trying to take advantage of the water problem these plants are considered to be undesirable by the government and people who use the land for their own purposes.
I say these are the plants man “deserves” because of his fighting nature and not living in harmony with her. This may sound harsh but if one stripes the land and changes the order of things sooner or later one has to live with the consequences of their actions. And in this case here we are going to see many farms go under because of the lack of surface and deep well water. Hard lessons but that’s what is the trade off will be, and the of course people being people, they will never take responsibility for their own actions when they can blame an unseen force or the Government. (Silly Billies.)
My well here at the job site is now dry. Six years ago when I had to replace the pump I had between 40 and 50 feet of static, meaning there was between 40 and 50 feet of water to pump from with an almost instant refill, but today the well is dry.
My farming neighbor re-drilled his well to get at that deeper water, what he got was sand, so he put in special screens to hold back the sand, but now his refill rate is such that he is using less than half of the water he once was. Thus he is farming half the ground. And till pumping sand onto his fields and plugging his sprinkler heads thus forcing him to go to a larger size and putting more water on his ground, you get the point the cycle is one that isn’t for the best.
The farmers who use surface run off in the form of ditch water irrigation, feel the pain the most. But these farmers are the ones who are trying to do more with less. They are just this year experimenting with grains, such as Millet, White wheat, and Hard Red Winter Wheat.
I hope soon they will try to stripe farm placing crops together that are compatible and beneficial to each other, such as bush beans and winter grains, etc. But changing a farmers mind to a new way of thinking is as hard as dragging a mule across a creek.
I decided to create an experiment of my own on a piece of ground that I own. I call it the Horsefeathers Project. I wondered if it was possible to create the comforts of today lifestyle without damaging the land and water and wildlife around me. Mind you I’m not a tree hugger, nor am I a activist of any kind, but I was raised as a farmers son, with the firm steadfast belief that this land is for my children and that we are just quests on her for a limited time. And like a good quest in another’s home, we better not trash her least we get ourselves booted out.
The Horsefeathers Project is one that uses Green technologies by this I mean I am trying to build with savaged material, and recycled material. Not because I’m cheap, because believe me this isn’t the cheapest way to go. Nor is it the easiest way to go, there has been a lot of hard, hard work that has gone into this project already and there is a lot of effort yet to be applied yet.
The material of choice is the natural stone found on site. I like the Earthship style and concept for minimal environmental impact, but I need my animals and a large garden with fruit trees and brambles, so I need to step up the plan quite a bit, and I need to collect large amounts of heavens water for longer periods of time and reuse it again in different ways. And the animals I tend need to aid in this cycle also.
How am I doing this?
On the land that the Horsefeathers Project is conceived there is no water, no streams, no deep water well permits, nothing but so called worthless, sagebrush, cactus, and rock covered ground, (and I still paid to much for it at the time). But that was okay I had been looking for ground no one else wanted but it had to have a list of things that it had to meet. They were as follows:
1. no water sources
2. no tillable ground or used as tillable ground in the past 100 plus years.
3. It had to be rocky
4. It had to have a southern slope
5. It also to have a western slope (I like sunsets and long as possible winter days).
6. It needed to be minimally 20 acres, more it possible (don’t like neighbors in my back pocket so to speak)
7. It had to be at least a couple miles from the nearest small town.
8. It had to be seen from a distance, to get folks to ask questions like what are you doing out there? If people are asking questions they are thinking how can they apply this idea to their own projects.
9. Finally it had to have a feeling of comfort, privacy, and security. A place my triplets would like to go to help their old man.
There were a few other things too I was wanting but these were the main ones.
I own a place in town and will continue to own it even after the completion of this project. And my day job takes up most of my time, though I work at this project daily mainly after work and on weekends. (It keeps me busy and it’s a good method of relieving the stress of my job.)
In this blog I’d like to show photos and talk to you about a small portion of my water collection system that I create this year it will grow in size as time and money aloud.
