Cistern – What to do?

Cistern – What to do?

I posted previously that we discovered that we had a cistern under a mound of ivy and brush. I mentioned that I had heard that we had a cistern, but I thought it was in a different place. Well, guess what? There was a cistern in that place. Yep, we have two cisterns.

The Discovery

We were redoing a large patio. In the process of digging up the old pavers we discovered what looked like a manhole cover. We cleared the area around it and were able to open it with a crowbar. This one is about 12’ deep and appears to be a lot larger around than the first one. It is full of water, so it is hard to tell exactly how large.

So, what now?

I did some research to find out what others have done. Some talked about filling them with dirt or other solid material and rendering them useless. One guy wanted to build an access from his basement to his empty cistern and build a wine room. Interesting idea, but I want to use mine. I like to try to be “green” when I can and I look at these thousands of gallons of rain water as a resource. I learned pretty quick that you don’t want to drink the water from the cistern or even use it to water vegetable and/or fruit plants. However, it can be used to water the lawn. I estimate that about 30% of our overall water usage is for watering our lawn, so this seems like a great idea. After talking with irrigation companies, landscape companies, companies that specialize in well pumps even a few plumbers I did not find anyone who could help me get this water out of the cistern and use it to water the lawn. I was not looking for anything fancy because I don’t know for sure that the cisterns are filling back up with water at this point. I finally got fed up and just went to Lowes and bought a small 1 HP pump that runs on electricity.

Using Cistern Water to Water the Lawn

It works great! I used the one cistern to water my lawn for a couple of weeks and the water lever barely went down at all. So, when the lawn needs water I pull out the pump, connect the hoses and water away.

The Challenge

The first cistern is in an inconspicuous location behind the house.  The lid is also lightweight, so access is a lot easier. The second one is in the middle of a paver patio that is between the house and garage. Not to mention, the lid weighs about 100 lbs. So, popping off every time I want to water is not an option.

 

 

 

The Solution

I admit that the solution that we came up with is not ideal. However, it works! I was not 100% sure what I was going to do as we were laying the pavers. To be safe, I went ahead a laid down 15’ of PVC between the cistern and a flower bed. The biggest challenge was how to connect the cistern water to the PVC. I thought about drilling a hole in the metal lid or drilling into the bricks around the cistern. Those options seemed like too big of a pain. We noticed that there was a slight gap in the lip around the top of the cistern. I ended up chipping out a little of the brick and making that gap a little larger and then running a heavy duty 12’ hose from the PVC to the bottom of the cistern. I chose to use the hose as opposed to more PVC because the hose’s flexibility. The hose could flex into the gap and could travel at any angle as opposed to having to be much more specific with PVC.

I also put a plastic filter on the end of the hose that went into the cistern to prevent any larger rocks or other debris from going into the hose. On the flower bed end of the PVC I put a 90 degree elbow, an additional two feet of PVC and angled it straight up. I added a standard male hose connector to both ends of the PVC.  

Hoses don’t typically come in 12’ lengths, so I ended up buying a 50’ hose and cutting it. I was able to add standard connectors to the ends of the custom length of hose. I used the majority of the left over hose to connect to the flowerbed end of the PVC and run that length of hose directly to the pump.

In The End

I am able to use the cistern to water my lawn. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a pain to pull out the pump, prime the pump, connect one end of the pump to the cistern, plug the other end of the pump to a hose/sprinkler and plug the pump into a power source. At the end of the day I gladly do it.