Slow sand filter update March 14, 2019

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.