OK, so I've got about 1.5 acres of land in an area where I need a minimum of 2 to have a well drilled. My understanding is that the different between drilling and digging wells comes down to whether or not a borehole was constructed. Obviously without a borehole you can't go all that deep and that means that I can't hit the minimum 500 ft depth most wells around here have.
But what about a seasonal well? During the winter and spring months, I'm thinking that I could probably pull water from a sandpoint well or similar shallow well.
I get that it would go dry during the summer but it could help lower the over all water bill for the year. This is just water for our green houses and animals, not the family house.
Does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation or advice on shallow wells?
rain barrels
100 of them
Rain barrels average about $5 per gallon, bulk water storage is cheaper but more spensive, we're also doing rain water collect but we're grown a lot of food here so the more water the better.
read Water Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, and watch a couple Geoff Lawton vids on youtube. No reason you can't grow plenty of food without supplemental irrigation unless you're literally in a desert.
Thanks, I'll check those out. I'm in a sub tropical zone which gets plenty of water, just not very much during the summer.
I'm setting aside about 5k for water storage and collection off the smaller structures on the property but the house is asphalt shingles so I can't use that water for anything aside from the trees and wild flowers I want to use to attract honey bees, and even that I'm a bit 50/50 on.
You can definitely use the roof water if you get good enough filtration going. Sawyer brand filters have .1 micron pores which I doubt your roof runoff is getting below, if it is then distillation also works, multiple distillation and a good filter should keep you 100% in the clear.
Filtering out particulate isn't the hard part, I've read a few archived from post about asphalt shingles leaching chemicals into into water. I'm not sure if an RO filter process would get all of that out or if implementing one for the volume of water which would get collected off 2200 sqft would be feasible.
500 feet for a water well is deeeeep. Also "well" is usally defined as deeper than wide, for the purpose of producing water (in this case), see local or regional regulartoyr agencies for official definitions. If others are drilling 500 feet for water, it seems like you are out of luck for a shollow well. Also, you need to consider what the bedrock is, aquifer type and so on. Check to see if bore logs and well contruction details and pump tests for nearby wells are available from the drillers or agencies. It could be that there is shallow water, but it may be of poor quality for drinking, livestock or irrigation.
>I need a minimum of 2 to have a well drilled.
What kind of bullshit law is that?
>OK, so I've got about 1.5 acres of land in an area where I need a minimum of 2 to have a well drilled.
What is the precise wording of the law or regulation?
What is the geology? Driven wells are easy in sand or clay but for rock not so much. Can you buy a drilling rig, drill your well anyway and not bother getting it inspected? Is this for a campsite or did you just frick up and buy a bad location?
I did infact frick up.
When I bought the house I wasn't aware of that county ordinance which conflicts with a general policy across the state.
>that county ordinance
apply for a waiver
If you know for sure that you have water at 15-20m, then go for it.
I did it three years ago. I have to warn you it's fricking hard and you may need to start over if you're shit out of luck and hit too big of a rock. It's a pretty straightforward process though, I bought a basic kit online, had to buy more pipe, and the pump separately, also a better filter. A long crowbar will also be handy. I welded a tool to get rocks out easier, a rebar rod with three smaller rods pointing outwards at one end (similar to a hawk claws let's say, no pic sorry).
Then you have anywhere from 1 to 10 days until it's dug, depending on what's under. It really was a lot of fricking effort lol. Worth it though. Once you're at your desired length, and got all the shit installed, run the pump NON STOP for a day, during that time some sand gets washed out, and smaller rocks remain close to the filter underground. You'll basically create a small rock filter down there.
Good luck anon and don't give up.
Similar well related question, and I don't feel like starting a new thread. I'm currently looking at some property that edges up along a good size creek I was thinking about putting a well in somewhere between 20-60 feet in elevation above the creek level on the hill. The water table should be at about the same level of the creek, right? I considered just chucking an intake pipe with a filter into the creek, and pumping it to a pump house reservoir up hill. But that would require laying over a hundred feet of pipe, and i'm not sure how the neighbors and county would feel about me drawing water from the creek
>The water table should be at about the same level of the creek, right?
This is not guaranteed, but it is often the case. (except in mountainous or rocky terrain, where all bets are off)
>But that would require laying over a hundred feet of pipe
Running a hundred feet of pipe is nothing unless you're in a far northern climate where you need really deep trenches for frostproofing or you are in very rocky terrain. Rent a trencher and get the job done in an easy afternoon. Even a walk behind unit would probably make short work of it.
>and i'm not sure how the neighbors and county would feel about me drawing water from the creek
It's almost certainly against law/code to do this if you're in the USA. That being said, if noone finds out, then you'll probably get away with it. I recommend calling around and getting some quotes from well drillers. In my area, I had a 160ft well drilled about 5 years ago for ~$2800. (this price did not include the pump, pressure tank, etc. I did all that myself)
I also had quotes of $15K+ for the same job, so calling around is crucial. You can often save a lot of money by doing the pump and plumbing yourself and just having the driller do the well.
what is the purpose for the water? Not all creek water is drinkable. Shallow groundwater may not be drinkable. Usually by the time water and percolated deeper underground the soil has filtered out a lot of the viruses and biologic crap, bu you always need to test the water to ensure its drinkable. Animals die in the creek, pee in the creek, and so on. For a well you should know how much water you need, gpm, which will help you with diameter and based on pump/flow test and geology you can better determine screen type and interval, of you need a gravel pack and pump size. As posted commented before, you can usually find a lot of info from local and state agencies (online) showing well locations, depth to water, water quality, aquifer names and depths - this will all help you plan everything out.
