Questions about wells, water shortage

[Anita in NC]

We're not getting a lot of water output from our well. Hubby thinks that there just isn't much water to get out because of the prolonged drought. If it is the well and we can squeak by until things get better will the well eventually recover with lots of rain raising up the ground water level.

Since this is the worse drought in 50 years should we try and squeak by and hope that things eventually recover as we really don't have the money to drill a new well if that's what needed to get plenty of water right now.

I can make do for a few months if I really had to....

Advice anyone?

[MullersLaneFarm]

how deep is your well?

[Jim S.]

Well, Cyndi brings up a good point, and I'll throw in another: How deep is your pump or foot valve? If your well is a drilled well, your pump or foot valve will be set higher than the bottom of the well. In my case, I set my submersible pump 20 feet higher than the bottom, to be sure to keep as much sediment out of my water as possible. If things were to get really bad, I could drop it 10 feet, and still have the recommended 10 feet til bottom.

If your foot valve or pump can be lowered and still be 8-10 feet above the well's bottom, that will place it in a better position to draw down the well while pumping without sucking in air.

In another well I once had, I dropped the foot valve to within a couple feet of bottom with no bad effects, but I admit that is cutting it close. Still, I had to do that to get water!

[Anita in NC]

The well is about 200 ft deep, has a submersible pump at the bottom.

[Michael W. Smith]

To answer your question, yes, the well should recover once you have received sufficient rainfall. The only reason you are having trouble now is due to the drought.

With that said though, it's hard to tell when you will get enough rain. If things are as dry as I believe, it's going to take quite a bit of rain to get the ground moist. As the top gets moist, the water will eventually work it's way down to the water table.

Unless there is something actually wrong with your well, I wouldn't waste the money to have another one drilled. You can pretty much bet they will have to go below 200' to get water unless they run into a different water reservoir.

To get you by, you might want to check with a local plumber to see if your submersible pump can be lowered. Good luck!

[CSA again]

I know what you mean about the drought , I live in western north carolina we have it bad, and I have the same problem with one of my wells . It is a hand dug well 58 ft deep. On it I too had to lower the pump to within 3-4 ft from the bottom , as the water level is only about 7 feet deep.
To find out how deep the well is you can tie a small weight to a cotton string and drop it in to the bottom . pull it out and messure it to see how deep the well is , also massure how much of it is wet to see how much water is in the well.
If it is a deep well with a sumpump at the bottom it can be expenceive just to drop the pump a few feet, because you must run new longer electric wires to the pump. Plus pulling the pump out is costly also. Or back breaking if you have to do it yourself without the proper equipment.
You could install a rain barrel to help out with water other than drinking water. but sadly these don't work unless it rains .
Good luck to you.

[littlejoe]

I'm unfamiliar witht the aquafier in your area, but in this area generally a drought will just affect shallow wells.
Is your well cased all the way? If it is, there is a possibility of the perforations in the casing becoming choked off. Here there is alot of iron bacteria in deep wells. We used to get a pelletized form of acid to put in them, and recirculate the water for a while. It usually helped.
You might even try some form of soap, recirculating and then pumping out on the ground. Maybe some dry ice down there too! If the perfs are closed, it just might help to open them.

[agmantoo]

I seriously doubt that the problem is the well itself. The well could have a low recharge rate (low volume...3 gpm or less) or other problems. First you need to be absolutely certain that you are not wasting water through an above ground leak of a faulty toilet water closet. First step......put some food coloring in the storage tank at each toilet and wait a few minutes and then look in the bowl to see if you observe the water changing color. If the color changes you are wasting far more water than you may imagine through the float in the water closet and you need to fix that immediately. Next you need to verify that your storage tank is functioning correctly. Have hubby to remove the cover on the pressure switch. Let some water run until the switch trips on. Once the switch is on, shut the water valve that is letting the water out and do not use any water anywhere until the points in the pressure switch open to turn the pump off. Now, catch water in a bucket until the pressure switch points close again to run the pump and report here how much water you caught on the cycle. Let the system run and stop on its own again. This test will require some time so be patient. With no water being used anywhere observe over the next 15 minutes if the points in the pressure switch close to run the pump without your doing anything. If it does start in this test then the supply line from the submersible pump to the storage tank has a hole in the line inside the well and you will have to pull the pump. Tell me how deep the pump is set and what the static water level is in your well or for the neighborhood.

[MELOC]

apart from tha basic usage issues, it could be a really bad situation depending on your aquifer and the severity of the drought. hopefully a geologist will follow this up with precise info, but i will share what i learned in geo 101 "rocks for jocks".

if the aquifer is a type of rock like sandstone, and the drought is severe enough for a long period of time, there is a chance of subsidence. when the sandstone is filled with water, it is strong enough to resist the pressure from the layers of rock above it and it retains it's permeability. if it is pumped dry, the rock layer loses it's strength and can subside. it can be squeezed shut and it will no longer be permeable, or maybe as permeable as before. this can destroy the ability of the aquifer to replentish itself when the rains return. imagine a spong made of rock. when you crush a spong, it returns to it's original shape. if you crush a rock sponge, it will not bounce back and water may not travel through it anymore. this has happened in the LA area and the land actually subsided by 10-20 feet or so. the aquifer was pumped so dry it collapsed and was ruined.

if the aquifer is made of another type of rock, it may be strong enough to withstand the pressure and survive. if the drought is not too bad, the well may recover.

