Summer HEAT and water supplies . . .

OK, so it doesn't quite get this hot and dry here on the south coast!                          But water tables will be dropping soon, and so homeowners should be moving into full-on water conservation mode.

Here are a few pointers . . .

• Do only full loads of laundry, and no multiple loads in one day.
• Get a water-saving shower head -- e.g. Water-Pik that allows you to shut-off flow at head for soaping up.
• Tell all your house guests the Gulf Islands toilet mantra: "if it's yellow, let it mellow . . ."
• Let your grass "go native" in our natural dry season; it bounces back in the fall.
• If you have a low-recovery well -- maybe this is the summer to finance and install a well-to-cistern-to-house system so you can slowly trickle fill a cistern to have a reservoir of water.
• Water the tender flowers and veggies in the early morning or late evening.
• Buy a well-watcher to monitor your well level if you've had a past history of it running dry.

How to Change Your Sterilight UV lamp

Here's a YouTube "How-to" video link posted by a colleague.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMJ9RMoBn6Y

Rainwater collectors . . . . Get ready for pollen season!!

Soon tree pollen will be drifting down, covering cars, lawn furniture, roofs and gutters. If you harvest rain for potable use, you need to be a good rainwater farmer and take steps to bypass and divert pollen-laden rainwater from getting into your cistern.

Australia, Texas, Oregon and several Caribbean nations are leaders in rainwater collection. Various sources from these regions as well as field knowledge gathered from hundreds of our customers collecting rainwater here on Gabriola, have given us some essential recommendations on maintaining your rainwater harvesting system. Here are tips to keep in mind:



WITHEY'S WATER TREATMENT
RAINWATER HARVESTING TIPS. . .



Overall:


 Monthly: spend about 10 minutes and do a walkabout of your system. Ensure gutters and downspouts aren’t plugged, screens are in place, pipe is not broken or leaking. Check cistern water level with a pole, gauge or tape and record in a log book. Check whole-house filters, change if needed. See that pump pressure is stable and not cycling (if it is, there may be a leak or faulty check valve). Ensure UV is on and not in alarm.


 Ensure gutters are in good condition and clean; put a screen/strainer over the gutter downspout hole to keep out mosquitoes and other insects from your pipes.


 Ensure collection cistern has leaf & insect screen in place, hatches are closed and overflow pipe, vents are screened to keep out critters.


 Periodically – (e.g.) yearly, biennially or at a time you think is necessary, clean your cistern(s) and flush out your collection pipes.


 Though Century Cisterns are HDPE-UV-stabilized, it’s a good idea to shade your cisterns to help reduce sunlight intensity and moderate the water temperature.


 If you have a first-rain diverter or cleanout – ensure you have it emptied and ready to go for the next rain after an extended dry-period.


 Occasionally, add plain 5.25% household chlorine bleach to your cisterns (dose: approx ¾ cup per every 1,200 gallons of stored water) to help kill organisms that may be present. Hydrogen peroxide -- 35% food grade -- can be used instead (dose: approx. ¼ to ½ litre per every 1,200 gallons of stored water). Use hose or bucket to re-circulate water in cisterns for 10 - 20 mins.


+ Spring/Summer:


 During extended dry periods (e.g. greater than 7-10 days) ensure your system is ready to bypass/divert the first rain so it cleans your roof and the atmosphere of pollutants. The only researched guideline on this is to allow for at least 10 gallons of rain to be diverted for every 1,000 sq ft of collection surface for a “typical roof”. If you have a piped-in first flush diverter, ensure it is empty and ready to accept the first-flush of rain. Otherwise, bypass your cistern and give a solid rainstorm about 2-4 hours of cleaning time before collecting.


 Clean and flush your gutters, collection pipes and roof after pollen season.


+ Fall/Winter


 Continue diverting first rain after any extended dry period.


 Ensure system is ready to go for the big winter rains. Collect rain continuously.


 Ensure “wet collection” & supply pipes are protected from freezing by earth or insulation. If you have a “wet-pipe” collection system and extended sub-zero temperatures are forecasted, open up your clean-out/rain diverter and empty the collection pipe of water so it doesn’t freeze and crack your collection pipes!

