Artesian well - what to do?

[ratter]

Wow guys, great ideas. I think some sort of holding tank makes lots of sense as an emergency water source, and for the garden, etc. A turbine...I know nothing about them...I have to read more.

I did a bit of reading about bottling companies - seems they pay as little as $.01 a gallon??? I guess that would be a decent supplemental income - but the startup costs are probably frightening...

A pond or some kind of water feature would be nice too...hmm...

 

[slydog]

Definitely a water feature! I'd love to have an artesian well on my property. I'd do me some kind of creek bed of rock, a holding pond, then maybe a cistern farther down for watering and such. Don't screw it up by piping the runoff underground. It would be such a waste.

 

[HugFinn]

Hey All,
I am working on the same issue and figured out that it is IMPORTANT to have a break in your drain line, so it can not vacuum anything back to your well and contaminate it!!!!!!!!!!!! You do not want to get sick!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm new to the forum here, and new to rural living, for that matter. This forum is a gold mine for me, as I've got so much to do, so many questions, and such little information!

So anyway, one thing that I'm dealing with - we get our water from an artesian well. We get decent water pressure inside the house, but then above and beyond that, there is an overflow pipe that lets out by our springhouse (25 yards behind the house, down slope). The overflow lets out, no joke, probably 2-3 gallons a minute. Water just pours out, 24/7/365.

Issue #1 - it's not drained well, so I have a clump of watercress about a foot high, 6 feet wide, and 40 feet long, then a half-acre of boggy land beyond that. It would probably be worse, if not for the fact that there's a creek back there, so once the water *finally* makes its way back that far, it has the creek to drain into.

Issue #2 - should I be letting that water just dump out like that, or should that overflow be valved/capped?

What would you do? Improve the drainage and let it flow? Cap it? I plan on living in this house for the rest of my life (I'm 30) and passing it onto my kids. I don't want the well to run dry. But for all I know, it's not possible/feasible to cap it, either.

If your answer is to improve the drainage and let it flow, I'm listening to suggestions on how to do exactly that, as well. I don't mind having the water flowing through the property, above ground, as long as it's a controlled flow and not just making land that I want to be part of the yard be just a soggy mess.

Thanks!
-Mike

 

[WayneB]

You have one of the very few true artesian wells so consider yourself lucky! Not sure if there is a pipe outlet and if so what size it is, but the idea of adding a pipe to the system and running it out to the creek is your very best solution.

You should not try to cap off the over-flow. If you were to do that the entire system will build up pressure and not sure what would have to give to release the pressure.

We had a farm well drilled and it had so much pressure that we ended up with a six inch diameter pipe running constantly and the end result was a wonderful cattle water pond. That well was drilled in 1960 timeframe and is still running strong today. Back then they assumed that we had hit an underground stream and it created the underground pressure.

Wayne

 

[pennwalk]

Is there enough flow to do something with geothermal? the price of heating and cooling is high and likely will go higher. Being able to do geothermal without drilling a well makes it closer to reasonable.

Chris

 

[MossRoad]

How much of a drop is it from the outlet to the creek? If it is only a few inches and 2-3 gallons a minute, a micro turbine will not work to generate electricity. You need flow AND drop, which you do not seem to have, or you would not have a boggy area where the water flows, you would have a running creek or stream.

I would make a water feature out of it. A pond with an overflow to the creek would be nice. A wetland. Or, perhaps, a man made creek bed.

Dig a shallow, meandering trench and line it with plastic, then place rocks in it and plants in shallow pools, etc... go to your library and get some books on landscaping with water.

You are lucky to have an abundant source.

 

[dieselalles]

ratter, we have an artesian aquifer on our place and it has been a blessing and a curse. We also have a bunch of other springs that flow most of the year but not near as much as the artesian. Further up our little valley is a series of sink holes, or "nature's drains" that according to geologists, is part of a system of underground limestone caves and rivers that move water through the area. This whole thing is part of a cave system that runs through central Kentucky and Tennessee. And the sinkholes are always full of water, sometimes turning to active springs days after a big rainfall. These are roughly six inches in diameter.

This is a blessing because everything in the little valley where it is stays eternally green, it draws a lot of wildlife and supports some really neat plant life. And it's a curse cause it draws wildlife, makes for poor drainage in the surrounding soil, creating high water tables and working around it means getting stuck easily.

The soil problems are the biggest curse. Back in June, I was digging a post hole to build a 33 ft. tower for my weather station. The closest spring was about 75 ft away on the edge of the woods. I dug the hole, went to eat supper, and upon my return, the 4' deep hole had over two feet of water in it.

Residents around here in the late 1800's, early 1900's built a containment wall around the spring to hold the water so they could keep perishables. For years afterward, it served to water cattle. And I don't want to tear down the containment wall. It's pretty cool. I'm thinking of building a pond and besides looks, using it for irrigation. I just can't see letting all that water go to waste when I need it to water a food plot further up the hill in better soil.

But right now the area around the big spring is grown up with large willows, cattails and something like saw grass. The rest of the area is all woods.

Good luck with yours.
Richard

 

[CurlyDave]

I would make a water feature out of it. A pond with an overflow to the creek would be nice. A wetland. Or, perhaps, a man made creek bed.

Whatever you do, do not make a wetland.

If you do that you will lose part of your land due to Federal Law. It must now permanently be wetland.

 

[MossRoad]

Whatever you do, do not make a wetland.

If you do that you will lose part of your land due to Federal Law. It must now permanently be wetland.

You will not lose your land. You will have a wetland. Some people enjoy those, you know?

 

[the_sandman_454]

Technically, by definition, if it is a certain soil type and it supports various aquatic or semi aquatic plants, it already is a wetland, and playing with it could potentially lead to issues.

Read the federal, state and local regulations carefully.