March 25, 2022: Cistern 1

A few things about New Mexico that I really like:

1. It’s the FIRST state to guarantee free college tuition for ALL residents, regardless of age, full-or-part time status. This was signed by Governor Lujan 3 days ago.
2. There’s only 2.1 million people here. Lots of space.
3. Other than 2 counties (ours being one), the state is solidly blue and “blue-collar”.
4. You are encouraged to capture rainwater off your roof! (In Colorado, rainwater belongs to the state and you can only gather a couple 55-gallon drums worth from your roof. Everyone around has some sort of cistern, above or below ground to capture every drip of water that falls on their rooftops. So far, we have 1, but plan to add 2 underground tanks in the future for winter use. (There’s also a cistern connected to the well).

Our above ground 1000 gal cistern is pretty old, and had a 12″ crack on the bottom. We weren’t sure if we could repair it, but decided to try.

First, we lifted it up, which took some serious leverage, then rolled it into the sun to dry.

There’s a tool we knew nothing about: a polypropylene welding gun, which we ordered, along with plastic welding rods and stainless steel mesh. Alan started by climbing inside the thing and cleaning some of the muck out, using a pump and many, many rags. Cisterns are supposed to have up to 4″ of sludge on the bottom, an anaerobic mush that works to clean rainwater of any heavy metals and bacteria. It took a while to get the gook out so he could even sit inside. He had to wear a respirator against the plastic fumes and then began melting the mesh and welding the plastic over it. It took 3 hours. I was his assistant, handing him things, disposing of the sludge (great garden compost!).

Once done with the inside, he repeated the work on the outside. That was much easier. In the meantime, I was leveling the site the tank sits on, as it had gotten mucked up and the leak had caused a lot of the ground to slough away. It was like working with concrete, using a leveler and trowel.

Then, we managed to roll the thing back into place and lower it down slowly. The downspout fit in just as it started to rain. And now we have 4″ of fresh water. I’ve tested it several times and it is clean and potable! However, we have ordered a new gutter system that includes filters specific for rainwater capture, and plan to not drink it until that is installed. Who knows when some birds might come and poop on the roof!