Spring Water All Year

My home on a hilltop in the Sierra Nevada foothills has been provided with drinking water from a spring on the hillside above the house. When my father bought this property on December 29, 1929, one of the compelling features was a strong spring.

For a spring to be a good domestic source of water, it has to run all day, every day. That kind of   springs in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is not found in every canyon.  In fact, it isn't unusual to find a good strong spring, that will slow to a trickle in the late summer.

In the past few years we've seen some very dry years.  Fortunately, we also had a couple of good wet winters, which have helped resupply the aquifer. This year is beginning to look as if it is going to be another very dry year.

During the summer of 2015, we went into the late months with a rainfall of only 7.99 inches the winter before, which came hard on the heels of only 8.13 inches in the winter of 2014.

During the late summer of 2015 I was concerned about my spring being able to provide domestic water all year.  If the spring dried up, or slowed down enough, we would have no water in our home, for there is no backup.

Unlike many of the wells in the nearby valley, our spring continued to run all summer. The picture below was taken on September 14, 2017, and this amount of water flowing all day, every day, is really a significant amount of water. We are very fortunate to have this spring.

The outflow from my spring on the hill back of my home.

During September of 2015, following two dry years, the flow was this strong or better. Of course,during the spring, it looks like this.

This is a very strong spring flow.