Dwarf Fortress Bug Tracker - Dwarf Fortress
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0005232Dwarf FortressFlowspublic2012-02-17 12:402015-12-15 13:13
floundericiousWA 
Toady One 
lowminorsometimes
resolvedfixed 
PCWindows7
0.34.01 
0.34.09 
0005232: Streams/brooks/rivers getting turned stagnant by nearby pools/ponds
I had to abandon a fort after I realized that the busily flowing stream next to it was full of stagnant water. All of the water flowing through this stream (not a brook, not a river, a stream) was marked "stagnant"
0.34.02
has duplicate 0005239resolved Footkerchief Stagnant water in rivers... 
has duplicate 0005757resolved Footkerchief Murky pool spreading its murkiness 
related to 0005288new  Water Wheels do not generate any power at all 
related to 0001376resolved Toady One Presence of saltwater marsh causes mountain brooks/pools to become salty 
Issue History
2012-02-17 12:40floundericiousWANew Issue
2012-02-17 12:42floundericiousWANote Added: 0019958
2012-02-17 13:12Logical2uNote Added: 0019960
2012-02-17 14:03floundericiousWANote Added: 0019968
2012-02-17 15:01Logical2uNote Added: 0019970
2012-02-17 15:01Logical2uStatusnew => resolved
2012-02-17 15:01Logical2uResolutionopen => no change required
2012-02-17 15:01Logical2uAssigned To => Logical2u
2012-02-17 19:06FootkerchiefRelationship addedhas duplicate 0005239
2012-02-17 19:06FootkerchiefAssigned ToLogical2u =>
2012-02-17 19:06FootkerchiefStatusresolved => new
2012-02-17 19:07FootkerchiefNote Added: 0020004
2012-02-17 19:07FootkerchiefSummaryStream full of stagnant water => Streams/brooks/rivers full of stagnant water
2012-02-18 09:23AzahielNote Added: 0020041
2012-02-19 08:11floundericiousWANote Added: 0020127
2012-02-19 08:12floundericiousWANote Edited: 0020127bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0020127#r7522
2012-02-19 08:28FootkerchiefRelationship addedrelated to 0005288
2012-02-20 12:41floundericiousWANote Added: 0020281
2012-02-22 21:06HateburnNote Added: 0020516
2012-02-25 03:57jriesenNote Added: 0020647
2012-02-25 04:00jriesenNote Edited: 0020647bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0020647#r7682
2012-02-25 04:28zombiejusticeIssue Monitored: zombiejustice
2012-02-25 10:33etherflanTag Attached: 0.34.02
2012-02-25 10:33etherflanNote Added: 0020662
2012-02-25 12:31FootkerchiefSummaryStreams/brooks/rivers full of stagnant water => Streams/brooks/rivers getting turned stagnant by nearby pools/ponds
2012-02-26 11:54FootkerchiefRelationship addedrelated to 0001376
2012-02-28 15:08floundericiousWANote Added: 0020870
2012-03-02 20:39DwarfuResolutionno change required => open
2012-03-03 07:15XotanoNote Added: 0021024
2012-03-06 02:41JohnLukeGNote Added: 0021160
2012-03-10 15:29jriesenNote Added: 0021344
2012-03-10 17:03NW_KohakuNote Added: 0021345
2012-03-11 16:45floundericiousWANote Added: 0021377
