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[meto30]

I had been building this megaproject (obsidian-casting a tower that reaches from the clouds to the underground curious thingy) for 18 dwarf years now. Needless to say, this project requires a sizable infrastructure to support all the miners and masons on the site.

My watersource has been three wells that connect directly into the underground lake I have discovered on the first cavern. The reason I said 'has been' is that I discovered an annoying fact about the lake; it is finite. I found this out just recently when I sent out my militia and mason squad to block off one of the access stairwells to prevent a possible FB intrusion. The lake stops just two tiles short of the map edge. The entire water system is contained within the map, which, if my knowledge is correct, prevents the lake from refilling.

In every single fortress I have built to this day I relied upon extremely large supplies of water to power my automated goblin killing systems and other related uselfullless dwarven contraptions, and this lack of an infinite watersource is a very large setback. So, I'd like some advice on this. Is there a way to obtain a sustainable water supply without an easily reached infinite source? If not, what methods can I use to make sure I at least have drinking water? Expected population when my planned fort matures is around 180.

EDIT: My pumpstacks for obsidian casting operations have already depleted a portion of the lake. Also, additional explorer sorties into the caverns have revealed a second, larger lake on the second cavern, but sadly it also is finite...

[FleshForge]

Have you fully explored all three cavern layers?  It's pretty likely there is some water somewhere down there that hits the border, unless you're just terribly unlucky.

[meto30]

I haven't explored the third cavern yet. I did breach it while digging the giant pit, and what was revealed in the initial breaching does not look promising. No tiles of water in sight. I don't think my militia can survive in the third level, as there are skeleton frogmen wandering about. BTW as of right now the third level is sealed. To explore it I'd need to dig another stairwell.

[Untelligent]

Do you have murky pools that don't evaporate? That was infinite enough water for me back in 40d. Build a cistern and fill it up when it rains.

[JAFANZ]

Even if they evaporate, dig cisterns off to the side & drain them in, That gives an infinite water source even if it is simultaneously limited in volume/usage.

Alternately, dig pit adjacent to the pools, that drops to the lake.

[Derekristow]

If your map freezes, dig a giant 1z deep vat on the surface and fill it with 2/7 of water, or 1/7 if it's near freezing time and you're feeling risky.  Once it unfreezes it will all be 7/7.

[meto30]

Do you have murky pools that don't evaporate? That was infinite enough water for me back in 40d. Build a cistern and fill it up when it rains.

Even if they evaporate, dig cisterns off to the side & drain them in, That gives an infinite water source even if it is simultaneously limited in volume/usage.

Alternately, dig pit adjacent to the pools, that drops to the lake.

Ah, so the overall idea would be to utilize murky pools to fill the lake? Looks like I have some engineering to do...
But will they be enough to sustain the obsidian casting of 40000+ units of stone? That's the main challenge I'm facing right now, since my goal was to build a monolithic obsidian tower.

If your map freezes, dig a giant 1z deep vat on the surface and fill it with 2/7 of water, or 1/7 if it's near freezing time and you're feeling risky.  Once it unfreezes it will all be 7/7.

That... that's possible? Yes, my map freezes in the winter... I must try this out. Thank you for your advice.

[krenshala]

It depends on how much rain you get, how many pools you have, and how much evaporation you suffer getting the water from the pools to the lake.  I had one where the first rain refilled the pool I'd turned into a palatial swimming pool completely to 7/7 (it was 3 times large in area after I dug it out).  I had another fort where the pool never refilled, even though I did not expand it ... the rainfall just wasn't enough to get it to consistent 2/7 water (or higher).

For the mechanisms, if you have wind, you might try windmills (haven't messed with them myself, yet, but thought I'd mention it).