Well Drilling and coming up dry...

[ultrarunner]

My brother has about 2000 gallons of deeded spring water for his 65 acres and expensive city water...

He wants to plant about 60 acres and needs water to make it work.

Had professional sounding done, a geologist and the parcel mapped... also, had a Dowser come out as well as reviewing county records.

The driller set up and went down 200' at the agreed spot and came up with only clay.

Had everyone back out and they said another location would be more promising but deeper.

Today, he should be down to 650 feet and just about all clay with a little shale at 550 so far.

I would guess he is into it about 18k now so taking it kind of hard.

Don't know much about wells but sure do feel bad for him.

 

[Deere Dude]

Holy crap. I would be miserable.
Moved a trailer house in 1974 on 6 acres when I was 23 and poor. A driller came out and started going down and whern I came home from work he was down to 225 and still going strong. He quit for the day and all night I was beside myself figuring out what it would cost. I told my wife if he goes down much farther just to go for oil. This was in Wisconsin. I came home at 4PM and they were out of there and only had to go down an extra 10 feet, so I felt a little better.

I cannot imagine going that far and not hitting water.

 

[Citydude]

I was dreading a thread on this topic. I'm planning to have a well drilled in a couple of years on our recently purchased property when my wife retires. I hope your brother hits a 1000 GPM geyser.

 

[Fossil Farm]

Many states catalog the water wells and can now be accessed on the internet. You can look at the surrounding well logs and see how deep they went and how much they should produce. States typically have general geology maps that show what to expect in an area for water well production before drilling.

 

[Citydude]

Many states catalog the water wells and can now be accessed on the internet. You can look at the surrounding well logs and see how deep they went and how much they should produce. States typically have general geology maps that show what to expect in an area for water well production before drilling.

I did find that on the Internet for the area were planning on drilling. Thanks. I'm sure we'll hit water, how deep is my concern.

 

[Jimbrown]

Here in Az drilling holes with no water is a common experience. I have three wells only one makes water. A neighbor has 4 400 ft holes that make about 2 gallons an hour.

 

[mapper]

A friend of mine had to go about 600' into solid basalt, ended up with about 1.5 gpm. Then they fractured it by pumping in warm liquid CO2, I recall that it produced 6-10 gpm and the static level was at about 30' from the top. He was happy but it cost him a lot!

 

[teejk]

Many states catalog the water wells and can now be accessed on the internet. You can look at the surrounding well logs and see how deep they went and how much they should produce. States typically have general geology maps that show what to expect in an area for water well production before drilling.

They have details based on other wells drilled in the general vicinity but that's all. "Pockets" of water vary greatly in some parts of the country. In our case we didn't have to go very deep at all (55') to get acceptable flow rates...the deeper they went the flow rate decreased so they actually pulled up a bit rather than continue to go deeper (which could have been very deep through the granite they would have to drill through).

 

[ultrarunner]

Don't know what he could have done differently as he did have the geologist, soundings, well logs, etc... all done in preparation over the last 3 years.

I'm the only one in the family with a well and that is in Washington... it was there when I bought and the water is excellent and down about 80'

He read all the old newspaper accounts about droughts in his valley going back to the 1800s and how the Spring Water he has deeded rights was the only local source that did not peter out... neighbors would come from miles to fill up tank wagons because there simply was no other water...

The irony is from his bluff I can see the salt water of the Pacific Ocean and the Spring Water was of such high quality it was put in railroad tank cars under the Alhambra Water name...

Hundreds of feet of clay has been a surprise to all in this project.

 

[turnkey4099]

They have details based on other wells drilled in the general vicinity but that's all. "Pockets" of water vary greatly in some parts of the country. In our case we didn't have to go very deep at all (55') to get acceptable flow rates...the deeper they went the flow rate decreased so they actually pulled up a bit rather than continue to go deeper (which could have been very deep through the granite they would have to drill through).

Water geology has strange quirks. I live right by a highway running down the bottom of a shallow valley. My side, they hit 24gpm at 55', across the highway, neighbor went down a couple hundred feet and only got about 4 gpm. Same all the way up the valley, east side tremendous shallow water, west side - trickles.