Drilling a shallow water well

[John Smith]

My house is on county water and sewer but I'm interested in drilling a well on my property to use the water for gardening, washing cars, etc, but not drinking. I know the water table is high based on my sump pump discharge and the fact that a natural spring runs through my neighborhood underground.

I believe I could hit water 20 to 40 feet deep. Anyone have experience with what a shallow water utility well would cost? Before I call the local well drillers I'd like to know what to expect.

 

[titanpat57]

Possible "green" solutuion...

capture the runoff from the sump pump into 55's and get a 12v pump to use it as needed. Treat it with a couple drops of Clorox to keep it from turning on you.

As far as a natural shallow well...there must be tons of "well how-to's" on some of these homegreening type websites

 

[45Kevin]

A 20' well can be dug by a back-hoe/excavator in less than a day.

Put concrete crocks in and backfill with gravel.

Much cheaper and better than drilling.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

An excavator to do a 20' well?
Most homeowners, depending on the earth, can either drive or wash a shallow well down in an afternoon. Anything less than 25' is considered a shallow well and, if washed down, can be plumbed with PVC pipe and a PVC point. If you have to drive it down you need a galvanized point, about 5 4' pieces of galvanized 1 and a 1/4 inch pipe, drive couplings, and a drive cap. More expensive and the galvanized can rust out eventually. Then you get a shallow well pump which lives above ground rather than down at the bottom of the hole. If you go below 25' it is considered a deep well and the pump needs to decide in the bottom of the hole. The shallow well pumps are 120volt so they can run off house current.

It is pretty easy as long as you hit water. No heavy equipment is necessary unless you hit rock. I have been involved in the installation of several shallow wells over the years and the only one I had trouble with was one I was asked to repair and discovered that the well was dry.

I see you are in Maryland. One issue you may run into depending on how close you are to the coast is hitting brackish water instead of fresh. You may get away with watering you lawn with it but due to its mineral content, I would not want to wash a car with it. The chances are slim you would hit brackish around 25'. In Maryland you probably do not need to worry about high iron content either. If you have ever been in a neighborhood where the side walk in front of every fifth house is rusty it is because of the iron in their wells. Again, no good to wash a car with.

 

[Mace]

small auger rig would probably suit your purposes just fine. Looking at a couple grand max most likely. You could try to do it yourself actually, there are lots of online "instant" rigs out there.

You also may need to call whomever deals with water in your area (state county, city, etc..) A lot of areas do not allow unregulated groundwater extraction. I do not know if that is a concern in your area tho.

The concept of getting your water checked to see what is in it is a very good idea. Sometimes shallow groundwater can have some pretty nasty things in it.

You know, if your sump is doing fairly well, why not just pipe that into a tank?

 

[whitetaco95]

hard to find, but there are shallow well drillers. My parents had this done on their house in maine. Portable drilling rig. Real small drills a 2 inch hole. The price was 500 if he hits water and 300 if he doesn't. Thats not including any sort of hook up.

 

[Lake Rat]

I license and regulate water well drillers here in Texas. I can 't answer for your State or local rules and regs pertaining to the drilling or constructing of a well, but one thing a lot of "DIY" folks don't follow up on, is make sure your casing is well sealed in the ground (the annular space between the casing and the borehole) with cement. In Texas we allow bentonite (a naturally produce clayy material), then an atmospheric cap of cemet at the top (to keep the bentonite from drying out (it is a clay). Seeing "many" landowners drill their own well, this is the one area I see not completed. The reason for this is to keep any surface run off (runn oft!!) from going down the annular space and getting into and possibly polluting the water zone. Besides, your State agncy will be a lot happier for the GW protection. You can visit your States regulatory web site for info, or you can go to www.ngwa.org they have a ton of info and will even have the contact info for your State regulatory agency.

HTH

 

[rusty_tlc]

My first thought was "They must not live where water rights are a big deal."
It must be my desert mentality.

 

[Mace]

My first thought was "They must not live where water rights are a big deal."
It must be my desert mentality.

No kidding huh...

 

[rusty_tlc]

No kidding huh...

I bet people in other parts of the country never even think to see if they own the mineral rights to their property either.

 

[Lake Rat]

In Texas, the landowner has the right to the water under their property (for now). Most of the state (not all) is controlled by Groundwater Conservation Districts which regulate the amout of water that can be pumped per day (25,000 gpd or 17.8 gpm). The rest of the state (used to be the whole State) is open because of a 1903 court ruling "The Right of Capture", which means (the short story) a person can drill a water well, produce as much water as they beneficially need, up to and including running you neighbors well dry, and the neighbor has no recourse (the reason for the Districts).

Funny part is, there are several lawsuits being fought by some GCD's brought on by landowner's over the pumping issues, but no one yet has challenged a 109 year old court ruling.

Sorry, didn't mean to hi-jack.....

 

[John Smith]

Thanks for all the info and ideas guys. I didn't even think about capturing my sump pump water and using that. But I already have two 55 gallon rain barrels for the garden and I doubt my wife would want me adding more so I will probably go the well route if I can. I hope to have an update next week. Feel free to hijack all you want. I know water is a huge deal for you all out West. I was surprised when my buddy in CO told me he was not allowed to capture rain water from his roof. In my area it is encouraged.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Thanks for all the info and ideas guys. I didn't even think about capturing my sump pump water and using that. But I already have two 55 gallon rain barrels for the garden and I doubt my wife would want me adding more so I will probably go the well route if I can. I hope to have an update next week. Feel free to hijack all you want. I know water is a huge deal for you all out West. I was surprised when my buddy in CO told me he was not allowed to capture rain water from his roof. In my area it is encouraged.

Build a cistern.

 

[alia176]

I was surprised when my buddy in CO told me he was not allowed to capture rain water from his roof. In my area it is encouraged.

I heard of this and it sounds ludicrous. I thought that the home owners do have the right to harvest what falls out of the sky. Maybe it was only in Durango that's allowed?

Build a cistern.

That's my plan for this year. I'll be building a large catchment basin and divert the water to a tank farm with 8,000 gal capacity. Our well level is dropping out here and some neighbors were forced to drill new wells wile others are having their water hauled in. Things are pretty drastic around here

 

[rusty_tlc]

I heard of this and it sounds ludicrous. I thought that the home owners do have the right to harvest what falls out of the sky. Maybe it was only in Durango that's allowed?



That's my plan for this year. I'll be building a large catchment basin and divert the water to a tank farm with 8,000 gal capacity. Our well level is dropping out here and some neighbors were forced to drill new wells wile others are having their water hauled in. Things are pretty drastic around here

Don't look now but we can still see dirt on the Sierras, the snow pack is very low this year. Good news for Rubithon, bad news for the water supply.

 

[alia176]

You guys had plenty of moisture last year from what I heard.

 

[rusty_tlc]

You guys had plenty of moisture last year from what I heard.

And seven years of drought before that.

 

[inthewall]

This is the dryest winter I have ever seen here.

 

[Mace]

You guys had plenty of moisture last year from what I heard.

Common misconception. One year of banner weather does not fix the drought we are currently in. It's really bad out here currently.

The only reason Lake Mead is in reasonable shape right now is because we made a deal with the Lake Powell people in 2007 to let a slug of water out last year. If the deal had not been made, Lake Mead would be a lot lower than it currently is. Sad that Mt Charleston had more snow on the ground than any other ski resort earlier this year (not positive if that is still true but it would not surprise me).