Rain water harvesting and slow sand water filters

It’s now December 16, 2020 covid19 is still here and, consequently,  we still cannot have any tests done by commercial testing facilities. Thankfully, the horrific political situation in this country is somewhat calmed down and science will now be respected again. There has been lots of rain here and some wind and 30 degree weather but no snow . . .  yet.

We have one new slow sand filter in operation. This filter cleans water in a 75 gallon outdoor fish tank that has 4 four inch long fish in it. This is a small filter so the results will be interesting. More details later. All but one of the original filters set up here are still running. The first filter, set up in 2007 is still functional and the sand has not been changed for 11 years. It produces crystal clear water from mildly polluted surface runoff from our roof.

The original pond filter set up 9 years ago is still in operation and the water output is crystal clear. More later.

All of the original filters except one are still active and running. As of last month, this blog has been here for 12 years. All this time we have been studying and carefully observing the ability of naturally occurring processes to effectively remove bacteria, viruses, and some chemical contaminants from water. We know this works, because of science. There are hundreds of others who have found similar results. On this blog and the associated websites we have detailed information about our experience. We also have a 30 plus page write-up of the entire process available in pdf format.

Sadly, we are still dealing with the Covid19 pandemic here in Western Washington state. We have been in quarantine. We were extremely ill two months ago. Two tests for covid19 came out negative, for us, and we have been healthy since the illness. We are, so far, lucky. There are still too many people who refuse to wear masks, and want to continue as if there is no problem whatsoever. Sad, indeed. We have highly limited access to any testing facilities, although it is possible shop in some stores as long as you wear a mask. As soon as possible we will have some tests done on the filters here. It may be quite some time before we can have any professional testing done on any of the filters here.

Because we have had supplies here before the pandemic, we now have two newly built slow sand filters cleaning water in fish tanks. One filter is serving a 10 gallon aquarium. It has been running for 6 months. No tests yet, but the water has been kept clean and totally odor free; and the fish are quite healthy. We also have a 100 gallon pond with a small slow sand filter serving it, just started. More later. Please; stay safe.

All but one of the slow sand filters here are still working. All of the damage to the cistern has been repaired. Filter 1, which was started in 2007 and first tested in 2008 is still running. No  tests have been possible on the filters because of the situation with covid19.

This year has been horrific world wide. We’ve been in quarantine for 3 months now. The covid19 virus has caused world wide chaos and loss of life. Compound that by race riots here in the U.S.  .  Keep in mind that slow sand filters do remove viruses from water. This has been shown time and time again.

As of August 26, 2019 most of the winter storm damage from last year’s snow and ice has been repaired. The cistern roof collapsed under  the weight of the snow. Pipes were broken and water contaminated. The repair work was difficult and time consuming. There is still more work to do, but 6 of the original filters are now functional. The filters feeding the cistern have cleaned the water and we will do a test as time and finances permit. We are forecast to have extended dry warm weather which will require us to shut down the pumps till the fire danger subsides. More updates will follow.

It is now June 15, 2019; and this blog is approaching its 11th year on the net documenting our studies of slow sand filters. All but one of the filters are still running, including two of the pond filters. ( as we posted years before, the 5 gallon filters are not running and have not been for some time; as they did not work). We had an extensive amount of structural damage from this winter’s record snowfall, and we are still working on repairing that damage.  Other climate related damage is slowly destroying the forest here, and in other places in Washington state. Hemlock and fir trees are dying all over the area:

Emerging Issues with Western Hemlock and Douglas-fir

this will likely adversely affect our ecosystem here beyond repair. Damage to the microbes necessary to make a slow sand filter ( and natural water filtration ) work may very well occur. This is a SERIOUS problem. Read the info at the link; its from trusted sources. No “alternative facts” here.

We will post more info as time permits.

Here is a link to a video on YouTube of the first filter we set up (Filter 1). It was uploaded in 2007:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ca6ZbZePBY

Now the story of the video:

In 2007, we uploaded a video of one of our slow sand filters to YouTube. From a website claiming to have “free” music we downloaded a music track to put on the video. This was 12 years ago. The website claimed all their music was free to use without any copyright issues.

Fast forward to 2018: we get a note from YouTube that someone claimed to have copyright to the video because of the music; well “copyright” to be paid a certain amount for each view.  At that point in time we had upwards of 200, 000 views on the video and hundreds, to thousands of views a month. Since our purpose is not exactly to “make money” from views, we decided to take the music off of the video. No problem. . . .   well yes – problem. The references and links that were in place all over the net were no longer valid because YouTube changes the address of the video if you remove music from it. Of course, (we were told) we could just leave the music on the video and then YouTube would leave it alone and we’d still have our place and the links would all be good; but the unknown person/persons claiming copyright would still be making money for every hit to the video. We were told that the music was ok to leave there only if all the money from the hits went to this unnamed entity. Now were the hits due to the music, or the slow sand filter content. Quite frankly, there were 50 or 60 comments saying the music was horrible, and stupid; and yes it was. Ok, enough of that. Let this be a warning: NEVER trust any source unless you are 100 percent sure the music is free.

Its now March 14, 2019. We have had the most severe winter in at least 60 years here in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest part of Washington state, in the U.S A. . We had 20 inches of snow here and freezing temps from December through the beginning of March.  (Interestingly enough, as we talked with acquaintances in Alaska, we found that they had temps higher than, or nearly equal to, ours in many cases. Yes, climate is changing, its getting warmer there and colder here in the winter, and hotter everywhere in the summer.)  The filters have been frozen for 3 months. Damage to the cistern will take months to repair. The filters are damaged but fixable because the pipes were not glued.

We will have another update when we get time to repair everything; and when there is no chance of another extended below freezing weather event. The first filter, that we started back in 2007, is still functional (with the exception of temporary freezing each winter), and has had minimal damage in this most recent period of below freezing weather. Its been running for nearly 12 years now (as of November of 2018); with the exception of freezing weather times. It still produces clean, clear water when it is running. We still have some work to do on it – the electric pump that automatically recirculates water needs repair. We have, however been able to run water through this filter manually by pouring five gallons at a time through it from a bucket. We will do another water quality test as time and finances permit. There is much to repair here and it will take time to get everything done.

It is now January 25, 2019. We are still working on the website. Nearly complete. We are also working on the filters. It froze here in November, and December, and we are working on repairing the filters. No serious damage. Pipes were not glued, so they just came apart as the frozen water inside expanded. All the filters, with the exception of the five gallon filters are still here and will be started up soon. Several have  been running continuously. The first filter we built, 12 years ago, is still running. The first pond filter we built still runs 24/7 , and the water is crystal clear 24/7. More updates will be posted as time permits.  There has been a lot of damage here due to severe weather events both summer, and winter; so we have much work to do.

We are working on the website now and hope to have the work done in a few days. More updates will follow.

The oldest filter here was started in 2007. Its still running. The sand has not been changed since it was started, and it has not been wet harrowed for 9 years. The output water needs to be tested, but the water is clear and looks clean. Still it must be tested. The other filters here are still running and in service. The three pond filters, and four other roof water filters are still running, and producing clear water. All need to be tested again. None have had the sand changed. Three of them have been wet harrowed twice in 5 years, but the sand has not been changed. As I get more time there will be updates. Other concerns have temporarily altered my focus. Now, I hope to get back to more filter work.