Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks [Paperback]

Art Ludwig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0964343363 | ISBN-13: 978-0964343368 | Publication Date: May 30, 2005

A do-it-yourself guide to designing, building, and maintaining water tanks, cisterns and ponds, and sustainably managing groundwater storage. It will help you with your independent water system, fire protection, and disaster preparedness, at low cost and using principles of ecological design. Includes building instructions for several styles of ferro cement water tanks.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A guide to water systems that explores every facet of designing water resources wisely, efficiently, and in concert with nature. -- Richard Freudenberger, Executive Editor, Back Home Magazine

All sorts of alternatives to your standard plastic water tank, accessible by anyone from homeowner to builder to civil engineer. -- Amy Wynn, Builders Booksource

If you run a water system, for a weekend shack or a whole community, you need this book! -- Doug Pratt, Real Goods Technical Editor

On average water systems, this book will pay for itself a hundred times over in errors avoided and maintenance savings. -- Zane Satterfield, P.E., National Drinking Water Clearinghouse

Practical design solutions, comprehensive illustrations, and plenty of photos—a thorough treatment of a topic that’s vital to our survival. -- Claire Anderson, Home Power Magazine, Mother Earth News

From the Publisher

Water Storage describes how to store water for home, farm, and small communities. It will help you design storage for just about any use, including fire safety and emergency, in just about any context—urban, rural, or village.

This book includes:

•General principles to help you design, construct, and use any water system

•A look at common mistakes and how to avoid them

•How the different kinds of storage can serve you—tanks, groundwater, and ponds

•How to determine the optimum amount of storage for your needs

•How to determine the best shape and material for your storage

•How to manage aquifers sustainably for inexpensive storage of water in the ground

•Plumbing details for inlets, outlets, drains, overflows, access, etc. storage accessories and gadgets such as automatic shut-off valves, remote •Level indicators, ozonators, and filters

•How to build your own high-quality tank from ferrocement

•Original design innovations—published here for the first time—to improve the quality of stored water, increase water security, make maintenance easier, and reduce environmental impacts

•Real-life examples of storage designs for a wide range of contexts

This book offers underlying design principles as well as design specifics. If you run into a situation not specifically covered, there's a good chance you'll be able to use these general principles to figure it out yourself.

Installed water storage typically costs fifty cents to three dollars or more a gallon ($60-200/m3). If you've got this book in your hands, you're probably on the verge of making decisions about hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of storage. On an average water system, this book could pay for itself a hundred times over in savings on construction and maintenance.

Most of the information otherwise available on water storage comes from vendors. Oasis Design doesn't sell water storage hardware, so you don't have to worry about being steered towards stuff you don't need. Rather, we make our living by providing information to help people have a higher quality of life with lower impact.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: Oasis Design (May 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964343363
• ISBN-13: 978-0964343368
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Plumbing & Household Automation
  • #19 in Books > Professional & Technical > Architecture
  • #24 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Sustainable Living

More About the Author

Art Ludwig is an ecological systems designer with 28 years full-time experience in water, wastewater systems, energy, shelter and human powered transport. His specialty is complex, integrated "systems of systems." Art has studied and worked in 22 different countries, consulted for the states of New York and New Mexico on water reuse policy, and given dozens of lectures and workshops.

He designed his own education in Ecological Systems Design, graduating from UC Berkeley. At Berkeley, he developed the first cleaners specifically designed to be biocompatible with plants and soil, and founded a successful business to manufacture and distribute them.

Art currently lives with his family near Santa Barbara, surrounded by over 20 different kinds of fruit trees.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

132 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, November 16, 2006

By 

Sapello Sally (Sapello, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks (Paperback)

I agree with the positive comments in the earlier reviews. This is a great book covering all common forms of water storage vehicles, with plenty of technical details so you really can undertake these projects yourself. The section on ferrocement water tanks is very comprehensive; the plans for building the beautiful urn-shaped tank shown on the cover are worth the price of the book! Our area averages about 18 inches of rainfall each year; the important word in that statement is "averages." We have had as little as 10" one year, only to be inundated with 40" the next. Our 8500 gallons of water storage captures most of our roof runoff and allows us to water our gardens, greenhouses, and fruit trees with rainwater instead of high-mineral ground water during dry times (which is most of the time). Rainwater is better for the plants and storing it keeps our well from being stressed by watering. I also highly recommend Art Ludwig's books about greywater; we incorporated some of his design concepts when we built our house. To me, greywater reuse is the flip side of the water-catchment coin, allowing us to make the best use of this most precious resource.

114 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sounds Simple, And It Is, Once you have it explained, August 17, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks (Paperback)

Most of us, in the United States at least, grew up where the supply of water was so simple. Your house was automatically connected to the city water mains when it was built and for a few dollars a month all the water you needed was supplied at the turn of a tap.

My first home made water supply was out in the Louisiana swamps where average rainfall was more than fifty inches a year. It was a simple matter to build a catch system that caught the rain off the roof. But it was full of crud. A simple little device to catch the first of the rain in a bucket and when the bucket was full it pulled the outlet over to the big cistern and I had a water supply.

Later I moved to the desert and water got a lot more tricky, with rainfall of eight inches a year the rules are different. The biggest projects were a series of about five thousand small enclosed catch basins which were burried in every little dry creek bed to catch what little water there was for birds to drink. Yes, it may sound silly, but that's what the people with the money wanted.

As for this book, I only wish that I had known what contained in it when I started. Everything he says sounds so simple, makes so much sense that I wonder why I had to spend so much time making mistakes that taught me these same things.

If you're going to go play in the water business, either for yourself, or even for a water department read this book first.

85 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and readable, June 7, 2005

By 

L. A. Welch (Port Townsend,, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks (Paperback)

This is a friendly book that reads like a conversation with a very knowledgeable expert. The language is simple without being condescending, so a layperson can read it without becoming confused or overwhelmed. It is packed with information, explaining all aspects of choosing and implementing the design that best meets your needs. It is an essential read for anyone who needs to store water (which is all of us). If you buy one book on water storage, this should be it!