Drilling a new water well

Over the last two weeks we had a water well drilled on our farm! Because of the drought, we have an 80 acre field that district water allocations would be cut off as of may 15th. We have an old well that had the metal casing collapse 10 years ago and is no longer usable for us. We placed a request 6 months ago to have a well drilled and two weeks ago we got word that we were next up!

Soil Samples taken every 20-30 feet

Drilling a well is quite the process. They drill foot by foot taking samples every 20 to 30 feet. These samples ensure that the water is good quality and available at that point. Also, the samples are used by the county and the drilling company to determine how deep we need to put cement around the well to ensure nothing is able to get down to the aquifer that is not supposed to be there. The drilling rig had to go 340 feet before they hit the top of the aquifer at our farm. The drilling continued to 935 feet in total to ensure we would have an active well if the aquifer drops further.

During drought times a lot of farmers drill new wells on property they solely or partially depended on district water before. With everyone drilling wells it will soon lower our aquifer even more. But a few years ago farmers were asked to stop drilling in fear of lowering the aquifer and were told the state and central water projects would be able to supply us water. This has not been the case, so we drill to keep farming. Without drilling this well we would not have any water supply to 80 acres, which would cause the trees to die by the end of the year.

Drilling a new water well.

Until Next Time,

Almond Girl