2012-03-16 22:20rbeverlyNote Added: 0021521
2012-03-23 05:02BuglistIssue Monitored: Buglist
2012-03-23 12:25krenshalaNote Added: 0021680
2012-03-23 12:25krenshalaIssue Monitored: krenshala
2012-03-23 16:07krenshalaNote Edited: 0021680bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0021680#r8084
2012-03-23 16:09krenshalaNote Edited: 0021680bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0021680#r8085
2012-03-23 16:12krenshalaNote Edited: 0021680bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0021680#r8086
2012-03-24 05:01d64Note Added: 0021690
2012-03-24 21:04krenshalaNote Added: 0021711
2012-03-25 16:14guebstrikeNote Added: 0021719
2012-03-25 16:53guebstrikeNote Edited: 0021719bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0021719#r8099
2012-03-25 17:41slinkNote Added: 0021720
2012-03-27 21:50Kaelem GaenIssue Monitored: Kaelem Gaen
2012-03-28 13:52KijiroNote Added: 0021843
2012-03-29 01:00SmileyManNote Added: 0021850
2012-03-29 01:25SmileyManIssue Monitored: SmileyMan
2012-03-30 17:10Deimos56Issue Monitored: Deimos56
2012-03-30 17:38QuietustNote Added: 0021922
2012-04-02 11:56FootkerchiefRelationship addedhas duplicate 0005757
2012-04-02 12:48floundericiousWANote Added: 0022042
2012-04-02 12:49floundericiousWANote Edited: 0021377bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0021377#r8202
2012-04-04 09:10Kaelem GaenNote Added: 0022078
2012-04-05 13:27Hieronymous AlloyIssue Monitored: Hieronymous Alloy
2012-04-05 19:41musicmastermshNote Added: 0022117
2012-04-06 15:26KijiroNote Added: 0022136
2012-04-06 15:27KijiroNote Edited: 0022136bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0022136#r8224
2012-04-12 06:44revlobIssue Monitored: revlob
2012-04-12 06:46revlobNote Added: 0022239
2012-04-14 00:15fiskmeshiIssue Monitored: fiskmeshi
2012-04-14 03:57DorenNote Added: 0022256
2012-04-14 06:35kwielandNote Added: 0022257
2012-04-25 07:10DekonNote Added: 0022376
2012-04-25 07:14RhenayaIssue Monitored: Rhenaya
2012-04-25 07:39DekonNote Edited: 0022376bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0022376#r8334
2012-05-02 14:07LuckyLuigiNote Added: 0022418
2012-05-02 14:08LuckyLuigiIssue Monitored: LuckyLuigi
2012-05-05 06:56tg90norIssue Monitored: tg90nor
2012-05-05 17:17daenythIssue Monitored: daenyth
2012-05-08 08:17SaikoKilaNote Added: 0022452
2012-05-14 12:11SmileyManNote Added: 0022494
2012-05-16 03:59Toady OneStatusnew => resolved
2012-05-16 03:59Toady OneFixed in Version => Next Version
2012-05-16 03:59Toady OneResolutionopen => fixed
2012-05-16 03:59Toady OneAssigned To => Toady One
2012-05-16 13:08BuglistIssue End Monitor: Buglist
2012-05-18 18:42krenshalaIssue End Monitor: krenshala
2012-05-19 05:58RhenayaIssue End Monitor: Rhenaya
2014-07-25 22:39SmileyManIssue End Monitor: SmileyMan
2015-12-15 13:13Kaelem GaenIssue End Monitor: Kaelem Gaen

