Caleb, contact the closest college with a civil engineering department and see if some of the senior students would be interested in pursuing this as a project. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of my offspring-engineer and his classmates. They study the kind of thing one needs to know in order to locate the water source, manage the runoff without causing erosion, etc.

katie

So You say you want to pump water from a well on top of a hill to create a stream.
And you do not have power.
And you want a generator that will not make noise.
Trying to power a mid size house and a waterfall with solar panels?

ROFLMAO!

Jackel411

Do you have a suggestion or at least a constructive comment, or are you just being a jerk?

Well WacoJohn If you will check caleb's other posts.

His ideas are so rediculous and unrealistic that such plans should be stopped before they are allowed to continue, as a favor to caleb. DUH!!!

And in a nutshell, this qualifies as a suggesttion AND a constructive comment.

Not a jerk but I know a dumb@ss when I see a post from one.

MOW

Caleb,

if you have "natural springs" on the property they will have already established a stream or seasonal stream.

If there is year round water on top of the hill, it is probably part of a local aquifier, and so, is already part of the local water cycle used by nature and your neighbors, so you may be taking water from somebody else.

Natural aquifiers are either part of the local water cycle, ( seasonal snow and rain captured by the rock and slowly released during the seasons), or trapped fossil water geologically locked away millions of years ago and replentished either slowly, or never.

If there is not year round water on top of the hill, it becomes cost prohibitive and impractical to pump up a verticle height exceeding 250 feet.

It will cost between $4000 and $8000 to drill a well, price dependant on depth.

To etablish a pond, a 10 foot depth provides in Catskills little more than a livestock pond or wetland. A 30 foot depth provides a marginal lake and a 40 foot depth provides a viable lake. That is a lot of earth to move for a lake.

Solar powered deep well pumps exist, that can be also agumented with windpower that can pump from depth to provide a water source for a lined pond and lined stream. A basic set up will cost $800 plus the cost of wiring, pole mounts and plumbing. For another $800 plus a wind generator can be added to provide additional pumping in winter and at night. With out a liner, I am afraid that the water pumped will be absorbed by the ground as fast as it is pumped. Liner ranges from reasonable, ( locally sourced raw clay) to expensive, (butyl rubber membrane).

This pump will provide the equvalent of a garden hose stream of water.

Your best bet, is in the heat of late summer, in the flat spot meadow on top of the hill, dig a test well 2' x 2' x 10' deep. Every day for a period of several weeks, check the hole for water and measure the volume. If the hole fills partially with water, by calculating the speed at which the hole fills, you can estimate the volume of water moving through the soil. If the hole stays dry, a lake, pond, livestock pond or wetland and a stream is probably impractical.

If the hole quickly fills with water, say to an 8' depth, then digging a lake, pond, livestock pond or wetland is possible, and a stream may even be possible by digging a sloped channel to the edge of the hill.

If a lake, pond, livestock pond or wetland is possible, first, dig the required hole and let if fill.

To add a year round stream, dig a streambed after the lake, pond or wetland is established starting 4" below the lowest high water mark, ( usually late summer) to the edge of the hill.

Keep in mind, that having changed the local hydrodynamics, you will have to account for where the water goes, neighbors may not appreciate getting flooded out in spring, and there may be unintended consequences, like your or a neighbors well going dry or a nearby year round stream drying up.

"if you have "natural springs" on the property they will have already established a stream or seasonal stream." I have two spring and this is my experience. Although I divert the water to a 1550 gallon storage tank for me to pump from. The overflow is then diverted back to the stream fro those downhill.

2 issues:

Every drop of water belongs to someone, so you'll need a permit to tap into the water. In some areas, that is easy. In other areas, it is not.

The water has to go someplace and if your project floods your downhill neighbor, you are going to be liable for damage. So you need to think about where that water will go.

Windmill pump can keep a stock tank filled and provide a wet spot a couple feet in diameter. It's not going to provide a creek.

Good for you !! Tell these fresh know it alls off ! They don't belong on ANY forum.
I would call county authorities brfoe I undertook any big water project.