Water woes

kdj1998 · #1 08/02/14, 07:51 AM

So I haven't posted much on here but I thought I would share my latest sob story.

My property is about 80 acres of pasture, I won't get into the geography other than to say I have a hill with tiered limestone levels and a corner that is tillable. For 20 years my father had a spring that provided water to cattle.

This year I purchased the property, my first project was to drill a well. So 3 weeks ago I had that done, initially I was really pumped! No pun intended... Good water, shallow 43' deep well... Two weeks ago my father and I installed a pump, but took notice that the water level had dropped 8', from 13' to 21'. I went ahead and installed the pump with a gate valve to regulate flow. I don't have power so I run a generator when I need juice, so no pressure tank or any plumbing other than a gate valve and a hose connection. In a couple minutes of running the pump the well went dry, waited for a recovery and it slooowwwly came back.... Next day I checked water level and it was 22.5', hmm that's no good. So I grabbed a bucket and started timing, I could pump at 2 gpm but I was still lowering the water level in the well. Many a well has been made with that much water, so while disappointed I was ok with it for a weekend getaway.

Got a call Thursday from the guys who lease the pasture for cattle, the spring dried up!!! So now it's a little more clear why my water level was lowering... We hit the the spring reservoir and gave it a path to a lower level in the well.

So I get to drill another well deeper this time, IF I get water I have to have power pulled 500+ ft to power the well. Then pull the casing in the first well and back fill with bentonite to try to plug the spring leak. I'm three hours away, if I was closer I would just run the generator every other day until the spring came back. If it does come back...

What a pain... Oh if I don't hit water... Well you know what that means, I got nothing....

Jennifer L. · #2 08/02/14, 07:58 AM

Sorry to hear about your problems. I have shore wells on the lake where I live. Notice I said "wells", plural. Just plain hard to keep up with differing water levels. The last well that went in has been good for several years, but nothing is ever for sure. Good luck with fixing your well and spring.

Kasota · #3 08/02/14, 08:29 AM

Oh, no!! Ugh! What a horrible thing. I pray you are able to get a well going...

Lookin4GoodLife · #4 08/03/14, 10:51 AM

Sounds about like my kind of luck KDJ.

Hope everything works out for you!

kdj1998 · #5 08/04/14, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lookin4GoodLife

Sounds about like my kind of luck KDJ.

Hope everything works out for you!

I hope you are not having this kind of luck, to stressful.

To top everything off my sprinkler system at home went down this weekend... Could just be a solenoid or could be the pump...

I went to church yesterday and prayed, that took some anxiety out of everything.

Well driller and power company will be out this week.

fishhead · #6 08/04/14, 06:44 AM

You just never know what you are going to get when you drill a well.

It does sound like you changed the flow of the spring unless you are experiencing a drought.

Could you pull the new well and plug it and then pump water from the spring if it starts flowing again?

Lookin4GoodLife · #7 08/04/14, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kdj1998

I hope you are not having this kind of luck, to stressful.

Oh yeah, just another day for me! LOL Don't feel like you're alone when these things happen.

You probably did the right thing, talkin to the Man.... Hang in there!

kdj1998 · #8 08/04/14, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishhead

You just never know what you are going to get when you drill a well.

It does sound like you changed the flow of the spring unless you are experiencing a drought.

Could you pull the new well and plug it and then pump water from the spring if it starts flowing again?

Nope no drought, we have actually had a wetter than normal spring/summer. I will talk to the well driller about pulling the first well casing this week, and plugging but i might never come back... Or could be back in weeks.

Time will tell, I will keep you all posted.

kdj1998 · #9 08/11/14, 06:17 AM

Well last week I went back to the property and met with the well driller. We picked a spot and drilled a dry hole... So we had another discussion and went and drove the property. We finally picked a spot and drilled another hole, initially it looked very dry, but he bailed it, and it was making some water.

He drilled the hole with a 6.5 inch bit, so he suggested reaming the hole with an 8.5 inch bit to see if it opened the flow some. Well it did help, it's by no means an irrigation well but it's making water. I put my 1/2 hp pump in the well and opened it wide open, it just pumped and pumped! I was excited about that. So it's a good 10-15 gpm well.

I took some time to look at my spring too, I'm 3 hrs away so I was a little worried about messing with it when I needed to get home. So as I walked over to it and saw water on the ground I was really hopeful. Turns out I was right in my assumption there was a plug, one handful of grass... So my spring is back up and producing.

Anyway, I got a good well for drinking water, and my spring is still going so no need to get excited about pulling power now. I should mention my well is now about a 1000 ft from where the cabin will be, oh well I would rather have water than be hauling it.

Have a great day everyone!

michael ark · #10 08/12/14, 07:23 AM

Glad to here you got back up.

gila_dog · #11 08/13/14, 02:22 PM

Instead of running AC power all the way out there maybe you could install a solar pump.

AmericanStand · #12 08/15/14, 08:00 AM

Why didn't you just use the spring?

BlueRose · #13 08/15/14, 09:41 AM

Glad you have a well and your spring back.

kdj1998 · #14 08/18/14, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gila_dog

Instead of running AC power all the way out there maybe you could install a solar pump.

We have talked about that, I would love to do that, and may in the future... The well is just a long way from our building site... That said who knows, what changes we will have to make.

kdj1998 · #15 08/18/14, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmericanStand

Why didn't you just use the spring?

The spring was developed in a very crude way, but has functioned well for 20 years, until recently... I have several wet weather springs, it's not known if they feed off the same water source or not, my guess is not...

Anyway the spring has a high bacteria count (aka not drinkable) but if we could redevelop it I think it could be shocked back. Problem is that the spring box is at the source, so some redesign is required... And a fence...