Greenfield Ranch House Water System

This document contains a specification of the Ranch House Water System. The system is comprised of 5 components. The document is organized around these 5 components.

  • The source
  • Tanks and pipes
  • The Ranch house and environs
  • Filling stations
  • Fire suppression

The document has two major sections: The requirements specification and the design specification. The existing system has been inplace for many more than 50 years, and is in need of substantial upgrade.

The source was upgraded in September, 2014 and is now sealed and secure, providing roughly 10 gallons of potable water per minute.

The tanks have been added over time. Settling has occurred resulting in misalignment and stress on the pipes. The pipes and fittings have aged and are in disrepair. There is no provision for testing the water, nor for isolating one or more tanks. This plan identifies the requirements for the tanks and pipes and proposes a configuration that will meet those requiremetns

The Ranch House is currently (2014) serviced by a steel pipe whose age may exceed 100 years. It is frail, has several holes, and may contain contaminates. This document identifies requirements for the Ranch House plumbing, schematics for the re-piping, a bill of materials and schedule to complete the re-pipe by the end of 2014.

The current filling station is also serviced by the steel pipe. The pipe has sprung a leak and may not be repairable. Many members rely on access to the Ranch House Water, but the impact on the Ranch House Driveway of hauling water form the ranch house is considerable. CALFIRE trucks cannot use the Ranch House Driveway, preventing CALFIRE from accessing our water reserves in case of emergency. This document identifies requirements for a filling station and a proposed design for a filling station situated on the far side of the bridge that includes a protected, metered source for members and standard CALFIRE fittings to connect to CALFIRE tankers.

Greenfield Ranch House Water System Specification

CLUC

Author: Fred Mervine

Overview

Greenfield Ranch Association (GRA) owns a community center called The Ranch House situated on approximately 360 acres of Commonland. The Ranch House Spring (RHS) situated on the Commonland near the Ranch House emits water at the rate of about 10 gallons per minute. Water is temporarily stored in several tanks. Once the tanks are full, the excess flows into a small unnamed stream that flows into Eldridge Creek. The water is used by caretakers for domestic purposes including irrigating a small orchard, vineyard and garden. The Ranch House is also used for community events that are often attended by the public who use the water for drinking, cooking and clean-up.

The Ranch House Water System (RHWS) is a patchwork of parts – some old, some newer, and put together without an overall, consistent plan. In June, 2014, an e-coli contamination was discovered in the RHS water. Upgrading, cleaning, disinfecting and repairing the RHWS is required to remedy this problem.

Goals

Safe, Clean, Affordable, and Accessible Water

Every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. The primary goal of upgrading the RHWSis to assure a long-term supply of water that fulfills that right to our members and their guests when using the Ranch House Community Center, and to those members whose home water source fails to provide water that fulfills that right.

Fire Suppression

We live in an area of extreme fire danger. The RHWS must be able to provide access to the water to emergency responders.

Water Policy

GRA needs to be able to develop and enforce a fair, equitable and understandable water policy that provides for our members’ needs and allocates the burden, that is imposed on the common ways and common land resulting from the transfer of RHS water to individual member’s home sites, to those who most directly benefit from the use of the RHS water.

GRA needs to assure that the resulting policy complies with California State Water Code.

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to:

  • Specify the upgrade to the RHWS to meet these goals
  • Specify a project plan to implement the RHWS.

Requirements

The first step in designing and implementing a system is to identify what functions and capabilities the system needs to provide.

The next step is to analyze the requirements to make sure they are all mutually compatible, and that they can actually be implemented into a functioning system that meets the requirements.

For some of the functions and capabilities, we need to specify non-functional requirements (NFRs) that specify what criteria will be used to judge that we have met the requirements.

Each requirement is identified – for example – the first requirement for the source is (S1). Sometimes a requirement impacts more than one subsystem noted by an ID like (S4-T9) and (T9-S4) where T9 is a Tank requirement.

Once the requirements are confirmed, we can then design and build the system to meet those requirements.

Items tagged with (?) need to be verified as necessary.

The Ranch House Water System (RHWS) Requirements

The RHWS is comprised of 5 subsystems: the source, the tanks and pipes, the Ranch House, the filling station and the fire suppression facilities. This document is organized around these 5 subsystems.

