well drilling / puunding

[JimR]

My 3 closest neighbors on my right side have pounded wells. The 2 on my side of the road are less than a 100 feet deep with plenty of water. My well is drilled at 465 feet and we need to have it fracked now for lack of water. The neighbors down the street across the road from these two houses have a pounded well also. It is 150 feet with lots of water.

 

[beenthere]

I'm interested in the comments being made about a well producing so many gallons of water per minute. Anyone know how that rate is determined?
Seems it would take some special technique to do that over time.
My well was drilled in '68 and is down 320'. No water until the last 20' of drill pipe was added at 300' and when hitting water it came up into the well 75' so there is 95' of water depth (at least that is what it was when the well was drilled). At that time, the well was pumped and pumped 30 gal/min with no drop in water level for 2 hours. Seems that would be the only way of knowing if the well would support that draw for any length of time.
Now that the pump is in place (at 260' down, or 35' below the initial water line or 60' from the bottom of the well hole), I've no way of knowing how the rate it is capable of producing can be measured.
Maybe some of you know who are keeping track of it in your wells?

 

[scott_vt]

Beenthere,
The well drillers that I know all used some type of a bail pipe, but I understand what your saying also. If the water is entering the well at such a fast rate, it would make their estimate difficult at best. I really dont have an answer to that question but I can find out. Im thinking that if they are getting water as fast as they can bail it, they rate the well with a real high GPM number. I will look into it.

Another thought, if you know how much your pump is capable of pumping per minute, you can use the ice cube trick. Take the well cap off and drop an ice cube down the well, I think its about 20 ft every second. When you hear the splash you can estimate your static level. I think your getting my drift /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

 

[scott_vt]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My 3 closest neighbors on my right side have pounded wells. The 2 on my side of the road are less than a 100 feet deep with plenty of water. My well is drilled at 465 feet and we need to have it fracked now for lack of water. The neighbors down the street across the road from these two houses have a pounded well also. It is 150 feet with lots of water. )</font>

Hey Jim,
You could unplug those drain pipes and have all the water you want /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I couldnt resist /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

ps Tryin to keep your sense of humor /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[3RRL]

beenthere,

This is not very technical but it is what my well driller used. He then sends out an official report on the flow and is recorded so when you sell the property you can claim by his numbers. He's been doing it in my area (with his dad and brother) since the late 50's!

This is what he does. He digs a trench where the water is flowing out and installs a 6" pipe in it. Then builds a dam around the trench with the end of the pipe sticking through it. He then digs a 3' hole for the water to spill into and a trench for it to exit...keep flowing away.

Now this part cracks me up....
Then he gets a 1 gallon bucket and a stop watch. He holds the bucket under the stream of water coming out of the pipe and his brother times how fast the bucket fills up. They do this several times and get an average.

For example: if it takes 5 seconds for the bucket to fill, you've got 12 gals/min. In my case, the bucket filled so fast he was hardly able to start and stop the watch before it was filled....less than ½ second!

I asked him how he does extremely large flow rates and does it with a 5 or even 10 gallon bucket and uses the same principal.

 

[JimR]

Hey Jim,
You could unplug those drain pipes and have all the water you want /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I couldnt resist /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

ps Tryin to keep your sense of humor /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


Hi Scott,

I'd have to run a pipe another couple hundred yards to get that water into my well. That source is going to run dry pretty soon.

 

[Highbeam]

Rob,

Seems to me that the only information you would get that way is how fast your pump is pumping.

Around here they actually measure the static water level and then suck water until the drawdown stays constant. They suck it down to almost dry and then suck less hard until they get a stable water level while sucking. Then measure the flow rate coming out of the pipe. The stable water level must stay stable for the entire two hours of the pump test. An orifice is then added to the pump discharge line to limit the flow rate and prevent sucking the well dry.

It's no big deal to measure the water level in a well. You drop an open ended tube down to a known depth, usually tie it to the pump when you set it, then cap the little tube with a pressure gauge at the top and pump air into the tube until the pressure stops rising. That pressure can be converted into a water depth. That water depth is the amount of water above the end of the little tube. You can leave the little tube there forever and check the water level at will by pumping a little air in. The tube can be all coiled and ugly so long as its opening is at a known depth.

There is also an electronic device that you lower into the well and when it hits water it beeps. That's for sissies though.

 

[3RRL]

I'm sorry Highbeam, I did not even mention that....
Yes, he does this with a water level measuring device as you've described while doing his flow test. Although he did not do it for 2 hours constant. The final test he did only lasted an hour or a little more.

I also forgot to mention that the water level rose on it's own pressure to within 150' of the surface after he hit that major fisher. I'm not sure but I think he's placed the pump in there about 250' to 275' deep or so.

The other thing is that he uses 2 gals/minute of water in his drilling rig to flood the hole and purge the ground up granite and quartzite. When the flow starts to exceed the 2 gals/min. he's putting into the drilled hole is how he determines the initial amount of flow. He does this the entire time he's drilling so when the flow of water comes out more and more, he's able to get a reading on how much it is.
I'm no well expert so I'm describing as best I can from what he told me and from what I saw him do...

One thing I do know, we've got LOTS of water /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. I know you've visited our website and there are photos and even a video of him drilling the well and finally hitting the large fisher.

 

[3RRL]

One more thing to clear it up. He put the pump in about 2 after he was complete with the drilling and cleaning of the well. There was no pump in it during the drilling (of course) only his 2 gals/min. All his testing was done during that time, not with the pump in it.
Hope that clears it up a bit???

 

[Highbeam]

Interesting. If you have a 450' deep well with the static water level at 150' down, then you have a good 750 gallon reservoir above the bottom. I would set that pump near the bottom to take advantage of that. But with the super duper flow rate your man determined, you have mucho water.

The time you run the pump once the level stabilizes surely varies and experience matters here. Our well reports have a flow rate and time box so you have to report how long you pump tested. He could probably tell by the drill slag what kind of aquifer was there and could say with confidence after an hour that it would last.

Many folks would love to have your well Rob.