Who's dug their own well?

[oldE]

Originally Posted by Danimal16

Hugh, what do you mean by 20 feet?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect he meant 20 feet to the bottom of the hole. The water level within the well would depend upon the level of the water table and the refresh rate.

Best
Les

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Would be used for irrigation only. There is a surface clay barrier.

Is the surface clay barrier a confining layer? This could mean that there may be artesian conditions, but not likely if the area is drawn down. We taped a confined layer at 27 feet for a monitoring well as part of a dewatering project, it was under pressure, a lot of pressure. I learned that day why drillers wear hard hats.

Did you look at that link I sent you? It would be a good start.

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by oldE

Correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect he meant 20 feet to the bottom of the hole. The water level within the well would depend upon the level of the water table and the refresh rate.

Best
Les

OK, and I understand all the other stuff. BUT, if that well is that shallow it may be connected to surface water, and that gets real complicated as surface water rights start kicking in. Are you close to a creek or stream?

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Actually the pipes are threaded together. Thinking about this just now, I think my well is 6”. I will look in 5 minutes. You need to be able to fit a 4” submersible down there is you go that route. I will measure my spare pump for you too.

Confirmed. The well is cased with 6” pipe steel above plastic. The submersible pump diameter is 3.75”.

[unclebilly]

This is the borrow pond we dug when we built the road into our place 10 years ago. It’s over 20’ deep. We hit an aquifer and it filled in 3 days and is still full.

It is a triangle 350’x350’ in the corner of my south 1/4 section.

[stevej37]

Never dug one....pounded a couple shallow wells.

[gregpark]

Originally Posted by Danimal16

Is the surface clay barrier a confining layer? This could mean that there may be artesian conditions, but not likely if the area is drawn down. We taped a confined layer at 27 feet for a monitoring well as part of a dewatering project, it was under pressure, a lot of pressure. I learned that day why drillers wear hard hats.

Did you look at that link I sent you? It would be a good start.

Read the link, thanks for sending.

I know why they wear hard hats too now.
10 years ago at a mountain property we are partners on, we had a well dug. We didn't need the water but I got out voted and the drilling began. Of course, I'm the only one who could be there (the yay voters were too busy). The guys rig looked like a fire truck, all hydraulic apparatus of course. At 80 ft. after grinding through some granite for hours all hell broke loose. Water exploded 100 ft. into air. It looked just like somebody hit a fire hydrant. The guy was wide eyed and didn't know what to do, apparantly this doesnt happen very often. The next morning it settled down a bit for me to measure 100 GPM. After 3 days it settled down to 30 GPM which I believe is constant today. An artesian well! no pump required. The driller warned me that if we capped it, the pressure could build back up and undermine the casing. I ran 400 ft. of 4" flex pipe to the river and let it run off the cliff into the river but it turned the cliff orange. The water is so hard it tastes like you're sucking on an old leaf spring, it must be sitting in an iron deposite in the mountain
I pressure washed the orange off the cliff (risking my life) and capped the well installing a pressure gauge to monitor. For some reason the pressure hasn't changed and the casing has held. Lucky us, it easily could have become Pandoras box. To this day we've never needed or used this water and it's still a potential disaster

[Hugh R]

Exactly, meant surface contamination entering the water supply.

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Exactly, meant surface contamination entering the water supply.

Thanks Hugh, major concern and one of the reasons for some of the regs.

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Read the link, thanks for sending.

I know why they wear hard hats too now.
10 years ago at a mountain property we are partners on, we had a well dug. We didn't need the water but I got out voted and the drilling began. Of course, I'm the only one who could be there (the yay voters were too busy). The guys rig looked like a fire truck, all hydraulic apparatus of course. At 80 ft. after grinding through some granite for hours all hell broke loose. Water exploded 100 ft. into air. It looked just like somebody hit a fire hydrant. The guy was wide eyed and didn't know what to do, apparantly this doesnt happen very often. The next morning it settled down a bit for me to measure 100 GPM. After 3 days it settled down to 30 GPM which I believe is constant today. An artesian well! no pump required. The driller warned me that if we capped it, the pressure could build back up and undermine the casing. I ran 400 ft. of 4" flex pipe to the river and let it run off the cliff into the river but it turned the cliff orange. The water is so hard it tastes like you're sucking on an old leaf spring, it must be sitting in an iron deposite in the mountain
I pressure washed the orange off the cliff (risking my life) and capped the well installing a pressure gauge to monitor. For some reason the pressure hasn't changed and the casing has held. Lucky us, it easily could have become Pandoras box. To this day we've never needed or used this water and it's still a potential disaster

Greg, sounds like you have been through this stuff before. One thing that changed in 2014 in California is new requirements that have cut into the formerly absolute nature of overlying rights, it is after my time, but if it is like the "new" regs I saw during my career, it further erodes the rights of property owners.

Best of wishes to you for ease of getting this task done.

[Hugh R]

With or without permits,and putting aside laws, there is, in my mind, a moral obligation to not contaminate the groundwater, it isn't yours, like the air and water isn't yours to pollute, we all own it. Too many idiots install groundwater wells without a good understanding of hydrology, or water rights or anything else relevant. Sealing a well from not only surface water contamination but aquifer contamination is a big issue.

