[bailey]

hi all,,

we have a beck/stream that runs through the village,, now i can land my hands on a good pump and also some of the 1000ltr drums,, could i pump some of this water into these drums to use to water the plot??? obviously would only do it at certain times ie after heavy rain ect when the beck is flowing well,, would i need any permision? the village is at the bottom of some hills so the water is basically just rain ect running off the hills.

[Mark-S]

you need an extraction licence for large amounts, but i am not sure what  level counts.  I suggest you contact the Environment Agency.

[bailey]

i would have thought maybe 3 or 4 fill ups a year,, i have water butts but run out in summer and end up using a hose which is on meter,,, i have thought of trying to transfer the butt water to the larger drums but due to design of buildings ect this would be difficult and i don,t have the roof guttering space to collect large amounts of rain water..

[Mark-S]

i would have thought maybe 3 or 4 fill ups a year,, i have water butts but run out in summer and end up using a hose which is on meter,,, i have thought of trying to transfer the butt water to the larger drums but due to design of buildings ect this would be difficult and i don,t have the roof guttering space to collect large amounts of rain water..

i know what you mean, and to be honest i cannot see a prosecution for taking a few litres each year.
Knowing how the EA work, personally i would take the risk and just do it.  But i am not advocating that you do it, just saying what i would do.....

M

[solway cropper]

Take it and stick a finger up at the EA. They can't do much once it's on you veg plot. I think it's appalling that the same laws that are applied to commercial exploitation of resources are used to hammer the ordinary man who's trying to feed his family.

[GrannieAnnie]

You do have to be careful with these things though!  We were going to buy a house once with an acre of glasshouse.  The owner had built a big reservoir out the back with pipework running from the guttering into the reservoir, and the drainage company were going to sue him for nicking THEIR water, even though it was running off his glasshouse!

But they said that if the glasshouse wasn't there, the water would fall on the ground and eventually back into the water course

[Trillium]

Bailey, before you start siphoning some of that stream, you might want to have a sample tested for any unacceptable chemical content. I know that a lot of streams here have a lot of factory contaminants dumped into them upstream and the folk downstream use this water for commercial veggies 

[Salmo]

I think that you have to take several 1,000 litres of water a day before you need to apply for an Abstraction Licence. The water would not be as pure as rainwater off the roof as it will contain all the extras that a stream contains e.g. urban run-off, agricultural drainage, algae.

[madcat]

We don't have mains water on our plots, but we do have a stream that runs below our allotments, which is used by all to water the plots when necessary.   The stream rises about a mile away and certainly contains agricultural run off (pasture and the product of cattle!), but you take what you can get.  The labour does make plot holders thoughtful about watering and the need for additional water. 

OH occasionally thinks about a wind powered archimedes screw to lift water up to a water barrel .... usually when he is filling the fourth watering can of the evening!     One day maybe.

[8doubles]

Just had a quick look and it appears in England and Wales you can abstract up to 20,000 litres a day without a licence.

[Rangerkris]

You could have you own Peckham Spring with that amount hahahahaha bottle it up and sell it on.

[Trikidiki]

I used to have a plot next to the River Test. The old boy who had it before me got his son to knock up a pump connected to an old lawn mower engine to pump water up onto the allotment. Someone told him he wasn't allowed to pump water from the river so the pump sat in his garage for about 20 years.

When I took over the plot I rang the water authority to check if i could hand pump some water into a butt to use on the allotment. I was told I could extract 10,000 litres per day without a licence. I told the nice lady I was't planning to grow rice. Sadly the old boy had died and his children had ceared his garage otherwise his wife said I could have had his motorised pump. I made do with a hand operated bilge pump which filled my 40 gallon drum in very few minutes.

My current plot is on sand and no water supply on the allotment.

You do have to be careful with these things though!  We were going to buy a house once with an acre of glasshouse.  The owner had built a big reservoir out the back with pipework running from the guttering into the reservoir, and the drainage company were going to sue him for nicking THEIR water, even though it was running off his glasshouse!

But they said that if the glasshouse wasn't there, the water would fall on the ground and eventually back into the water course

Wasn't it mentioned here recently that if you have a meter put on your external water tap you can claim a rebate on water charges as they are not having to treat that water as waste.

You can also claim a rebate if you can show that a percentage of your water goes into a soakaway and not into their drainage system.

[GrannieAnnie]

Mmmm don't remember seeing that post Trikidiki!  Interesting though about the rebate, but don't think I'll bother, when our water bill is only £10 a month!   

[bailey]

quick call to Ea today,, no problems they can forsee however they said that they may want to come and have a quick look at the setup as such, and advised that i just speak to the locals and let them know what I am doing..  the main concern is that the drums i will be using will need to be clean of chemical ect, but i pointed out to them the reason of me doing this ie watering my own veg..

[mumofstig]

Mmmm don't remember seeing that post Trikidiki!  Interesting though about the rebate, but don't think I'll bother, when our water bill is only £10 a month!  

How do you manage that Grannie???
Mine is £8 for drinking water and £19 for waste water