Notes
(0019958)
floundericiousWA   
2012-02-17 12:42   
nevermind, just noticed that this is in the wiki...should probably be fixed but, ok, understand.
(0019960)
Logical2u   
2012-02-17 13:12   
Presumably you mean it was a wetlands biome?
(0019968)
floundericiousWA   
2012-02-17 14:03   
...no...it wasn't a wetlands. It was a temperate forest, I think. Now, I will say it was within one region tile of being in the ocean and I got a warning that it was salt water. HOWEVER, the stream was a water source before it got channeled into a murky pool. I may reclaim that fort or embark in the next tile just to see what the water there looks like and provide more context and !!RESEARCH!!
(0019970)
Logical2u   
2012-02-17 15:01   
It might be a good idea to look at the map again and make sure that you remember correctly.

That said, since it sounds like it was a river that got emptied into a murky pool, that appears to be expected behaviour. Thus, for now I'll resolve this report with "No change required" but you will be able to reopen it later if there's a problem or you discover additional information.
(0020004)
Footkerchief   
2012-02-17 19:07   
Reopening due to corroboration in 0005239. I think I also saw corroboration on the forums somewhere.
(0020041)
Azahiel   
2012-02-18 09:23   
Indeed I have the same situation (that's why I posted the bug report). It may be just my luck, but every river I had so far had stagnant water. Both in fortress and adventurer mode.
(0020127)
floundericiousWA   
2012-02-19 08:11   
(edited on: 2012-02-19 08:12)
ok I just reembarked in a new spot (with v 0.34.02, the new Feb 17 '12 release) ...I have a brook and MANY stagnant pools...

The brook is a drinking source...I've not yet punched one of the murky pools to test this because...darnit...I like being able to play and this is a great location. So I'm going to do my !!research!! here after I get a huge cistern filled :-)

(0020281)
floundericiousWA   
2012-02-20 12:41   
LOL and my two miners just got caught in an unfortunate cave-in...so now I have the doctor and a new migrant busy learning how to swing a pickaxe trying like heck to get enough dining/living space carved out so I don't have a tantrum spiral! :-P
(0020516)
Hateburn   
2012-02-22 21:06   
My brook slowly got infected, even though it was flowing from bottom to top of the map. Hello infections.
(0020647)
jriesen   
2012-02-25 03:57   
(edited on: 2012-02-25 04:00)
From my personal tests, it seems like the stagnation starts in brooks/streams/rivers anywhere that a murky pool and the river share a wall. I can definitely vouch that no digging occurred; it's a brand new embark, not in wetlands but instead temperate grassland. The contamination doesn't always seem to spread quickly; it looks like removing water (whether by bucket for pond fill or actually pumping it out) seems to cause flow (independent of the 'current' direction of the river) and contamination spreads in the direction the water has been removed.

I don't know for sure that it's the river bordering on a murky pool wall, but on two maps now, the stagnation seems localized right next to those murky pools immediately adjacent (but not open to!) the river. I suspect the walls of murky pools are somehow 'hot' and transmit stagnation to the river. (What's interesting, though, and possibly contradictory, is that my test cisterns placed up against the river itself don't get contaminated in this fashion. This may be because the rivers use special optimizations to model 'flow' without using the full fluid model?)

EDIT: Also, there's no reason to abandon your fort! Just dig out a cistern - and no, it doesn't need constructed walls or anything - and pump water into it via Screw Pump from any stagnant source. As long as no water leaks around to touch a stagnant source, the cistern remains uncontaminated. At least it remained non-stagnant for several months, with only a 1-tile wall separating it from the completely-stagnated river.

(0020662)
etherflan   
2012-02-25 10:33   
I too noticed this, thought the wall sharing thing was intended
(0020870)
floundericiousWA   
2012-02-28 15:08   
thanks all!
(0021024)
Xotano   
2012-03-03 07:15   
yea this needs to be fixed somehow, hopefully in one of the upcoming releases. i noticed my brook was stagnant far too late to fix the problem and my dwarfs all died and went insane and then one broke my well and for some reason my base flooded when he did tho it was only 1 z level lower then the water, and from the testing i did with water in the arena and other fortresses the water stops 1z level below the highest point in most cases.
(0021160)
JohnLukeG   
2012-03-06 02:41   
Why would stagnation spread to running water in the first place? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
(0021344)
jriesen   
2012-03-10 15:29   
Agreed. But, as far as we can tell, "stagnation" seems to mean "nasty contaminated water", and contamination can spread, and it doesn't just go away because the water is moving. At the same time, it does seem a little odd that it isn't 'diluted' with distance and basically spreads like a plague, and there's no way to 'disinfect' a tile *ever*.
(0021345)
NW_Kohaku   
2012-03-10 17:03   
There is a problem if contamination of the water supply flows upstream, however.

Also, it can be crippling in Adventure Mode, when you can't find any non-stagnant water source in the water, and can't drink stagnant water. You can, oddly, step into a stream and then drink the moisture on your chest and stomach, which is a bit of a buggy workaround that probably shouldn't exist, either.
(0021377)
floundericiousWA   
2012-03-11 16:45   
(edited on: 2012-04-02 12:49)
Holy christ...