The RHWS Shall:

Source

The RHWS Source is a spring situated about 100 yards above the Ranch House (TBD). It was developed

  • (S1-R1) Provide clean, potable, pure water for human consumption at the Ranch House
  • (S2-FS1) Provide clean, potable, pure water for human consumption at one or more Filling Stations
  • (S2-N1) NFR– for example, what test results will satisfy these requirements?
  • (S3) Spring “Box” faucet? Provide access to flow at the source to enable sampling for tests
  • (S4-T9) Spring “Box” to stream? Provide sufficient water flow-through to the stream to support fish habitat
  • (S4-N1) NFR– what is sufficient flow?
  • Provide the ability to:
  • (S5) measure source output
  • (S6) measure flow-through back to stream

Ranch House

  • (R1-S1) Provide clean, potable, pure water for human consumption at the Ranch House
  • (R2) Provide water for gardening, orchards and other domestic uses at the Ranch House
  • (R2-N1) NFR – Determine what is the rate of usage needed
  • (R3-T6) Retire the steel pipe – connect 2”pvc to Ranch House plumbing
  • (R4-T3) Isolate a tank to contain water for use at the Ranch House (?)
  • (R5) Plumb shower, kitchen sink and utility sink with hot and cold water.

Fire Suppression

  • (F1) Provide adequate fire suppression including water, hydrants, hoses, nozzles and all required fittings
  • (F1-N1) NFR – Specify what is adequate fire suppression – e.g. CALFire regulations for new structures
  • (F2) Provide fire hydrants at 3 more locations
  • Hydrant by RH garden
  • Hydrant on west side of parking lot?
  • Replace existing hydrants to meet F1-N1
  • (F2-N1) Hydrants must be 50′ from all structures
  • (F3-T5) Automatically draw water from all tanks to feed fire hydrants
  • (F4) Provide CALFIRE accessible filling station (TBD)

Filling Station

  • (FS1-S4) Provide clean, potable, pure water for human consumption at one or more Filling Stations
  • (FS2) Meet CA State Water Resources Control Board (WRCB) requirements)
  • (FS2-N1) Measure consumption at the filling station(s)
  • (FS2-N2) Record transferee of RHS water at filling station
  • (FS2-N3) Record destination of water transferred from filling station
  • (FS2-N4) Record use of water transferred from filling station

Tanks & Pipes

Provide the ability to:

  • (T1) regulate the rate of fill for each tank individually (Rates TBD) (?)
  • (T2) measure MUC usage
  • (T3-R4) Isolate a tank to contain water for use at the Ranch House (?)
  • (T4) Provide sufficient pressure to ensure proper functioning of Ranch House appliances
  • (T4-N1) NFR – Determine what is sufficient pressure
  • (T5-F3) Automatically draw water from all tanks to feed fire hydrants
  • (T6-R3) Retire the steel pipe – connect 2” PVC to Ranch House plumbing
  • (T7) Eliminate water hammer caused by ball valves
  • (T8) Provide access to flow at the output of each tank to enable sampling for tests
  • (T9-S6) Provide sufficient water flow-through to the stream to support fish habitat
  • (T9-N1) NFR– what is sufficient flow?
  • (T10) Completely isolate (input and output) each tank from the system without impacting other tanks or the entire system.

Note – move this to design section of the doc.

  • (moving tanks would solve several problems
  • improve foundation (one is sinking (listing),
  • increase water pressure
  • ensure tops of tanks are at the same level

GRA Water Policy

  • (W1) Provide water to members within the context of the CC&Rs and other governing constraints
  • (W1-N1) NFR – Identify the specific CC&R elements that govern water
  • (W2) Provide mechanisms to implement and enforce the GRA Water Policy (TBD)
  • (W3) Comply with WRCB regulations and State Water Code

Existing RHWS Components

For existing systems to be upgraded, it is also necessary to establish a comprehensive inventory of the system as is, and to make sure that the requirements that have been identified and verified will result into a system that is to be.

• Source – the Ranch House Spring (RHS)

The RHS had a primitive collection system comprised of a board between rocks to block enough flow to feed a 2 inch pipe. The spring was not sealed or protected from external debris, surface water runoff, or plant, animal or fecal matter incursion.

As of 9/14, the RHS has been redeveloped and is now a sealed all-weather source with a copper pipe feeding a 2” PVC delivery pipe. It includes an external overflow valve.

(Include diagram and photo for final doc)

• Tanks – 5 tanks

The tanks are plastic, and plumbed in a cascading arrangement with plumbing that leaks. The piping arrangement does not allow for managing the tanks individually.