Help! Manure Management on the Gulf Islands

Is there proper manure management for horses, hobby animals on Gabriola and other Gulf Islands? The answer: slim to none. Most acreages or hobby farms I visit are blissfully unaware of proper manure management techniques.

Our extremely wet, soggy winters and highly porous soil and subsoil structure combined with an uncovered, unmanaged manure pile is a complete recipe for guaranteed groundwater contamination. Not only e-coli and possible pathogens, but nitrate loading of groundwater -- extreme health hazard. Treatment for Nitrates is complex and expensive. Best practice: manage your manure carefully, and avoid problems.

An excellent B.C. resource is http://www.manuremaiden.com/

Prevent leaching -- cover, contain, compost! (image courtesy: manuremaiden.com)

Become a Rain Gardener . . .

On B.C.'s Gulf Islands and in many other rural areas, increased housing developments are creating additional pressures on well water quantity and quality.

There is a growing consciousness that how we care for the surface areas of our properties has a direct impact on groundwater quality. There are regulations in place for restricting pollutants, septic system issues, and manure management that cause groundwater pollution, but there is a lack of direct guidance on landscape maintenance to provide the best rainwater collection and filtration capabilities.

Rain Gardening is an urban stormwater management technique that can be used to inspire thinking along these lines . . . http://www.raingardennetwork.com/ is one resource.

Essentially gardens and yards should be designed to have a diversity of bio-geographically suited grasses, shrubs and trees that help filter and slowly percolate rainwater into the ground. The less monoculture, pavement, channelling and ditching of runoff, and bare, compacted ground areas the better.  Leave your forested areas with a healthy understory of grasses and shrubs.

Home Design & Build -- Cisterns with Bypass/First Rain Diverters!!

In my business, I spend much of my time chatting with islanders, and reminding them of the basic techniques of being a good "rainwater farmer": watching the skies, using simply devised, easy to operate first rain diverters, maintaining treatment systems, and avoiding the plague of tree pollen season. It doesn't take much -- 10 -20 minutes every month for a homeowner to keep their systems operating effectively.

I hope that many of the home builders/designers will take heed too. I visit many homes that have cistern collection pipes hard-plumbed in, so that diverters and bypasses have to be scabbed on as an afterthought. And once a few heavy pollen seasons and decomposing debris build-up in the cisterns, water quality is very poor. It's a shame for beautiful homes to have what amounts to old pond water for their household supply.

If you are in the process of getting a home designed with a cistern built-in to the foundation, be sure to ask your builder to incorporate: 

1. Roof collection rain diverters/bpyass pipes -- so that 10 gallons of "first rain" per every 1,000 sq ft of rooftop collection surface is able to be diverted from your cistern;
2.  Incorporate chamber design into your concrete cistern -- so that one chamber at a time can be isolated, drawn down and cleaned periodically, while still maintaining a supply of water to the house.
3. If separated chamber design is not practical, construct  a sump area or collection well into the cistern so that the rainwater inlet filling  the cistern is partially dammed, calmed and isolated from the rest of the reservoir. A weighted half-height rain barrel would do. That way, rainwater falls into the barrel first (along with debris) before spilling over the submerged edges to fill the cistern.

La Nina is coming this winter!!! Be ready for freezing temps

With predictions of cold, freezing temperatures on the BC coast this winter, ensure your water treatment sheds, rainwater collection systems and pipes are protected as best as you can from winter's wrath.

See our older blog post from Monday, November 30, 2009

"Rainwater collection system ready for cold weather? " for more details . . .

Resetting to extend lamp life temporarily

All UV lamps need to be replaced every 9,000 hours (approx. 1 year) of continuous, lit up usage. Newer models will have a reminder "beep beep" alarm to tell you it's time to replace the UV lamp and service the system. If you can't replace the UV lamp right away when it comes due, you can silence the alarm by doing the following:

WITH A RESET BUTTON --- 

1. Press and hold reset button for a loooonnng slow count of five seconds and release. This will silence alarm for 7 days. You can do this up four times before it will no longer silence and must be changed.