I've now lost this fort THREE TIMES because I can't get clean water.

I have THREE HUGE CISTERNS ALL OVERFLOWING WITH STAGNANT WATER...TWO OF THEM AFTER PASSING THROUGH SCREW PUMPS.

All of the water in the brook is stagnant...all of the water in my cistern is stagnant...all of the water ON THE MAP is stagnant.

This is an INTENSELY annoying bug. I have to start over somewhere else...I've given up all the space below my living area to cisterns that are now FULL of stagnant water.

SUCKS!

Update: I've figured out how to work around this and, incidentally, it goes back to making a better fort design to begin with...but, man oh man, stagnant water is TOUGH to handle! :-\

(0021521)
rbeverly   
2012-03-16 22:20   
I can also confirm this. I made a canal that became stagnant from being one tile from a stagnant pool (which had already been drained elsewhere, btw).
The canal got water from the river via screw pump and was not connected to the river directly, so the rivier was not immediately contaminated. So I dried out the canal and built a stone floor over it, figuring maybe the floor tiles become contaminated; and I mined out the old pool that was drained until there were no "stagnant pool" tiles. That did not cure the canal, and when it overflowed slightly the river also became stagnant. I guess I could have tried building walls in the canal and the former pool. But it seems that once stagnant water touches a tile it's no good. Maybe I can sanitize them with magma? :)
(0021680)
krenshala   
2012-03-23 12:25   
(edited on: 2012-03-23 16:12)
I've got a stream next to a murky pool (shared wall) in 34.05. I'll check that later today and report what I find. I can't remember what biome I'm in, but I have that written down, so I'll add it as well.

[edit] *a few hours later* My embark (founded spring 251) is in Shrubland, with a stream (shown as a river when loo[k]ing at it) running north to south. In the center of my embark there is murky pool just west of the stream.

I have not dug into any of the pools or the river (yet), and my fortress is on the east bank of the river, with no bridges, so it isn't a case of my fisherdwarf standing between the pool and river causing the contamination.

Checking my most current save: Summer 252

For 13 tiles south of the murky pool of stagnant water, the river is listed as "stagnant water 7/7". the 14th tile is listed as "water 7/7". All of the water in the river from that point south is "water". For 12 tiles north of the murky pool, the river is listed as "stagnant water 7/7", while the 13th tile north is listed as "water 7/7". In both cases the "stangant" portion is all the same horizontally, with a clear "from here (N or S) is stagnant".

I checked random tiles on each horizontal row (5x5 embark), and while there is another murky pool adjacent to the river, the other pool has two solid tiles (damp peat walls) next to it, and non-stagnant river water. The affected area is a single row of damp clay loam walls.

Checking an older save: Winter 251 (~ six months previous)

The top row of tiles even with the top of the murky pool is listed as "water 7/7", but the next row down is listed as "stagnant water 7/7". This is an obvious difference from Summer 252. That top row of stagnant water also only affects 3 of the 4 tiles of water, with the one farthest from the pool being listed as "water 7/7". For 5 tiles south of the pool the river is listed as "stagnant water 7/7", or half what it shows in summer 252. The next row south is stagnant on the west half, normal on the east (4 tiles wide). The 7th row is only stagnant in the farthest west tile (1 of 4).

If needed I can post a couple saves, as I have seasonal saves enabled at the moment.

