Hi there. I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out how to tap into an underground spring in my yard. About 6 years ago, while digging out for an inground pool, we discovered a natural spring. The pool guys hit this water at about 5 feet down.
They connected a mediocore pipe leading to the spring and pump it to a small creekbed at the end of our yard. The beauty of the whole thing was that we were able to fill the entire 25,000 gal pool with this water. When the guys finished they informed my husband that they had left the pipe installed incase he ever wanted to use it again. The pipe intself sits up out of the ground about 2 feet. Now, how do we get the water back out and how would we stop the flow if we just wanted to use the water as source for water outdoors (lawn, garden, flowers etc..)? This may sound strange but the other day we did try to force it up by sucking on the end of a hose that we put down through the pipe. We could hear it and was even able to get a few trickles out, but that was it. Any ideas? Thanks a bunch!!

 

You could use a shallow well pump, a small, 1/2 hp, 110 vac would most likely work. You could set this up a couple different ways depending on how much you would use it. One way for infrequent use is to make the hookup detachable, so you would basically cart the pump over to the well, fasten on a hose and switch the pump on. Note that using just a pump without a well tank would require that you don't shut the flow of water off while the pump is running. Also, re-attaching the pump to the well may require the pump to be primed each time.
For a little more premanent setup, you could build a covering over it to hide it. This depends on where in your yard it sets.
If you wanted to shut the water off at the end of an attached hose, then you could add a small well tank to the set up.
I don't think any of this would be too difficult and pumps and well tanks can be found at your average hardware, Home Depot or at Sears.

 

THanks again!