OR

WITHOUT A RESET BUTTON,  OR RESET DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK . . .

1. Unplug UV at outlet and wait 10 long seconds.
2. Then, while pressing down reset button of UV power supply (if it has one), plug UV back in and wait for the following (depending on UV power supply model): solid beep and then it silences, or solid beep and the words on LED display "reSET" are lit up. As soon as this occurs, take finger off reset button.
3. The beeping should stop and lamp should light up. If it does not, it may be that the power supply has been damaged from the outage, or more rarely, the UV lamp is burnt out.

WATCHING THE TREATMENT TRENDS!

Over the years, many treatment technologies have tried to break -in: new gimmicks, new claims, new brands. Overall the industry moves like a big ocean liner, slow and steady, and mass wins out over the smaller and less obvious.

When choosing water treatment equipment you want to look for a product with a good reputation and track record and that is in common use and readily available in the marketplace (so you can be confident parts, warranty, and service will be around for a long time for your system).

UVs, RO's and filter housings with changeable filters in common sizes, and fittings are the "go-to" systems for the vast majority of island homes.

More recent trends and developments we are watching are: Whole-house automatic ultra filtration systems or UF Systems (as a substitute to prefilters and UV) ; engineered sand automatic backwashing filters (as a substitute to prefilter cartridges); undersink UF systems (as a substitute to POU - RO's)

As we see more evidence of these systems in use in areas with water conditions similar to ours, we may see them installed in homes here more often. The economics and long-term availability of parts and supplies are the final determining factors in most cases.

Power outages and resetting a beeping UV . . .

On this island, we often get power outages, flickers or blips that may cause a UV power supply to come back on beeping, or the lamp won't power up properly and be alarming. With many of the newer models of UV this won't be an issue, but with some of the older systems, or just with the idiosyncracies of the Hydro feed to your house, you may need to deal with this each time.

If beeping or UV lamp out after power is restored, try the following steps:

1. Unplug UV at outlet and wait 10 long seconds.


2. Then, while pressing down reset button of UV power supply (if it has one), plug UV back in and wait for the following (depending on UV power supply model): solid beep and then it silences, or solid beep and the words on LED display "reSET". As soon as this occurs, take finger off reset button.


3. The beeping should stop and lamp should light up. If it does not, it may be that the power supply has been damaged from the outage, or more rarely, the UV lamp is burnt out.


4. Contact your service technician to confirm problem.

To protect your UV power supply and lamp function, it is always advised that no other fairly heavy power-using appliances (e.g. jet pump or centra-vac) be on the same plug or circuit, and that the outlet be GFCI and also have a plug-in style surge protector on it too.

If any past reasons or suspicions of unsafe water, you will need to sanitize with chlorine and/or thoroughly flush your water lines after power is restored and your UV is confirmed operational.

Rainwater collection in the “shoulder season”

With about a metre of average yearly rainfall (almost all of it in the winter months), the modus operandi is collect happily in the winter months, but become a careful rain-farmer in the spring and summer.
Pollen season on Gabriola is already starting. After a week or two without rain, allow the first solid rain to wash away atmospheric pollution, roof dust, pollen, etc. for an hour or two, before collecting water again. (The essential formula--extensively researched in Australia, the Caribbean and other jurisdictions -- is divert 10 gallons per 1,000 square feet of roof collection surface.) Keep up with this practice until the winter rains return. Swing your fill pipe “off-line” or there are simple, yet very effective, homemade and commercial bypass systems called “first-rain diverters” to help with this. Clean-out roof gutters, screens, roof and piping after pollen season.

All carbon filters are not created equal . . .

(Image: Some of the filters we carry,
including quality granular activated carbon
& carbon block.
Hytrex, Pentek, Excelpure brands)




I've done thousands of water filter changes and UV equipment service calls, and I've seen too many instances where homeowners buy those cheap carbon-cellulose filters. Essentially they are carbon powder impregnated onto filter paper. . .

