Category Archives: slow sand water filter study and construction

If you “backwash” a slow sand filter, you will destroy it.  Backwashing is for rapid sand filters. I posted a bit of info on this about a year ago. I did not mention why backwashing will ruin a slow sand filter. Here … Continue reading →

It is now February 7, 2014. At this location its been below freezing at night for all of February, and for the past 4 days not above freezing at all. On the 6th of Feb. at about 4:00 am, the low here … Continue reading →

Water is becoming an issue here in the U.S. for a number of reasons : http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-drought-hurts-cattle-crops-prices-heat-up-2014-02-07 http://www.opb.org/news/article/council-recommends-drought-declaration-for-4-ore-counties/ http://bigislandnow.com/2014/01/16/big-isle-drought-declaration-triggers-usda-loan-assistance/ http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=drought_news.html Rain water harvesting is a way to store water. Even if it is only used for non-potable purposes, it still helps … Continue reading →

This is an update from a previous post that has become so huge I will have to do something, not sure what yet. Anyway, here is the info on Ohio: Update, February 1, 2014 regarding Ohio: After checking the Ohio … Continue reading →

There are places in the US where water is rapidly becoming an issue. California is in the midst of a severe drought. In other places, there are problems with water polluted from hydraulic fracturing  otherwise known as “fracking” and chemical spills. For some people, … Continue reading →

The weather has warmed up here. For the past 2 weeks it has been above freezing most of the time. The 5 gallon filters have been running for 2 weeks. The output on all;  10a, 10b, and 10c; has cleared … Continue reading →

Update December 8, 2013: The temperature got down to 10 degrees F here last night – this was the last measurement we had, it is likely that the temp was lower than that (we are not actually in Seattle, we are way … Continue reading →

Update; March 21, 2014: We have found that nearly every state in the U.S. allows rain water harvesting by individual home owners. Only a few states have severe restrictions. This could all change if citizens do not stay involved in … Continue reading →

This blog, and the websites associated with it are an ongoing study of slow sand water filtration, which is a sustainable technology. In view of current events and the general decline of the quality of our environment on a local … Continue reading →

Update November 25, 2013: An important observation regarding 5 gallon slow sand filters: They are highly susceptible to disruption from freezing temperature. For the past week all of the 5 gallon filters have been frozen. The temps here, in the forest, have been … Continue reading →