Pipes

  • 2” PVC source to tanks
  • 2” (?) steel pipe delivers water from tanks to Ranch House
  • The steel pipe that delivers water from the tanks to the Ranch House has been in the ground since before the GRA was formed in 1972. Its condition is unknown, but suspect.
  • 2” PVC pipe delivers water to Blackberry House and to various faucets around the RH. This pipe also extends to the bridge filling station stub below RH driveway
  • 2” black plastic pipe (not connected) runs from tee at the stub down to bridge and across the creek under the bridge. Intended to establish a filling station on far side of bridge.
  • 2” PVC delivers water from the fire tank to fire hydrant
  • 2” PVC returns overflow from last tank to stream
  • a steel/PVC pipe delivers water from the MUC tank to MUC across Eldridge Creek. This pipe also feeds the hydro generating plant – currently (11/14) non-opertional.

• Ranch House

  • Kitchen sink
  • Shower
  • Utility sink
  • Hot water
  • The on-demand hot water heater may suffer from lack of pressure because the tanks are not located sufficiently high enough above the Ranch House. The gas feed is reduced to 1/2” but should be 3/4” .
  • Various spigots
  • Gray water system completed Q3-2014

Filling Station

metered 1 1/2” hose fed by old steel pipe

Fire Suppression

Tank, pipe and hydrant – no fire hose evident.

Constraints

Quality and safety of the RHS water

  • Water must be free from contamination when consumed at the Ranch House.
  • Water must be free from contamination when drawn from a filling station.
  • Water in the fire suppression system does not need to be contamination free.
  • If the water delivered to the RH and filling stations(s) is contaminated, warnings must be posted and notification given to all owners.

Amount of water emanating from the RH Spring

A good estimate of the flow is about 8-10 gallons per minute – 14,400 gallons per day. This amount may vary throughout the year, and may be affected by climate conditions such as the severe drought we are now experiencing (2012-2014).

TBD: Since this is a critical factor in formulating a water policy, we need an accurate measurement of the flow directly from the spring.

Constraints on the use of the water imposed by government agencies

The Ranch House spring feeds a stream that is a tributary to Eldridge Creek, an endangered fish habitat. California Fish and Wildlife may impose restrictions on the amount of water that can be impounded or extracted from a water source that feeds critical habitat stream.

Number of people who rely on RH water

GRA CC&Rs specify an owner may obtain 100 gallons per day per parcel resident.

TBD: Since the amount of water available for use other than the Ranch House is limited, we need to know how many people (aka: headcount) will need to share the water from the Ranch House Spring. . (apparently 30+ people use haul water from the RHS)

Impact on RH driveway of Hauling Water

A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds – 800 lbs/100 gallons. Assuming 100 gallons per day per person, hauling water from the Ranch House puts an 800 lb per person per day burden on the Common Ways, in particular, the Ranch House driveway which is a fragile road at best. For example, if the Ranch House Spring is the source of water for only 10 people, that would be 4 tons transported across Common Ways each day for the benefit of just those 10 people.

Over 6 months 70,000 gallons were used; 11,666 gallons per month.

If you have ever been to an old public building like the old library in San Francisco that had marble stairs you will see how many thousands of light footsteps have worn away that hard marble.

This illustrates the engineering/physics concept of work, where work = force applied over some distance. The force of many thousands of footsteps applied over the length of a step in the staircase is the work. That work has worn down the hard marble.

We can apply the same concept to trucks traveling over roads. The work they do causes wear and tear on the roads. Many lightly loaded trucks can have the same effect as a few heavily loaded trucks.

  • A gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds
  • 70,000 gallons of water weighs 583,100 pounds, or 291.55 tons (round down to 290 tons)
  • A “1 ton” pickup weighs about 2 ½ tons empty
  • A “1 ton” pickup can safely haul about 375 gallons (1.56 tons, round down to 1 ½ tons)
  • Hauling 70,000 gallons of water will take about 186.66 trips (round up to190 trips)
  • Total weight of truck and water is about 4 tons.
  • 190 empty truck trips UP the driveway causes 475 tons (2.5*190 ) to traverse the RH driveway
  • 190 trips with a loaded pickup truck DOWN the driveway causes 760 tons (4*190) to traverse the RH driveway
  • 190 water hauling trips with pickup trucks causes 1235 tons (475 +760) to traverse the RH driveway (AND the Common Ways)
  • A 3 axle dump truck loaded with gravel weighs about 20 tons
  • 62 dump truck loads loads of gravel would cause 1235 tons to traverse the RH driveway

