I know there are a lot of outfitters and landowners amongst us so I have a water question. We are in a bit of a drought here in Texas(sarcasm). I want to use an irrigation pump to move water along the ground in pipes to some tanks that are dried up. Heres my question. Can a pump that puts out 100 gallons per minute run water 1 mile. The elevation increase is a gradual 40 feet the first 1/3 mile then a slight drop, again a rise then down hill the last 1/3 mile? We have 3 of our 5 tanks with lines running to them but they are all on the same elevation and relatively close. Thanks

Perry

Yes, I'm sure you can do that. I have some friends that have a loop on their ranch almost 12 miles long. The water is currently supplied by a 3/4 horse pump from a 280 ft deep well. They have many hills to contend with, their plan is to gravity feed this system next summer from the highest hill in the loop, they will put a 40,000 gal tank up there and gravity will do the rest..I think the pipe is all 1 1/2 in. We have a bit of a drought up here too.

Perry, it will depend on what kind and size of pipe you are running it through, and whar kind of pressure your pump generates. A 100 GPM pump is usually a pretty decent size pump, it would be a factor in burning up that pump how far the power supply is from it. If you are going to use something like 4 or 6 inch poly or such. you're probably ok, If you need an exact technical answer, I can get one of our engineers to run it for you, I would just need all the tech specs from your pump, and the size & type of pipe, any jointed curves it might have and overall length, but for the most part I tend to agree with ELKMAN2, it should be doable. A backflow preventer that keeps you from losing your head pressure is a good idea if you need to run this system more than every blue moon.

Good luck, and we'll keep praying for rain--Don

My friends use submersible pumps throughout the ranch, The main well is about 30gpm, they never have all the hydrants open at the same time and are able to supply water to many different pastures as needed for the stock

I assume the well can supply 100 GPM? (just because the pump can does not mean the well can.) What is the psi of the pump and what is the pipe diameter?

It can be done, if the well can supply the 100 gpm needed to keep up with the pump (Or even if the well supplies less, you can still pump it, with a smaller pump.)

Good luck with it, I have been hauling water in a 1000 gal tank mounted on a trailer. That gets old real quick!

Post your results, I am curious how it works out for you. It can get very expensive to start moving water unless you already have the pipe.

The pump on the well produces teh 100 gpm. The pipe is 3 inch for the first 1/2 mile then comes off a T in 2 inch poly pipe. Going to the back would probably require 3 inch to keep the friction down. I think it can be done easliy. The biggest obstacle in our pavement like ground due to the drought. Trenching 18" is not easy when it has been dry for 2 years.

Perry

Do a search of irrigation systems on google. There is an entire web site dedicated to figuring out what you need for hardware and pumps.

They use a trencher here, just as dry, and maybesome rocks too..except we have to go 4ft plus!! Check with your county offices there are lots of Federal dollars around for projects like this.

If you have been using the 100gpm already then you have some pretty tough pipe. Because fiction loss and pipe pressure at 100 gpm are going to be fairly high even if you are completely flat. I work with rancher on designing and installing stockwater pipeline. I would say that if you are only watering wildlife with these tanks then you only need a couple (2) to maybe 5gpm to do the job. I would think that the cost of running an irrigation pump (which is probably 10-30 HP) just to water wildlife is a bit higher than I could ever justify.

If you really want a good exact answer with proper pump sizing, gpm requirements, etc., then you are going to want an engineer or a technician design it. If you are specifically looking for wildlife, you might want to look at some state (wildlife agency) and federal agencies (FWS, NRCS) to help pay for water development.

The interim rise and fall of the pipe is irrelavent, at least once the pipe is full of water. It is the total difference in elevation (head) that will determine whether water comes out the end of the pipe. But with a submersible pump, you likely have much more head capacity than you'll use. In that case, the volume of water is dependent on the size of the pipe and line friction.

How much water do you want to deliver one mile away? A relative trickle (say 5 gpm) will keep a water hole usable. If it is merely a water trough that you want to keep filled, then a half gpm is plenty.

Overall, it sounds like you have too large a pump and lines that are too large merely for delivering "stock water". One inch poly pipe and a 2-3 hp pump would do the trick, even through a mile of pipe.

Why do you want to bury the lines? Although exposed poly pipe is subject to damage, it can be patched or replaced a lot cheaper than it can be buried. Just trench across roads and trails that vehicles and machinery use and leave it on top of the ground everywhere else.

A good equation in figuring what size of pump you need is (elevation head * gpm)/ (3960 * pump efficiency). If I don't know the brand of pump to be used I generally use 65% efficiency. Elevation head includes friction losses inside the pipeline to your highest point on the pipeline, and how deep your pump is in the well. You also should install air-vents in the line at major slope changes as water carries dissolved oxygen.

Good reasons to bury pipeline are chewing rodents (mice, rats, porcupines), fire, UV radiation, trespassing offroaders, and depending on how cold it gets frost. A good watering system that is installed cleanly and correctly also adds value to one's property.

I also neglected to mention that some contractors can use Catepillars to "rip" the ground open and install the pipeline. That has proven to be effective in eastern Montana and costs are generally lower using this method. I have seen pipelines installed with all of the fittings go anywhere from $1/ft to about $1.65/ft depending on how much solid rock is down there.

We have use the cat method and it works well, actually we use a road grater which was much faster. We have to bury our lines because we burn every chance we can for brush control and overall land rejuvination.

Perry