Zero Water

"No Water, No Life"

We use water every day, water to drink, brush our teeth with, wash our hands and shower with.  What would you do if you turned your faucet on and nothing came out? 

You cannot flush a toilet without water.  If you have no water in the holding tank there is no water pressure to flush the contents down the drain and into the sewer or septic tank. It doesn't matter whether you live in the city or in a rural community.  Doesn't matter if you have a septic tank or city sewer.  If the water turns off it will not be accessible to anyone.    

Water doesn't just miraculously flow up and out of the ground and into your home.  It has to be primed, pumped and plumbed from water sources either large overhead tanks that hold millions of gallons of water (the kind you see on spindly legs in rural communities) or siphoned out of lakes and reservoirs for big city use.    

Water is used in baby formula, nuclear power plants, hospitals and hotels, fire departments, restaurants, bars and pubs, agriculture, livestock production and farming, manufacturing, whether it's the steel industry, bottling plants, or cooking the ingredients necessary for processing food.     

Water is indispensable.  We cannot do without it yet we don't even don't even give it a second thought as to how important and vital it is in our lives until we don't have access to it.   

The reason I'm sharing this with you is because, today, I'm up close and personal with not having any water in my house as the main unit on the well, the submersible motor control unit containing the capacitor (both receive and send) and regulator is most likely fried due to heavy cycling of the well pump that occurred last winter.

This post is to acquaint you with where our drinking water comes from, how it is plumbed into our house and how we're able to turn on a faucet in the kitchen or bath and have hot or cold water, on demand.    

The well pump (in my case, at the end of a 150' drop) is the device that sucks the water up and out of a water source such as an aquifer and pumps it into a holding tank complete with a bladder, where it is pressurized.  

The original problem started this past winter when I found I had a water leak in some underground plumbing I didn't know was there that was going out to an old abandoned well.  (The plumbing was never capped off).

I was unaware it was leaching out for days until I happened upon it by accident.  During this time I hadn't seen any noticeable drop in water pressure when I turned on the kitchen faucet or flushed the toilet or I would have started to look sooner for any leaks. 

It turned out the water had been leaching out for days that turned into weeks and weeks into months before I found it and had caused the well pump to cycle excessively (turning on and off for months) wearing out the motor.      

Now I'm having to pour water into toilets to flush them and using bottled water to wash my hands and dishes.  I also have livestock that depend on water and will be faced with other alternatives if I can't fix the problem soon.  

I've been mulling buying one of those 2500 gal. black holding tanks for extra water supply and now know I'm not putting it off as I don't want to be caught short again.  At least I'll have a backup, ready supply of water in the event I'm ever faced with another water crisis. 

But you,what would you do?  Would you even know where to begin in this type of emergency or even what to do?  You would have to be familiar with the workings of a well pump, don't you think?
Do you even know how water is piped into your house?  Do you know what a capacitor is and its function?  How about a regulator, what exactly does it do?

These might sound like stupid questions but actually if you take the time to learn a little bit about how things work it will help you understand how things that are so vital to our health and well being are constructed, the whos the whys the whats the what fors and begin to realize the complexity involved in order to provide us with those things we can't do without.

This type of knowledge is well worth your time and begs your respect.     

Think about how much water you use every day; how plentiful it is, how accessible it is and then think about how your life would change if you didn't have it.  How are you going to wash your hands, flush the toilet, take a bath or just turn the faucet on and fill a glass?

Remember this saying, "we never know how much we're gonna miss something until it's gone."  

Your water's turned off.  You don't have access to it anymore.  How long before the grocery store shelves are cleaned out of bottled water?  How long before they can even restock it?  How long before there is no more bottled water, for anyone, anywhere?

How long before you start to panic?  

Think about it.  How would you cope?  And don't tell me it can't happen.  I'm dealing with a water crisis right now.

Suggestion:  If you don't have a plan make one.  It can be as simple as buying some cases of bottled water and storing them in your house or apartment.  

Maybe you'll decide to take a trip to the local water department and ask some really good and relevant questions or, maybe, you'll decide to join the local water board.

In any case your interest has been piqued.

The rest is up to you.
          ~Nightshade~