The Horsefeathers Water Collection/Filtration System
On the southern edge of the property there was a deep ditch that had been created by the washing away of soil by erosion of the flash flooding that the area was prone to at times. This was probably first created by over grazing of livestock, which killed or ate the plants that held the thin topsoil in place. Oh well the damage was done and this land scar was created. I thought this ditch would be prefect place for a cistern. I decided to recycle a tank of about 6000 gallons. This would be the first one and a little farer down I’d place a few like it or of a different style. But to start off with I went with this one. A 6000 gallon older iron tank.
It took a bit of doing to get it hauled up the hill to Horsefeathers and even more hand labor to get the site ready to place it in the ditch at just the right spot and at just the right angle of slope, with just the right amount of bedding material to set the tank upon. I used foamed obsidian 3/8 minus about 10 inches thick. Because any water that tries to nests under the tank will quickly flow out and away from the tank. I then carefully placed the tank in its home by creating a bi-pod using come-a-longs and 20 foot logs and heavy chains. This took some time and much strategic thinking about how to move this heavy beast. (I had the time of my life doing this, I do a lot of this type of thing on a daily bases at my job) After I got it in place I took recycled Ag. Bag Plastic I had collected from a feedlot owner who had used it to fill corn sawage in, (I love the smell of corn sawage I wonder if they can make a aftershave of the smell?) This plastic is thick and on one side it is white and on the other it is black. I took this plastic and covered the tank in two layers and then covered the tank now plastic covered in dirt that I had in collected from an earlier project using a skid steer that I bought years earlier that I had to find a 3 cylinder diesel engine for and machine parts for the hydraulic pump because they didn’t make them anymore. That was a good snow day project.
I left the down hill side open, rather exposed to be able to wield a peacock valve onto at the bottom of the tank and from that a 1 ½ inch black plastic water line that ran in a horse watering tank (to water the horses).
The Tank or Cistern is in place now to create a filtration system and a collection system.
I cleared off and leveled the ground over and above the buried cistern. This is a north-facing slope and is steeper than it appears in the photos. It is also bigger than it looks it is roughly about an acre in size. Notice all my construction material I’ve collected, slowly but surely it is being used up.
I had to cut a trench above the cistern about 5 feet wide and 25 feet long, sloped at about 10 degrees. I placed two layers of that Ag-bag Plastic within it, lining the future filtration system. Within this lined tapered trench of 5 feet deep I placed 11/2 mixed colored foamed obsidian aka. Lava Rock. The reason for using Lava Rock is because of the design nature has given it. It is very porous, light weight, water freely flows though it, there is no clay or heavy soils in it to block water movement, the cavities within the rock itself create micro climates for “good guy” bacterial that eat up those harmful elements within the water as it passes though the system. (Yes I know I simplified the complexities of the system but it would take a book to explain what is happening within that system hidden from the human eye.)
Once the filtration system was done the next step was to cover the hillside with this Ag-bag plastic in two layers and place Lava Rock on top of it to a dept of 12 inches. This is the least amount of material I thought best to go because the heat in this area does its best to suck every last drop of moisture from the rock. And with the great insulating qualities of Foamed Obsidian aka Lava Rock, that can be greatly reduced to just a couple inches of surface area, the rest of the depth is cooler to allow the summer’s rainfall to quickly flow though to the lower levels before the heat of the next day tries again to evaporate it.
As a point of interest, in August, Millard County received 1.5 inches of rainfall, on The Horsefeathers Project, I received a bit over ¾ of an inch, roughly half. With my system being brand new and totally dry with no moisture what so ever retained in the lower levels of the Lava Rock Collection/Filtration I was able to fill the cistern half way or roughly 3000 gallons.
Not to bad I thought.
But this is one system and it is a small system. Wait till you see what my plans are for the other 19 acres. There is no reason I can’t collect enough rainfall each year to meet all my watering needs. It just takes planning and hard work, and of course Money. If you would like to donate a dollar or two it would be greatly welcomed and be put to good use on the Horsefeathers Project. But just as importantly to me is that I hope that you were able to take a bit of this experiment and put it to use in some way, shape, or form for your own use. Everyone is free to use this and pass it onto their friends. If you have any questions please feel free to email me.
It you can help, great and thank you, if you see any anything that interests you in the columns please visit them also. Please help support work projects and experiments such as this one.