>what is the purpose for the water?
Was originally thinking it could just be a handy SHTF water source. And I could probably just dig a shallow well myself. Might even be a fun weekend project. But if I were to spend thousands on a proper well, I'd want to use it for my household water needs.
>SHTF water source
that can mean several things like: water for the toilet, washing but not drinking, laundry, or garden. That would mean you could save your actual drinking water for drinking and cooking. If you need at SHTF drinking water source only in emergencies a simple shallow well may work fine, but use proper water purification to ensure its safe to drink. In a true SHTF situation, you many need water for sanitation (poor quality water will do) and drinking water ( clean water source, or purifiy it). Just consider what you really need it for, how much, and determine the quality so you know if you need to purify it if you need to drink it. There are tons of vids on youtube how to DIY wells.
Good points anon. We all know it's just a matter of time before the SHTF and society collapses everywhere. At least all of us will survive and can build back a better world.
>We all know it's just a matter of time before the SHTF and society collapses everywhere.
You are obviously young and naive.
You three naysayers will rue the day you scorned his advice.
Wise people are intrinsically prepared without significant extra effort required. Youngsters imagine they have special insight and because they've not lived decades of constant false prophecy they think they're somehow made safer by paranoia.
Most so-called preppers are just autspergic homosexuals craving rituals like collecting every possible firearm (but not stocking spares or learning how to make them). They imagine themselves having special insight when the vast majority display scornworthy ignorance.
No joke, I had a run-in with some id10ts of that kind a decade back, which caused my friends and I to lose our sharestead. If you ever saw the "Doomsday Preppers" episode with the Marauders, that was shot on our shared farm w/o our permission and over our protests, and led to our unlawful eviction by the ringleader and our landlord, because how dare we just want to farm, and not host and train (and be serfs to) anti-government terrorists!
A sharestead in principle is insanely vulnerable. I will not put effort into land I do not own. I'm sure you no longer will.
>just a matter of time
2 weeks, right?
Gay
I grew up in a posr-soviet satellite in the early and mid 90s. I remember one winter, I think 96, we didn't have running water in the suburbs for about 3 weeks.
Soviet style suburbs had people using their backyards as gardens and raising small animals, mostly owned by pensioners and worked by their adult children on the weekends. We had a hand pump well on our street and that well saved us that winter.
Yes there is led, and toxins, and all that bullshit and I won't say that it isn't an issue but when you need water those things matter less.
The well I want to dig is mainly to offset my water costs but having an emergency well is incredibly valuable.
Since this thread is still going, does anyone have any thoughts on horizontal well drilling?
>does anyone have any thoughts on horizontal well drilling?
yes, its about 90 degrees from vertical well drilling. Did you want to drill upwards and get water from clouds? Drilling down, vertically, at least you get the benefit of gravity pulling down on the drill string and you can push down on it, if you are doing it by hand. For horizontal drilling you are going to need powered equipment, but what are you trying to do, drill through a mountain to connect to a vertical well on the other side? First step is get public data on wells in your area, if there are any, then you will have some info on saturated zones well construction details. At least present some reasonably intelligent info about your land and the problem so you can get some useful info in addition to the moronic comments.
He wants to side-drill into the mountain and tap that LMAOAYYS
Well shit, if the owl smoking a Marlboro Lite said I should then I guess I've got to do it.
Funny thing is that I've actually got an update on the property. This past weekend I was digger for another unrelated project and I actually hit a pretty decent amount of water. About three feet down I was getting a fair amount of water.
And I wasn't a pipe or water line, no where near that flow rate, though i do recognize that the depth would've been appreciate for a exterior water line.
I'm starting to wonder if this property is located on what could technically be considered a flood plain if this were an area where flooding was more common.
It's an alien. In skinwalker ranch, they drill into the side of a hill, where there is some kinda buried UAO.
> t. Don't spoil the joke
>I actually hit a pretty decent amount of water. About three feet down I was getting a fair amount of water.
You do not seem to have a basic understanding of geology/hydrogeology/hydrology. There is always water in the ground, the question is, is it enough for what you need. you can slowly produce water from unsaturated zones if you wanted/had to. The shallowest water is the least treated most likely to be contaminated, or at least not the cleanest. Generally deeper groundwater has been migrating downward for long periodsof time and been filtered by the soil/rock and shallow microbes have had time to act on organic contaminants for animal crap and dead animals, plants, bugs, trees, bushes. If you want to use the water for fire fighting or watering grass then its easy as long as there is enough supply and a rate that is useful. If you want to drink it then you need to have it tested. Filtration is not the same as purification. You remind me of a family that lives on a plot of land a long time, they had a septic tank and a water supply well. Finally after decades the county came by and laid sewer lines and connected them to the public sewer system, and only a few weeks later their water well dried up, for some strange reason.
I grew up in a house with a sandpoint well. We had good quality drinking water not too far down. Maybe around 30 feet. The soil was all sand except for a layer of clay that was called hard pan or something. The good water was below the hard pan. Could have used a sediment filter though because the water heater would accumulate a small amount of sand.
just ignore the law, drill your well, and kill any government apparatchik who comes sniffing.
Any man who tells another what he can and can't do on his own land deserves death
Hand drilled wells only go to about 100m, and that's assuming it's not too rocky on your way down. EMAS has good information on getting clean water. Various diy pumps, a few cisterns, etc.. Cool stuff and might be worth looking at. I'm considering a ferrocement cistern, my well already has too many people on it.