[rambler]

In my experience a shallow well (50, 75 feet deep) reacts quicly to droughts.

A deep well (like yours) tends to be drawing water that took years to get down there, and so a drought this year would have little effect.

That is up here in MN. Down there in NC, the aquifers might be very different.

I'd look into the things mentioned here, about water leaking or do you have a screen on the bottom of your well - they do plug up with minerals. Things like that. A worn pump gives slow water as well.

Are you running out of water, or how do you mean - you really didn't say exactly what is happening - low pressure, low flow, good followed by low flow, or?

--->Paul

[tamsam]

Anita, I don't know where in NC you live but my son works for a town water dept. near Charlotte and they are having trouble with wells in the area. A couple of water depts having deep wells have people on water restrictions. Even the lakes in NC are all but dried up and the Cawtaba {sp} is so low you can walk across it in places. I talked to my son this evening and he said he heard that if things get much worse Duke Power may have to shut down a couple plants. If I were you I would ask around and see if anyone else is having problems. Good luck with your water. Sam

[DJ in WA]

Like Paul asked, I wonder what exactly is happening. Do you run out of water completely? Is there air in the lines? I assume you haven't always had low supply. When did it start and how has it changed?

[clsmith15]

I just heard on the news this morning that wells in Waleska, GA are going dry. That is about 45 miles north of Atlanta. They didn't go into detail about the depth of the wells.

[Randy Rooster]

Anita-

I have also been a bit worried about the ground water level dropping. I am investigating putting in a cistern. It doesnt take but a couple inches of rain on my roof to fill a 2000-3000 gallon cistern according to calculations, which if we are frugal, could last us a couple of months. We basically dont know if this drought is going to be a long term thing or not, but one thing you cant live without is water. It may be worth a $1500 investment to have that peace of mind.

[TwoAcresAndAGoat]

Informatin on NC aquifers

http://www.ncwater.org/Education_and...aracteristics/

In western NC you probably have --
Fractured Bedrock aquifer: This aquifer is widely used for home water supply in the western coastal plain, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge Provinces. Usually six inch wells are drilled to intercept water bearing fractures which are more common in valleys or draws. Thick sequences of regolith (surficial aquifer) above fractured bedrock can improve yields to 200 gallons per minute or more. industries and county or municipal well fields look for these higher yielding bedrock wells. Wells typically yield 5-35 gallons per minute.

GO TO:
http://nc.water.usgs.gov/
For real time ground water data

General information on Wells and Aquifers
http://va.water.usgs.gov/drought/droughtfaq1.htm#drfaq8

[Jim S.]

clsmith, The Weather Channel did a story last night that Atlanta is pondering imposing rationing or restrictions. This is to be a dry winter, too. I feel fortunate that my double-witched well is running strong as-yet at 70 feet with the pump at 50. (knock on wood)

Anita, I agree with most posters here about shallow well (100 feet or less) and deep well. Your 200 foot well will likely not recover quickly, even if it rained a month. If I were you, I would still find out how deep the pump is located. I will guaramtee you it is not "at the bottom," or it would have burned up from sediment a long time ago. If your trouble is that air is getting in the water (noises at shower or faucets, decreased flow), dropping the pump will improve that by putting it deeper in the column of well water that is drawn down when it starts.

Very good points here on the other stuff, too, as to the exact nature of not enough water. It's possible the system is leaking, restricted, or the pressure tank is not working properly, depending on what exactly you mean by not enough water.

If you find the trouble is with low recharge rate at the well, drillers can "develop" it by fracturing the rocks at the bottom. You might check into that, and check comparative costs. It doesn't always work, but may be worth a try. Here's the patent description for one such method:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4265312.html

[kmaproperties]

another longterm solution is to add a 1500 gal tank in the basement, change the pump in your well to a low flow i/e 1 gal per min. this will run off of a float switch in the tank. a larger pump is then placed in the tank to feed the home.
all day long and night the small pump will work to keep the tank full, and when you need large amounts say in the morning for showers etc. you will draw off the tank. you will never run low on water unless your well goes completely dry.

[pheasantplucker]

My wife and I have a well and a spring with a 1300 gallon holding tank. We're never out of water, but folks across the road on the opposite hill have been shy all summer. One fellow has a buried tank, and hauls water in from his pick up and pumps it to his holding tank. The other gal next to him, hauls water too, but uses a pump to put it in her cistern. I'd get a holding tank that can be buried, and then put it up hill from your place. Haul in water or have it delivered and then let gravity do it's thing. Sure beats the cost of drilling a new well. (and drilling a new well comes with no guarantees).
Good luck

[Beeman]

I think it was a year or so ago I posted about a water shortage being more of a problem then any other problems we might face. Most laughed at the idea. With much of the country, especially the southeast, being in drought for quite a few years it's starting to take it's toll on springs ponds and wells.
for your sake I hope it's more of a silt problem clogging your pump and noy your well drying up. I would go the storage tank route as a slow recovery will still be enough to keep a large storage tank filled over time.

[MWG]

I am just above Charlotte and it is getting pretty rough. I just had a well dug and got pretty good water @200 feet. I spoke to the well drillers and they said they have had to go up to 600 feet down in the last couple of weeks to get to water...

I hope everything works out for you.

If things get really bad and you are close by I have a creek that I have been pumping out of and we could get you some water if push came to shove...