Don't use them! They are crap. UV sleeves get coated with a blackish film from them, and for close to the same price, they don't last as long as other alternatives for odour reduction. Use coconut shell carbon block or coconut shell granular activated carbon filters. I like and use Pentek and Excelpure brands.

Depending on your water usage volume, the organics, sediment, and sulphur or H2S levels in your water (if you aerate to a cistern or use a Greensand filter), the type and size of prefiltration you are using -- expect to change these out in a typical household anywhere from every 6 weeks to 3 months.

Trojan UV Max C power supply problems . . .

If you have a Trojan UV Max C power supply (black box with two LED indicator lights) that was installed new or replaced anytime from January 2009 through to January 2010, it is likely it will have an alarm fault . . .

That is, when the UV lamp has about 1 year of lamp life used up, it will beep, but there is no way to reset it after you replace the lamp. It will just keep beeping!! Trojan will swap these with an upgraded power unit at no charge. Just contact them via their website or toll free line 1-800-265-7246. If you are a Witheys customer, we will do that for you.

UV lamp maintenance . . .

Whether a small cottage UV or a bank of 100 UV lights sanitizing New York City water, all UV lamps need regular servicing. The UV lamp itself needs replacing once every 12 months of lit/burn time. (This is the manufacturer's requirement, and is regardless of one gallon or 100,000 gallons passing through it!) That is, 365 days of lamp life. The reason for this is that the UV lamp is mercury gas and it slowly burns at a lower intensity over its life until, at about 365 days, it may not be at the intensity needed to confidently sterilize your water.

In a part-time cottage or seasonal home, simply shutting off the water valve before the UV and unplugging it, will allow you to maximize the use of the UV when you need it. You will need to remember to start it up each time you're in residence and track carefully when it's in use, as when it totals 365 days, then it will need replacement and servicing.

Do not let anyone simply replace the lamp. All UVs are two part systems: UV lamp and quartz sleeve or tube that the UV is housed. The quartz tube needs to be thoroughly cleaned and inspected and new o-rings installed. A new UV lamp inside a filthy quartz sleeve is pointless and a waste of money. Some systems require the sleeves cleaned more than once per year.

When it comes to changing filters . . . there are only three mistakes people tend to make: 1) not changing their filters enough; 2) changing their filters way too much; and 3) strong-arming the filters on and off. . .

In most average household applications (i.e. two standard-sized 10" filter housings mounted together before a UV system) -- rainwater and well service -- you should be changing your filters out every 3 -6 months. (2-4 times per year). If you're changing more than that, it usually indicates a problem with well turbidity, pumping zone; and with rainwater systems, it means your cistern is due for a cleaning and your collection pre-filtration (off the roof) is in poor condition.

Good polypropylene depth filters should trap through the entire depth of the filter. So don't be alarmed if it looks filthy on the outside in a week or so. Shine a light up through the bottom, and if you see white, it still has capacity. The other sign to watch for is flowrate at the tap. If it starts out strong and keeps tapering off all the time, it means the filters are indeed due for changing.

When changing your filters, always shut-off water at valve before the filter, and turn a downstream tap on or otherwise relieve water pressure on the system BEFORE you try to remove the filter housing. Otherwise you will struggle to remove the housing and eventually stretch your filter housing O-ring out of shape and it will cause leaks. Use your filter wrench to remove, keep your O-ring clean, wet and grit free, and firmly hand-tighten to put back on.

Regular maintenance is important

UV systems, filters, reverse osmosis units, water conditioners etc. need to be maintained as per manufacturer’s guidelines. Recently I’ve had a few calls from new residents who were told by “a friend” that as long as the green LED indicator was lit, the UV disinfection lamp was still good. That is true, only if the UV lamp has been changed yearly, and the quartz sleeve removed, inspected and cleaned. No matter the brand, UV lamps need to be replaced every 9000 hours (i.e. a year) as lamp life intensity drops continuously after that time to the point of offering little or no germicidal radiation. Check on your filters and change as needed. (Typical households need to change filters 2 – 6 times per year.)