It is undoubtedly unintuitive that water flows in the soil and rock below our feet. This video covers the basics of groundwater engineering, including how wells are built, how injection wells work, and how aquifers interact with surface water features.
VIDEO HERE (14:12 minutes)
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WELL DRILLING 101 | Every Step Explained
A full breakdown of the entire well drilling process from start to finish.
VIDEO HERE (17:07 minutes)
Drilling for water is a microminiature version of drilling for oil and natural gas..... Generally a geologist surveys an area and gives you a percentage of likely probability that you'll hit water.... then you run pipe and drill until you get the depth suggested.. If you hit and have good flow and volume good deal. Run casing and put in a pump... if not then you either go deeper or slide over to another spot and start over . Of course there's lots more to it but that's the readers digest version..
ReplyDeleteJD
I've lived in the hills of western ny all my life,we had spring water growing up, now we all have wells, mine had been in since 1982 (67' deep with 55' of casing) still works great...knock on wood
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting these up Ken! Verrrry interesting!!
ReplyDeleteIn our area (central Maryland) we have a well-know aquifer called "The Magothey Aquifer" and our local well drillers know the depth and boundaries well enough to quote me over the phone for a well if they know the address. They'll give me the depth, need for solid grouting (due to proximity to tidal water) and expected water conditioning requirements.
Ed
There are way better videos, explained by the professional drillers themselves, out on the webisphere. Versus some rando, that was probably annoying the shit out of the crew doing his well.
ReplyDeleteSierra Foothills here. Our well is 160' deep with 140' of casing. When the driller hit water he and his son were barely able to get the cap on it. He guessed it was over 100 gallons a minute and that we had pretty much tapped into 'an underground river'. That was 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem is that at PG&E rates we can barely afford to water as much as we should or would like to.
I was a Licensed Driller in NC in the 1990s, but that was for my environmental biz, installing groundwater & vapor monitoring wells at UST & LUST sites. Air rotary is EZ...tough is environmental. You have 3.5" hollow stem augers that weigh 51 lbs before mud, then 120 lb+ w/ mud/dirt. A 3 man crew can resonably do no more than 130-150'/day.
ReplyDeleteA water harvesting system - in some places - is cheaper than drilling a well. My well is 600’ deep and cannot be drilled out any deeper. I catch rainwater from the house and barn and have a LARGE tank that is full - and we’ve been in a drought for like forever. Nothing like drinking and showering with filtered rainwater
ReplyDeleteWe have 14 50 gal. connected barrels that I thought would take forever to fill up from a 35' long gutter. Well, it took one 1" rain.
DeleteYou are correct but surprisingly in the country of once free citizens there are places where collecting rainwater is illegal..
DeleteJD
My well is 400' deep with the water level at 300' and a 1.5 hp immersion pump at 360'. I had it borescoped last January before putting in a new pump after 20 years and everything looked good. It is the only source of water for our house and it has its pros and cons for sure. I will tell you that when my sons went off to college and tasted the city water in dorms and apartments they could not believe how strong the chlorine taste was. They would tank up on our well water every time they came home.
ReplyDeleteI know someone in TX whose water well drilled into a concentration of Sulfur.
ReplyDeleteStinkiest water I ever refused to drink.
The odor/taste came through anything.
A sure argument for an RO system.
CC
I've seen plenty of that sulphur issue and Texas ground water is bad about it for sure. Our well is tapped into the Trinity aquifer and doesn't seem to have that problem. Those RO systems are nice.
DeleteMy ex in laws have/had, probably still do but haven't talked to them in 25 years, a concentration of iron in their well water, if the side tank of potash water mix ran out all their clothes, towels and bedsheets had a greenish tint to it for a while
DeleteJD
Yea, just north of Poteet.
DeleteIt would suck to live in a place where you couldn't dig a hole and hit water.
ReplyDeleteNations might fight for areas that have fresh drinking water if they have none.
One thing about bog-country, there aren't a lot of deep wells, but there are a lot of old, hand-dug wells that can hold anyone under 400 pounds.