Artesians (the water-well kind!)

[Anonymous Poster]

I've cut-and-pasted the following from a response to an inquiry by Chip, having been unable to get thru to his home e-address, hoping that it may be of interest to others here in the "Rural living" section:
[[Posted on 12/1/00 02:33 AM
LHS...y'all hit me on the off-post side...i-chip@webtv.net
'Like to ask you more 'bout that artisian wet. ]]
Thanx

Hi Chip,

Sorry for the slow get-back.

Re. artesian wells...can't tell you much about them in general, beyond what you probably already know - but I can tell you the story of THIS one:

Maybe 7-8 years ago, my girlfriend and I had a fellow firefighter, who had a well-drilling business "off-duty", come look at our property to discuss the "best" place to put down a well.

I asked him for his experience using his best "geological theory" to pick well-sites, vs using the talents of "water-witches" (or "dowsers"), also vs pure chance.
He said 33%-33%-34%...with the winning 1% going to "chance". Then he said "Put it where you want it...your chances are just as good, and the location will be perfect!

So, having spent considerable time and effort planning the layout of my driveways, shop, home-site, etc., I stuck a stick in the ground, and said "Put it here!"

So he started to drill."How deep?" says he. "240 feet." says I ( A farmer across the road had a pond about 1/4 mile away, that he filled from a well that was 200 feet deep. On the off chance that we might be drawing from the same aquifer, I wanted to still have water if he ever sucked his well dry). So 240 feet it is.

Both of us having to be on-duty the next day, he tack-welded a cap on the (6") well casing, and we quit for the day. The next day, while at the fire-station, I got a phone call from another friend, who had stopped by my place to see what we had done.

"There's water flowing out from under the cap on your well!" says he."You kiddin' me ?" says I (in not exactly those words! . Sure enough, I get home the next day and he's right.

Then I had a local plumbing supply weld me up a "hydrant" ( 4 foot tall extension of the well casing, with a removable bolt-on cap, and 4 (3") outlets to supply various uses...field / gen. utility / fire-fighting / house-pressurized-tank, etc.). And then my well-driller friend welded the whole thing together..."Voila!" -- my own fire-hydrant.

I put gauges on the cap, and the pressure began to rise, continuing for several days, until it finally reached +/- 45 feet of head...about 20-something lbs. on the gauge.

We had some fun opening a valve, and watching a 2-3" jet of water shoot 15-20 feet in the air. I marked a transparent 55 gal drum so we could measure the fill rate, and determined that the initial output, with the well fully "charged", was over 100 gallons per minute!

This diminished slowly as the "reservoir" was depleted (about 3000 gallons) finally delivering a much-reduced flow of about 2-3 gal./min.

The best configuration of the "system" that my driller could visualize, is this: somewhere inside the hill, at a higher elevation than my wellsite, is a "reservoir" roughly equivalent to a 3000 gallon tank-truck. whether this consists of 1 or more "pockets", or of a large porous area of saturated soil, we can't know. In any case,
we have somehow tapped into this supply, and it seems to refill at the slower rate, but when "full", is able to deliver the higher rate until depleted.

This, of course, is sufficient for any usual pressure-tank refilling or other "household" uses, on a daily basis.
It is also enough for some fire-fighting demands, during a short term effort. It has remained remarkably-consistent thru droughts(minor) or flood seasons.

During the years since, the flow rate has diminished to about half. I have opened the well and "sounded" with a weight, to determine that the well has "silted-up"
The "new" depth was about 200 feet. this was about 3 years ago. The driller told me that I should expect this, as all the "feeders" fed a mix of sand/clay along with the water, into the shaft. He said I should wait as long as I was willing to, in order for these "feeders" to clean out, and then drill/pump the silt from the shaft...thereafter expecting that it would silt-in much more slowly. I have not yet done so, as the supply is still adequate for our needs. I suppose the filling-in has continued, and that the shaft is much less deep than last time I checked it. Still, the pressure is adequate (6-7lbs.) for squirting from a garden hose 10-15 ft. high, enough to wash cars, equipment, etc.

Re. water quality: I have not had it checked, as we carry drinking water from Salem(rated among the best in the country), and will analyze it after the next
"pump-out". In any event, plants, pets, and wildlife like it and remain in good health while drinking it. And we bathe in it, ..no problems.

It is still a kick to use our "running-water", provided free-for-the-taking by Mother
Nature ... no power,...no pump...just an outlet in the ground. Quite a nice stroke of fortune!

That's about all I can think of... maybe more than you wanted to hear

See you on the tractor list!

Best wishes,

larry






  

 

[Richard]

Cool story Larry, you wanna come to my place and put a stick in the ground for me??

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Water Wells and Loss of Property

Cool story about your well!

I have some sloped property and was going to do some french drains, one of the contractors that came out mentioned to be careful as you can break through a sealing (albeit leaking) section of ground and have more water than you can deal with. I guess he had been redoing some ditches on a long downhill windy road and hit a gravel vein or something with a layer of thin hardpan over it OOOPS.

And back on the subject. If any of you have a piece of undeveloped property or are thinking of buying one, take heed. In many places someone can put a well 5 feet from your property line. There may be no notification process to you. Depending on your property you could find yourself in a real problem if that was the area you need to put a septic field, as there is a 100 foot clear area around a well against drainfields, even if it's on YOUR property!!! Sometimes neighbors cooperate with each other and put in 2 wells with overlapping circles to reduce "lost" land, but not always.

I've even been told of people on 2 sides of a piece of property putting in wells at different positions which screws the middle person out of his land. With all the BS regulations there are in building, I am truly blown away that someone can appropriate your land for their uses. In my search of information on this I've also been told there have been grudge wells drilled for the EXPRESS PURPOSE of screwing someone, not an accident of unknowing neighbors.

In my conversation with the owner of the property next to mine, who I've had normal contacts with I was tempted to say, "It doesn't matter now that you've done this, if it messes up my plans I'll just use the area right next to your property as a nice dirt bike track or a place for my extra garage where I'll be doing a lot of air chisel work late at night.

Supposedly he went there as a neighbor 1000 feet away hit water at 60 feet and he wanted to try to get in on that acquifer. He used a "water witch". I'm sorry, but anybody who walks along with a wiggly stick and trys to tell me where water is down below, when there is a 600+ foot deep 5 mile x 40 mile body of water 800 feet horizontally away is sure going to hear me laugh! Why doesn't the stick pull him down and off the bluff into the salt water?

One of the well drillers told me to put my well on the line too, that the neighbor had done me a service by "prospecting" for me! Have to be optimistic!

 

[LazyK]

Larry...Thank you for being a patient man. After asking you to tell me about artesian wells; after you responded to my request, even apologizing to me for not getting back sooner; after specifically asking me if I had even looked at your detailed, informative posting (3 in-my-face times); being civil to me in our later posting responses...
All your concessions, in the face of my unexcusable lack of basic courtesy, make me ashamed
and very sorry. Please accept my apology.

After reading not only your 'artesian' posting to me but several of your responses to other members'
remarks, I get the feeling that TBN is lucky to have you participating.

Again, ...mea maxima culpa

Lazy K - Chip

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks Chip,

It's good to know you've seen the post.
Apology accepted.

I may (mind you, I said MAY!) have been guilty of an oversight or two myself somewhere back in the (repressed for peace-of-mind) past. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Onward and upward!
/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Larry