(0021690)
d64   
2012-03-24 05:01   
Interestingly enough, a channel made from a stagnant pool to the brook 5 tiles away will just make a short section of the brook stagnant. Maybe 10 tiles in each direction of the channel.
(0021711)
krenshala   
2012-03-24 21:04   
My 0.34.06 fortress (just started) shows the same stagnant water contamination.
(0021719)
guebstrike   
2012-03-25 16:14   
(edited on: 2012-03-25 16:53)
I've recently observed quite a bit of behavior related to this bug. In this .06 fort: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6002 [^] three stagnant areas of the brook quickly appeared. Interestingly, you can spot them without even looking below the surface of the water. The three areas are accompanied by pairs of tiles of silty clay loam, which in this DIY Mayday version are the only red tiles on the surface. I doubt this is caused by fishing dwarves, since this is a new fort and I don't think they've traveled that far from their starting location...but I could be wrong. I originally thought that a lot of this contamination may be caused by wet frogs and toads jumping from a stagnant pool to a clean pool. Now I think it must be some sort of secret invisible stagnant river vampire yeti, only identifiable by its tracks >:) Note that one of the sections of stagnant river is not adjacent to a stagnant pool, but also has a pair of silt clay loam tiles, and is also in the forest.

Additionally, the whole stream, and the forts well, become stagnant, but *only after the first freeze*.

I also observed in a .05 fort in which parallel channels of stagnant water and clean water didn't infect the clean water, but in a nearby biome downstream, in the forest, where there were lots of toads, the brook was stagnant. However, as far as I can tell, since the water near that fort never froze, the stagnant water never spread upstream.

Also, this has nothing to do with pumping water, I usually dig simple wells that require no pumps.

(0021720)
slink   
2012-03-25 17:41   
I have a map where the brook enters and exits the map stagnant, and is stagnant adjacent to four out of five murky pools but not next to the fifth. It is not stagnant where my one of my two fortress walls passes over the brook, nor adjacent to that wall. It was not stagnant to begin with, when I filled my reservoir and built my well, but the well is unusable now. My fishermen will also no longer fish in the stagnant portion of the river. Everyone is ignoring the drinking and fishing zones. This is in year 3.

Year 1: Brook stagnant only in 8 tiles adjacent to two murky pools not far from brook source.
Year 2: Brook stagnant from reservoir tap on down, and nearby the two pools mentioned above. Brook source is now stagnant, but the contamination has not spreaf far downstream from there. The biggest problem in this year appears to be where I tapped the brook for my reservoir.

This fortress was built in a world generated in 34.06. Ports of three other fortresses from 34.05 don't seem to have the same problem with my reservoir, at least not in their first year.

Joke: Maybe the 34.06 Dwarves are secretly peeing, as many have requested on the forum in the past, in the water.
(0021843)
Kijiro   
2012-03-28 13:52   
Confirmed in the latest version 34.06.

I never paid attention to the fact that the pools of water are stagnant. I channeled the water from the brook near the fort over to the pool, then channeled that into a well.

Now all the water in the brook and the well is stagnant. I guess I assumed the flowing water from the brook would de-stagnate the water in the pool. The opposite happened and now everything is fouled. :(

I dont know if the brook water was already stagnant, but it certainly is now. When I embark on a new location later today I will add details about the brook/stream, what is stagnant, and when changes occur, if any. I will also supply a save.
(0021850)
SmileyMan   
2012-03-29 01:00   
I started a new embark, paused. The brook was full of fresh water, apart from where it was seperated from a murky pool by only one tile of wall. The brook squares next to the wall were also stagnant. I used the step advance, and the stagnation spreads in all directions every couple of ticks.

I hope this is a bug and not desired behaviour, because it makes starting on a river a bit of pot luck as to whether it'll be usable or not.
(0021922)
Quietust   
2012-03-30 17:38   
The problem happens whenever murky pools are placed in a particular location and then a river/brook is placed on top of those tiles - the murky pool placement flags them as stagnant, but the river placement fails to undo it.

This also results in the murky pool walls against the river not having any ramps.
(0022042)
floundericiousWA   
2012-04-02 12:48   
Stagnant water is extremely persistent!

