Piped springs

[dmax]

I didn't want to thread drift in the giardia thread, so I'll ask it here...

is there a better way to pipe a spring?
I love coming up to one and just holding my bottle underneath and going on. But have you seen all that slime and other stuff hanging out of the pipes? .. I'm just thinking, because I don't have a clue, would all materials of pipe do this? Probably huh ... One thing I make sure of .. Don't bump the pipe when filling a bottle.

[Different Socks]

I didn't want to thread drift in the giardia thread, so I'll ask it here...

is there a better way to pipe a spring?
I love coming up to one and just holding my bottle underneath and going on. But have you seen all that slime and other stuff hanging out of the pipes? .. I'm just thinking, because I don't have a clue, would all materials of pipe do this? Probably huh ... One thing I make sure of .. Don't bump the pipe when filling a bottle.

So why not use a bandana to wipe the pipe off then rinse it later?

[dmax]

I guess it is better than a cattle tank.

[Toon]

That slime is a good sign that the water is not contaminated.

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[ChinMusic]

I treat piped water too. Because I can.

[Starchild]

Perhaps copper would be better at preventing growth. Silver would as it is: 1 - naturally antimicrobial & 2 - so valuable that it would not be there long enough to grow anything before someone took it.

But that growth on the pipe usually indicates good water and also is usually a way to further purify it.

[Another Kevin]

What ChinMusic said. A lot of springs in the East originate in shallow beds of sand or porous rock and are collecting water from just upslope. Sometimes you get only a very small amount of filtration. It's surely safer than surface water, but not nearly as safe as a domestic well. It's likely to be free from Giardia or Cryptosporidium, because those are fairly easy to filter. Vibrio and Enterococcus and E. coli are another story.

[dmax]

That's good to know that slime = good water

[moldy]

As someone else said most piped springs along the Appalachian trail are not springs at all. They are creeks that flow between layers of limestone near the surface in steep hillside areas. If you climb above or below a piped spring you can find the creek. So it flows on the surface for a while then under for a while and when it emerges it can be incorrectly called a spring. Here in Tennessee we have a water falls that has no creek. The water flows out of a cliff face to the little pool at the bottom of the cliff then goes back underground. So the piped springs you see with the iron pipe or more common pvc pipes are in fact a homemade cistern. It is made with pick and shovel. They hollow out the creek bed as deep as they can get it . They then take a pipe and try to position it co that it will drain off the accumulated water. They sometimes put a board on it then load rocks and dirt on top of the board. With a good deal of manpower and effort these can be improved. In New England there are several where they dig and have poured a concrete box about 6 feet square that the water feeds into. Then they place a hand pump on top. So you will think it's groundwater but it's not. It's still creek water but it will last far longer than the standard piped spring. Most of the piped springs you see can be improved with frequent maintenance. Most of the really good ones have some dude who sees to it. It not easy to spot a true spring. Treat all piped springs as though it were creek water.

[RED-DOG]

If you don't want to catch water from the pipe just go down from the pipe a few feet and catch it their, no slim no fuse.

[peakbagger]

One of the shelters in the shenadoahs has a non descript spring box on a grassy hillside. We happened upon a USGS crew that was sampling water at the site and they let us look at a copy of the original CCC plans for the spring. Attached up hill and underground was a very large field of clay drainage pipes covered with sand and then topsoil. The only thing you could see was this small box and a clay pipe.