Developing a Spring, How We Did It

[Revolutionary]

 Hi Folks;
 I started trying to develop a spring on my property about 2 years ago, and finally did the installation this last spring. It was fun (and muddy) and it works well. I have storage in total of around 7-10,000 gallons of water, and it all came from a little wet spot on the ground.
 I documented it at <link removed> Please excuse the hand drawn pictures of how things lie in the ground, I'm going to redo them with a computer soon.

Have a good day-
Chris

you need to have 50 posts to post links here usually specially links to your site were your selling something.

[wpowokal]

Well done Chris, nothing like a supply that need no pumping, and you have constructed them well.

Just an observation if I may, from your description you have equipped one hole and another directly below (as the land falls) and are gravitating one to the other. The way I see it is that the upper well will intercept a large proportion of the water that would naturally seep into the lower one.

I disagree that it takes years to develop, usually one season is enough, you can help this along by "pumping" dry each well then letting the level build up again then do it again and again. The greater difference in hydrolic pressure helps the water make it's passage to your well. The act of digging the hole can/usually glazes over the sides and impedes the water ingress.

What you have is a finite resource, basically water that is trapped above an impervious layer, usually clay. From your picture entitled "fern" it seems you have some height of land above the well site which is good, the bad side is those trees, they will be using up your water.

Trivia: A well like yours will increase flow two weeks before the first seasonal rain.

Allan

[Revolutionary]

Hi WP-
VERY interesting stuff you posted.

Yuo may be right about the upper hole intercepting water. The reason we did a seocnd hole is because we found a second spring coming in pretty hard from the side, and wanted to make sure we caught that one, too. You might be right about it only taking a year, I'm not sure. We installed this last year in April, I think, and since then it always produces, sometimes less, sometimes more. You're also right on about the clay packing in initially, on the sidewalls. When we first dug it out, almosty nothing was coming out of the sides, and I was DEPRESSED. Satt there & watched it for almost a week, and slowly, water started coming along...slowly. It got better n better, until it really ran pretty good, I think the most I ever saw from it last spring was about 1.2 GPM, but I was thrilled with that.

Good info from you, thanks!
Chris 

[wpowokal]

Chris I am a little surprised your "water witch" ( I prefer the term water diviner) did not point out to you the implications of developing two wells as you have done.

On another note I suspect your posts are about to be made to vanish for reasons discussed on one of your other posts, if that happens and you have a mind to then re-birth them as diary entries as your projects are worth sharing.

Allan of the Jungle

[Revolutionary]

Wp-
My Witcher was the one that advised me to install (2) drywells. I think maybe what's missing here is that one well (the lower one) is getting water from another source, frm the side. the witcher was able to follow the water sources underground, and they were coming from different directions. You may end up being right about it, but I sure wanted to try to make sure I got ALL of the water, and not just some of it.

Thank you for thinking my stuff is worth sharing, we'll have to see what happens. I just asked the Mods to delete them all, I don't need the headache/fight/etc., and this wasn't about promoting my business. I have enough money & a small marketing team that does that for me.
Chris

[wpowokal]

Chris although I am retired I have been in the water divining and deep well drilling business a long time, what you probably found was a rock in the bottom of the lower hole causing the water flow direction, I was trying to tell you kindly that you have wasted some money.

Your posts will not be deleted, as I understand forum protocol, the may be locked to prevent further responses or hidden. Just re-invent them as diary entries, as you may notice with just my couple of response to your well post. others may/will benefit from the discussion, and after all that is why we are all here. 

Allan

[Revolutionary]

Wp-
Thank you kindly for trying to help, and yes, I may have wasted some money.
Tell me this-
 We made a hole for the upper drywell, maybe 12 feet across. Water coming out of the uphill side of it, mostly on the right side, as you look uphill.

Downhill, maybe 30 feet, we find another source of water, coming from the LEFT hand side of the hill. It didn't come from the bottom of the hole, it was coming out of the side of it.

You think they both were coming from the same water source? The water in the uphill one was coming from about 7-12 feet deep, and the one in the lower drywell was coming in higher than the upper, that's why we thought to try to catch both. There are springs all over the side of that hill, when I went to install the pumphouse on the left side of the cistern, we found another spring there, I had to install some drian rock & a pipe to stop it from filling my pumphouse with water!

[wpowokal]

Chris your wells are at a normal depth for that type of country, water finds it's way in usually via paths formed by old rotted roots, so it appears to be feeding for every witch way.

Your two well will possibly yield more water than one but in my experience there is only so much to be harvested, in your case if a few trees up hill were to die then you will get lots more water or a greater flow will be maintained father into the dry season.

What you see on the surface may be a very small supply, ie enough to look/be wet but extract some and it dries up.

Are they all coming from the same source? Yes most certainly, it is from the water trapped above the impervious layer as previously described, because of non penetration of this impervious layer it is highly unlikely to be lower water being forced up, if any exists in your location.

If you need more look for a sight around the hill at least 50 preferably 100 plus feet away, but if I understand your post, this is a back up for when the world ends, when is than oh yes December 2012, and you already have a supply that will sustain your family.

Allan

[Revolutionary]

Wp; great info...
My house is at about 3200 feet, the valley floor here is about 2100 feet. And if I'm hearing you right, maybe not a bad thing that a few more trees do a disappearing act? I did not know that the water is following old root structure, here, the majority of well guys/withcers etc say that water is in most of the clay, but that it gets forced to the surface whe it faces up with impervious rock, or sometimes clay. What you say makes sense to me; (and with your backgound it should), so pray tell, do I make more firewood?

I laughed out loud at the end of your post; IMO if 2012 doesn't work out, it'll be because of politicians who can;t control spending, and a public that quits believing in the monetary system, but I think the Mayans got it wrong....

[wpowokal]

Chris what they are saying is basically correct, just put it into perspective, Rock = lowest layer, rock breaks down to clay, clay breaks down to 'soil'. I suspect the deep wells you mentioned have been drilled through layers of rock.

Allan

[Revolutionary]

Allan-
So, do the trees get a thumbs up or down?
I PM'd you.
Chris

[wpowokal]

If you need the water and it is OK thumbs down for the trees, get the chain saw out and make fire wood.

allan

[Revolutionary]

An update:
The spring is starting to develop now, as it's the first full year, coming up in April, since we did all of the work. The spring runs constantly now, maybe 3/4 gallon a minute, and I just had the water tested, and it is GREAT.

My name is Chris Walsh, I am a Real Estate Broker in North Idaho. I can't place a link here, but if you PM me or do a google search you will find the link to the information I posted.
Chris

[rossw]

the information I posted that was removed by the moderators becuase I don't have 50 posts.

They were, I believe, removed because of a combination of:
 * the nature of the posts
 * the nature of the site linked to
 * that it was your first 5 posts on this forum, which all posted similar nature links
 * that the long-standing guidelines established by the operators of the forum suggested no external links in the first 50 posts.

The moderator in question operated in good faith, doing the job they were charged with.

[thirteen]

I gave my x-wife a bad time when the end of the world might be on the 21st of December for it is her birthday. HA HA!!! The trees can also help retain the soil struture and water table. Personally I would look at the lay of the land above and beside your land you might need that certain type  trees for the land stability. Just thought or idea to look at or toss.