Decades ago I installed monitoring wells around Lockheed in Burbank and all the way to Glendale, the hexavalent chromium groundwater contamination was so bad that water samples came out very, very yellow.

In 1982-84 I was also sort of involved in Lockheed in Burbank when they were closing and leaving, I saw boiler and cooling systems that were in dis-repair and just plain leaking chromate treated cooling water to the floor drains and whereever else they drained to.

I went into the A-1, B-6 and C-2 plants where they made the SR-71 and the SB-15, in the Skunk Works plants I had to put on supplied air because they had Olympic sized swimming pools full of chlorinated solvents to degrease and clean entire airplane wings, same with the Rye Canyon facility, a few miles from where I live now, which is now used for filming. Oh and those millions of gallons of chlorinated solvent just sort of disappeared when they left (read, got dumped down the drains).

[unclebilly]

The pressure is a function of the weight of the overburden (soil above the porous water containing rock / sand / coal). By capping it, there is no possible way the pressure could increase (if anyone knows of how this is possible, I’m all ears).

Sounds like a great well. I imagine the water smelled like rotten eggs too? Many of these iron containing wells that stain have iron sulphide present.

Capping it was probably your best bet.

Originally Posted by gregpark

Read the link, thanks for sending.

I know why they wear hard hats too now.
10 years ago at a mountain property we are partners on, we had a well dug. We didn't need the water but I got out voted and the drilling began. Of course, I'm the only one who could be there (the yay voters were too busy). The guys rig looked like a fire truck, all hydraulic apparatus of course. At 80 ft. after grinding through some granite for hours all hell broke loose. Water exploded 100 ft. into air. It looked just like somebody hit a fire hydrant. The guy was wide eyed and didn't know what to do, apparantly this doesnt happen very often. The next morning it settled down a bit for me to measure 100 GPM. After 3 days it settled down to 30 GPM which I believe is constant today. An artesian well! no pump required. The driller warned me that if we capped it, the pressure could build back up and undermine the casing. I ran 400 ft. of 4" flex pipe to the river and let it run off the cliff into the river but it turned the cliff orange. The water is so hard it tastes like you're sucking on an old leaf spring, it must be sitting in an iron deposite in the mountain
I pressure washed the orange off the cliff (risking my life) and capped the well installing a pressure gauge to monitor. For some reason the pressure hasn't changed and the casing has held. Lucky us, it easily could have become Pandoras box. To this day we've never needed or used this water and it's still a potential disaster

[Arizona_928]

Haven't dug my own well. Had one drilled. 24$ a foot x 1,000 ft

One of these days I'll get a cable tool rig and dig another myself

[gregpark]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

The pressure is a function of the weight of the overburden (soil above the porous water containing rock / sand / coal). By capping it, there is no possible way the pressure could increase (if anyone knows of how this is possible, I’m all ears).

Sounds like a great well. I imagine the water smelled like rotten eggs too? Many of these iron containing wells that stain have iron sulphide present.

Capping it was probably your best bet.

We sent a water sample from this well in to a State lab and the water is potable. Tastes terrible and leaves orange residue which is not iron. The orange is a byproduct of a harmless microbe that requires air and iron to thrive. I would have sworn it was iron the way the water tastes. The water doesn't smell bad, just tastes bad. Its good for fire fighting and thats about it in my opinion. On this mountain property we're tapped into a wonderful spring fed creek with the sweetest mountain spring water. All the water we need, year-round.
My request for a well permit is awaiting review for my flatland property

[NY65912]

We did many shallow wells back in the day for lawns.

We made a tripod adapter out of tree pieces of baloney sliced 2" pipe and welded together, with a bullring in the center. Insert 1½" pipe and you have an adjustable height tripod.

We took a 4' long piece of pipe and filled it about 18" of it with molten lead and screwed a cap with a bullring drilled into it for a driver. You need a good piece of 5/8" rope and a well wheel.

You need a well point, 5' lengths of threaded pipe and well couplings or API oil line couplings. Attach the well point and a length of pipe with a coupling, insert into a pre dug hole (as deep as you can with a post hole digger) and lift the 4" pipe onto the driven pipe. Pull the rope and let it go. Pile driver.

I have driven wells down as far as 40' like this. Tiring but can be done.

[stevej37]

It's been so long ago that I forget...but I think we used one of these.....
fence post driver

[Bill Douglas]

Well, well, well, some very good advice.

Steve, I've got one of these. I've always thought it would be good as a Big Red Key.

Originally Posted by stevej37

[stevej37]

^^^
You guys must build some big doors down there!

[mattdavis11]

I thought surely some of you would have spring water on your property. I have, but I haven't done anything to disturb the flow. I have thought about using it to cool the worm.

[unclebilly]

We have a couple springs on our north 1/4. This is a big reason we bought that land. The spring feeds a creek that flows into the Bow River.

My cows drink from 2 (soon to be 3) ponds along that creek.