In California Drought is the problem and Well Manager® is the answer

Find Out More About The Effects of the Drought In California and How Well Manager Can Help

Water has always been a matter of concern in California. Over time there have been sporadic droughts but the occasional wet year has kept disaster at bay. Though there have been some temporary reprieves the overall trend has continued to worsen and persists through 2015 without an end in sight. It does not matter who or what you blame for current conditions, the fact of the matter is that plants and animals cannot live long without water and that is becoming scarce.

Extended periods of drought like this affect water levels in reservoirs and aquifers. Though droughts affect agriculture first, forested areas begin to die and eventually homeowners with municipal water begin to feel the pinch through water rationing and well owners begin to suffer from outages as the amount of water available from the aquifer decreases.

Well owners in California hill and mountainous regions are usually the first to feel the impact but the longer the drought continues the more widespread these problems become. The latest drought map shows most of the state suffering from serious drought. When well problems develop, the first reaction is to drill a new well or to install a water storage system like a cistern or above ground water storage tank.

The Issue With Current Water Solutions

In California the most common tank storage systems are those built using a 2500 gallon or larger tank with an electric float to turn off the well pump when the tank is full. The well pump is protected by a Coyote, a PumpTec or some other brand of motor protector which turns the pump off when the well is emptied and keeps it off for a selectable period of time after which it allows the pump to come on again. Operating the system this way treats the well like a sump pump pit; pumping it empty then waiting for it to refill only to empty it again.

Operating a water storage system this way is bad for the well’s health and can lead to a situation in which the well’s yield begins to slowly decline until the well becomes unusable and the owner is forced to drill a new one. (to read about this see Over pumping can lead to yield decline )

Well Manager Has The Answer

In 2008 we sold a system to a client in Shingle Springs. He and his neighbor were having well problems. The neighbor opted for the standard large tank system described above and our client installed a 210 gallon Well Manager. The client with the 210 gallon Well Manager is no longer having water problems but the neighbor with a 3000 gallon system is.

I am sure you are wondering how it could be that the guy with 15 times more storage can be having problems while the fellow with the little Well Manager System does not.

This is why;

1. The large tank system constantly pumps the well empty trying to keep the huge tank full. Treating the well like this dewaters nearby geology and causes the well yield to decline so the harder you try the less water you get.
2. If the large tank runs out, the well is also empty and it takes days to get enough water back in the well and tank to restart the pressure pump unless the owner wants to pay for a tank truck to haul some water in.
3. Water in the tank does not turn over very quickly so it has a tendency to warm up. As the water warms the owner begins to have problems with algae growing in the tank and there is the possibility of bacterial growth as well.
4. If a toilet does not shut off and runs all day the owner will come home to find his tank low or empty and the septic system flooded with his precious well water. After all of that it may take several days to recover enough storage to get a shower and do the wash.

Bob Saenz, the neighbor with the Well Manager System, does not have this problem. See what Bob had to say about his system here

1. The Well Manager only harvests well production; it does not empty well storage so the well is nearly full all the time. This way well yield is constant because the geology is not dewatered and the aquifer can function as nature intended.
2. If the Well Manager tank is emptied, you can restore water in 5 minutes by transferring some of the well storage to the Well Manager tank using the H-O-A switch (Hand – Off – Auto) to run the well pump manually for a few minutes until you have enough water to restart the pressure pump then return it to Auto and go about your business while the system continues harvesting.
3. Water in the tank turns over regularly and stays cold because the tank is much smaller so there are fewer problems with algae and bacteria growth.
4. If a toilet runs you will only loose a few hundred gallons rather than a few thousand.

AND there are other important differences between the Large Tank system and a Well Manager®

1. The large tank requires site preparation and in cold climates measures must be taken to protect pipes into and out of the tank from freezing so excavating equipment will be required to trench for the piping. The installation will take a couple of days.
2. The pipe from the well to the house must be dug up and reconfigured and the wires from the well need to be rerouted so that the tank float will turn off the well pump.
3. You will need to do some landscaping to repair the yard where trenching took place and something will be needed to hide the tank
4. Working on the system or troubleshooting at night, in the rain or when there is snow on the ground can be difficult
5. If there are problems with the buried piping you will be out of business until you can dig and that can be difficult at certain times of the year
6. The standard operating systems used with the common large tank systems does not protect the well from overpumping but the Well Manager does.
7. If the upper float on a Well Manager malfunctions the OverFill ShutOff turns the well pump off and lets you know there is a problem. If the upper float in a big tank system fails the tank just overflows until someone notices, wasting your precious water and causing damage to the surrounding area.

AND Well Manager® is so different that it is patented in the United States and Canada:

1. Is a complete turn key system with a NEMA 4 UL, cUL approved control panel
2. The entire system will fit in a utility closet, basement, 39” high crawl space or well house and can be installed with no help in 5 hours.
3. No changes to the well piping are required if you have a place to install the system inside the house or in a well house.
4. No landscaping will be required
5. Working on the system and troubleshooting are easy no matter the time of day or weather and there is a manual with troubleshooting help and an 800 number you can call for technical help.
6. There is only the one original well line buried and most of the time these have few fittings to leak
7. There is an optional kit that allows a well line that has yard hydrants or outbuilding water lines connected to be pressurized whether the well pump is on or not.
8. The tank air inlet is filtered to 70 microns so there is less chance of airborne contamination in a Well Manager than there is with a low yield well that has a standard well seal. (see Storing Water in Above Ground Tanks )
9. The Well Manager protects the well from over pumping so the well is always nearly full and you can tell how your pumping schedule is affecting well water levels.
10. Well Manager can eliminate problems arising from competition between wells
11. A Well Manager® is the most environmentally responsible water harvesting system available anywhere.

Dramatic Improvement In A More Compact Space

There have been many occasions in which we have replaced existing large storage systems with a much smaller Well Manager® and produced a dramatic improvement. One such example is Ron Keisler in Colorado who replaced his nearly new 3000 gallon cistern system with a 400 gallon Well Manager® and stopped running out of water.

Many thousands of people from Alaska to Honduras know firsthand that it really is not about the size of the tank but how you operate the well that makes all the difference in the world. They know this because they have a Well Manager® and no longer suffer every time there is a drought. If you are having problems with your well as a result of the California drought, take a look at some of the systems we have available. They come with everything you need built into them so that all you need to install one is a few feet of pipe, a few fittings, some wire and a few wire nuts. We even have kits to turn your existing big tank system into a Well Manager.

Your best defense against drought is a Well Manager®. A Well Manager gets the water you need by working with nature which reduces stress on the aquifer and produces impressive plumbing performance. Do yourself and nature a favor. Find out how you can have a Well Manager today. Call 800-211-8070.