Engineer’s perspective:

Assume the RH driveway is 1/4 mile
Work = force times distance
Ranchers hauling water:

  • Distance: 190 trips is 47.5 miles (190 * ¼ mile)
  • Force:
  • Empty truck = 2.5 tons
  • Loaded truck = 4 tons
  • Work: (47.5 miles * 2.5 tons) + 47.5 miles * 4 tons) = 308.75 mile-tons

Dump trucks hauling gravel:

  • Distance: 61.75 trips is 15.44 miles (190 * ¼ mile)
  • Force: 20 Tons
  • Work: (15.44 miles * 20 tons) = 308.75 mile-tons

61.75 dump trucks of gravel hauled over the RH driveway results in the same amount of WORK – that is wear and tear – as 190 pickup trucks going UP the driveway and hauling 70,000 gallons of water DOWN the driveway.

TBD: Since this is a significant burden to place on our Common Ways, we need to know which roads are being stressed by this additional traffic.

Once we know the value of these critical factors we can begin to formulate an equitable policy for allocation of water from the Ranch House spring and design the RHWS to support it.

Ranch House Water System Design

Source – Ranch House Spring

Requirements Summary

Provide clean, potable, pure water for human consumption at the Ranch House

Design Specifications

  • The spring shall be sealed to prevent debris from entering the collection chamber
  • The area around the spring shall be sealed to prevent surface water from entering the collection chamber
  • The collection chamber shall include a pipe to enable cleaning and purging the collection chamber
  • The collection chamber shall include a perforated pipe that discourages vegetation growth to deliver water for use
  • The collection chamber shall include a pipe to deliver flow-through to the stream sufficient to meet DF&W requirements for habitat viability
  • The collection chamber shall be filled with clean drain rock to prevent incursion of foreign material
  • The collection chamber shall be constructed to prevent water from seeping or leaking around the joint with rock
  • The output of the spring must be accurately measurable

As Built Design

The design recommend by Pat Moore is a collection chamber constructed of potter’s clay. In this design, there is no spring box, rather the water flows from the collection chamber to a distribution manifold that feeds the individual tanks. The tanks comprise a mega-spring box complex.

Tanks & Pipes

Requirements Summary

Store and regulate RHS water and reliably and safely deliver it to users.

Assure sufficient flow through to support wildlife needs

Operational Narrative

Water flows into Tank1 through the top port. It is controlled by a float valve. When Tank 1 is full, the float valve shuts off water flow from the spring resulting in the flow exiting the overflow port at the spring head and flowing into the stream feeding Eldridge Creek.

When the water level in Tank 1 rises above the level of the bottoms of the other tanks (red dotted line on Tank 1), water flows out the bottom port from Tank 1 simultaneously feeding all of the tanks through their bottom ports. (Dotted arrows). The level in all the tanks remains the same; as water is drawn from one tank water will flow from the others to equalize the level, resulting in water flowing from the spring to refill all of the tanks. However, Tanks 2-5 cannot completely drain Tank 1 below the red dotted line. Hence Tank 1 will be allocated to the fire lines.

In the event it becomes necessary to isolate Tank1, there is a secondary fill pipe (blue) such that Tank 1 can be isolated and Tank 2 becomes the primary fill tank. The valve in the blue line is normally closed while the valve on the gray input line leading to Tank 1 is open. Shutting Valve 1 and Opening Valve 2 switches the primary flow to Tank 2. Shutting both valves isolates the Tanks from the RHS.

The tank that is connected to the MUC water line will have a meter on its outflow side.

All valves (except the float valves) will be housed in underground valve boxes with bottoms to prevent gopher fill.

Design Specifications

  • The tanks are set so that all the tops are at the same level.

  • All of the tanks’ input pipes are valved to enable isolating them from the system individually.

  • Water flow into Tank1 through the top port is controlled by a float valve.

  • Each tank has a valved output port

  • Valved output ports hat include a hose bib to enable individual testing of each tank.

  • A valved secondary fill pipe (blue) feeds Tank 2 from the input main

  • The MUC water line will have a meter on its outflow side.

  • All valves (except the float valves) will be housed in underground valve boxes with bottoms to prevent gopher fill.