OK, so what is the point of having a blog if you never post to it? If I have any readers at all (which seems doubtful) then they undoubtedly are wondering the same thing.
So, just to wrap up all this discussion about land: I purchased 5.22 acres (referenced in my last blog post) in late March 2008. The surrounding woods are just stunningly beautiful. Big granite outcroppings and school bus sized boulders litter the woods. The slope of the land is generally South facing with screened views of the lake through the trees. Woods are a mix of Pine, Fir, Aspen and a few Tamarack.
County records showed that the neighbors had put in a 120 foot well that was getting better than 35 gallons per minute, so I was optimistic about getting a good well. Still, I had the property surveyed by IDEA, Inc. of Sagle, ID to verify that there would be water available. Norman's survey showed a couple good strong flows at about 180 feet of depth, noting that the water occurred in granite - so hydrofracturing the rock might be required to get good flow.
The piece that I bought had already passed the county health department "perc" test for a standard septic drain field. Of course, I'm not really planning on doing a septic system (see my posts on a composting toilet), but passing this test is the single requirement for starting construction on a dwelling in Bonner County. So, nice to already have this paperwork done!
Lastly, the location of this property was what really sold me. In total, it's only 6 miles from town! About 1.5 miles on private dirt road downhill to Hwy2 and then 4.5 miles directly into town. In addition, 4 miles along Hwy2 into town is paralleled by a paved bike path - a great commute route isolated from traffic!
In the fall, I contracted with Sweetwater Drilling to drill my well. The first 4 feet of drilling spat back rocks and dirt and went quickly. After that, the drill head hit a solid granite shelf and began slowly spewing concrete-grey rock tailings as the drill head progressed through the rock. A pile of tailings continued to accumulate as the hours passed. The drill operators would look optimistic when the grey sand coming out turned more black or more white. They explained that these color-changes indicated a change in the type of granite, which often coincides with a vein of water flowing through a crack.
We got some water at 180 feet, but not much. The flow test - using a gallon jug with a stopwatch to measure the amount of water forced out of the well by air rammed down the drill head in one minute - was showing less than a gallon per minute (1 GPM). So, we drilled deeper.
At 350 feet, we were getting closer to 2.5 GPM and the bill was getting larger as the hours ticked by! The drill rig was just about out of drill sections ("sticks") and I would have to consider whether to request another drill rig with the required materiel, or whether to "call it" and start having the drill head backed out of the ground.
At this point, Bill (the drill operator) paused and got real quiet. He asked the pump tech to go find him a properly-shaped Aspen or Alder branch. He then cleared the area of tools and shut down the diesel motors and various other compressors and pumps running the drill head. In the quiet, he grounded his leg on the well casing and focused. You could watch the branch bob up and down, up and down, as Bill focused. After about 3 minutes, the branch began to yaw side-to-side, then pause and change to up-down. Then, another minute or more of up-down passed and the branch then jumped into wild side-to-side motion. Bill stayed quiet and kept counting to himself. He kept counting to 460 and stopped, complaining that his hand and leg couldn't handle it anymore - he was getting fatigued and numb!
What did it mean? Evidently, Bill was doing a type of well-witch work that determines water depth. The branch showed water at 180 feet and then water again at 260-300 feet. After that, the rock was dry down to 460 feet when Bill gave up. We had drilled to 350 feet, and weren't likely to find water below that depth. The extra depth of my well would allow the well itself to store hundreds of gallons below the main veins of water flowing into the hole, creating a nice buffer in which to run the future well pump.
As Bill fired up the engines to begin extracting the drill head from the ground, a huge geyser of water shot out of the top of the well and pressure-cleaned the drill rig with a plume of water! Evidently, the well had been re-filling itself while the drill was stopped and had likely filled 150 feet of the column or more full of water. This water was displaced by the plunging drill head and shot right out the top!
In the end, I think I can live with 2.5 GPM and everybody tells me that I ought to expect a bit more water as the silt from drilling clears from the rock crevices and I get better flow.
Incredibly, this spring when the snow was mostly melted, water began pressure-flowing out of the bolted-on well casing cap! It seems that I will definitely have plenty of water - at plenty of pressure - during the spring and summer while the aquifer is under pressure! I'll have to consider storing this water in a cistern in the spring for firefighting and gardening.
I'll add some pictures to this post in a later update. That's it! You're all caught-up!
No comments:
Post a Comment