Deep well questions

We bought a piece of property with a 0.3 gallon per minute well on it with no pump or electrical (~400 ft deep). We didn't develop it at the time because we didn't need it. Now my son wants to develop the property, so we're looking into it. Here are some questions:

1. We were told that .3 gpm 5 years ago, would be less now, if the well wasn't used. They want $3000 Can. just to test for that!
2. Does anyone know about fracking for water? It looks as if it might be less probable of success the deeper the well and this one is deep.

There are some very good wells in the area - and some crappy ones. It seems to be very hit and miss. One neighbor has a sulfur well. We have 2 wells one of which has more water than we could ever want, and a house one that is plenty good enough when used for the house and permie level irrigation.  It's on my list to ask another neighbor what the specs are on their well.  I do know that they tried to dig a second well near the back of their property within about 300ft of our really good well and got nothing.

The joys of living on glacial till!

Thought about using 100% rainfall collection?
Thus avaoiding the expense and hassles of wells?

John C Daley wrote:Thought about using 100% rainfall collection?
Thus avoiding the expense and hassles of wells?

We have very inconsistent rainfall with long periods without, thus, the rainwater must be stored for long periods and the hoops we would have to jump through to ensure it stays "potable" by Municipal standards would likely be more problematic than the well.

If we can't get the well a bit more productive, we might still be further ahead to set up the home so that only things requiring potable water would be on the well system, and things like laundry and toilets would be on a rainwater system. Our Municipality is not known for tolerating new ideas which can be an asset in some cases, but is absolutely a liability in others.

We already do plan to have a couple of very large tanks for landscape irrigation and animal care. Since we're in earthquake country, it will be our "quiet back-up" system if we loose power for an extended period which is a possibility.

I design rainwater systems all over the place.
They are common in Australia,
My own system stores 200,000L without treatment and no treatment is applied for human consumption.
My tank for the house holds about 20,000L and we have 18 inches of rain per annum,  and we can go 3 months without rain often,
I can move water by gravity  to top up the main tank and may add another 10,000L once a year in that process.
I have never bought water in from a town supply, ever.
It has been done here for about 200 years and is not considered new.

.3 gpm isn't much. You might need a cistern with that flow. One of my wife's former co-worker has used a cistern for years. Wells in his area are quite deep. As John commented there is no treatment of his stored water either.

My well is over 300 ft.  We use a pressure tank to regulate the flow.  

I wonder if one of those would help the well you speak of.

Robert Ray wrote:.3 gpm isn't much. You might need a cistern with that flow.

Yes, if that's still its .3 gpm, running more or less constantly into an appropriate sized cistern would meet the legal requirements of the Municipality to allow my son to build on the land.

If due to it just sitting, if the one person they spoke to is correct, it may not even give .3gpm any more. Then the question becomes whether to risk trying to drill deeper to see if that number will improve, or supposedly there's some form of "fracking" that isn't for fossil fuels, but for water wells, and again, we've been told that comes with no guarantees.

Thus I took a chance on posting here to see if people who aren't in a position to gain monetarily with their answers, might have a bit of experience that will help us make decisions that might work.

Our low rain season runs on average from the beginning of April to the end of September. The "average" rainfall for that period is 200mm (less than 8 inches). For places were Municipalities expect people to use minimal water due to shortages, they have laws in place that respect and reflect that. Here, we've always had good wells and a good aquifer, so expectations and laws reflect that. This is made worse because our weather changes based on several cycles, the more obvious being El Nino, so some years we're above average, and some years very much below. So far, we've had 110.5 mm up until Sep 5th. I realize that there are places on the planet where working with these numbers would be as simple as buying a couple of very large tanks, but there are other "unique" things my son wants to do and where the local government is concerned, we need to choose our battles. We'd prefer not to fight this particular one, if there is a reasonable way around it.

Jay, things are clearer now, that is low rainfall, when your location says 'wet pacific' I thought of higher numbers.
Good luck with the project, it sounds interesting.

John C Daley wrote:... when your location says 'wet pacific' I thought of higher numbers.

The "wet pacific" is from November to the end of January.  Then we get an average for the 3 months of 447mm of rain! Compared to what some people get in the southern US, that's still not a lot.

Thanks for sharing these insights. In areas with inconsistent rainfall, a deep well can be a reliable source of potable water, but it can still be wise to store rainwater in cisterns or rain barrels to buffer dry spells. Oversizing the pump and pressure tank can help maintain flow when the well output is low, and having multiple storage tanks allows you to draw on reserve when power is out. Also check local codes about minimum well depth and water rights before investing. Good luck with your project.