I've managed to fix it on the latest fort by building a 4 pump stack to move stagnant water to a floored and walled 3-level, 15x15 cistern. After a recent modification to add floors, my bottom pump started spewing stagnant water but the other pumps are still clean. All I can say is...you can never have enough screw pumps to clean water...and, for armok's sake, install them once and NEVER TOUCH THEM AGAIN. Having dwarves do anything in the outlet square seems to render the water stagnant again.
(0022078)
Kaelem Gaen   
2012-04-04 09:10   
I assume it's cause Pump stacks and Cisterns MOSTLY solve this problem (and Aquifers? the whole layer can't become stagnant unless the how layers dug out somehow right?), but why is this marked as Low this seems Medium at least.
(0022117)
musicmastermsh   
2012-04-05 19:41   
About the only way around this that I've found so far is to use dfhack to remove all stagnant water from the entire map - but we shouldn't have to do that?
(0022136)
Kijiro   
2012-04-06 15:26   
(edited on: 2012-04-06 15:27)
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6119 [^]

Here is a 34.07 save that was never unpaused from embark. The river near the top of the screen is stagnant. Near that same area, there is a pool of stagnant water.

And here's a handy screenshot of the area in question:

http://i.imgur.com/zoE9L.png [^]

(0022239)
revlob   
2012-04-12 06:46   
Started a new embark, river and pools on map were frozen. A few days later it thawed, and all water on the map was instantly stagnated.
(0022256)
Doren   
2012-04-14 03:57   
I think its not low but medium or high priority bug.
(0022257)
kwieland   
2012-04-14 06:35   
@ Doren - the priority field doesn't mean anything. It isn't used for fixing bugs or anything. Pretty much ignore it.
(0022376)
Dekon   
2012-04-25 07:10   
(edited on: 2012-04-25 07:39)
Since, even though it's understood, there's no real good explanation that I'm seeing in the comments, I'll toss up what I've seen/been told by others.

Tiles have hidden flags, and one of those hidden flags is stagnant or not - just like salty or not. Once a tile is flagged as stagnant, by having even touched the wall of water that's stagnant, it is stagnant FOREVER.

Unfortunately, this is true with any minor mistake you might make in releasing the stagnant water of murky pools. If a murky pool is mined out and allowed to release stagnant water across other tiles, even if only 1/7 depth touches any tile in your fortress, that tile is forever and irreversibly stagnant.

I just spent up a lot of time setting up a giant waterway only to discover this :(. Even if you floor/wall the entire path with marble blocks, if the tile's flagged, all the water will stagnate, and yes - if it's touching a river, that's gone too.

Footkerchief, if there was a bug recently to ask Toady to take an hour to fix.. this would be it.

EDIT: Apparently WClean in Liquids in DFhack CAN fix this - you just have to make sure you clean absolutely every tile that would even touch the wall of anything you're making.

So if it's a river, you're going to have to clean every single river tile, every single water tile touching the river, and every single surrounding tile around the river. Drain any stagnant pools that touch the river by 1 wall and add an extra wall surrounding them before you wclean. You have to be incredibly, painstakingly thorough for this to work, as if any tile is left with the stagnant flag, the whole thing goes.

(0022418)
LuckyLuigi   
2012-05-02 14:07   
Confirming all my water including the brook turned stagnant in 0.34.07
Drained all my waterworks and pumped in water from the brook. Still stagnant.
(0022452)
SaikoKila   
2012-05-08 08:17   
This behaviour can be triggered even without any external water source or "contamination". It often shows when using the rectacting-bridge-and-ramps-from-underneath method for draining rivers and lakes, but before any actual connection to the body of water is made. Assume the brook is located at level -1. Dig underneath it at level -3. Then designate some up-ramps at this level. This will create up-ramps at level -3 and open space (displayed as downward slope) at level -2. The brook above it should change to stagnant, with 10-15 tiles upstream affected. The effect is usually triggered in chunks, by digging certain tiles, so may not be evident immediately. Even the "River source" tile can be converted to stagnant that way.

If I may add - the whole "stagnant water" mechanic is so broken now that it would be feasible to abandon it completely for now, just like economy. And restore it when the bugs are dealt with.
(0022494)
SmileyMan   
2012-05-14 12:11   
Still happens in 34.08