water bearing sand

[Bill Foster]

I have read some articles here concerning wells and water. I have been curious about water bearing sand being used for an emergency well. I have seen YouTube videos about well points being driven into the ground or using pvc pipe as a water drill to get to water bearing sand. I assume that this water can only be used for flushing toilets and the like unless treated. Does anyone have any experience with well points or water drills? I would like to add this to my preps, as my water comes from the county, not a well on my own property.

[Bill Foster]

Videos

Ok, I see a lot of people have looked at this post, but no one has commented. Here are a couple of youtube links to homemade well drilling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGq0ETzZP0E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yIX-YCNKh0

[claymore]

We drove a well when we built our first home 32 yrs ago. We were told to wait until the septic was inspected and the health dept.would not come back out and thats what happened. Anyway you've got a point and that is coupled with a 4' section of 1.5 " water pipe and you drive it with one of those weights that you pick up and drop. Every time you drop the weight someone has to rethighten the coupling. Drive it down to grd level add another coupling and another section of water pipe and drive it down and so on. We also dug a 6' pit and lined it with cinder block and drove the well from the bottom of the pit, put a electric pump in the bottom,made an insulated cover and that was our water supply. We built another place 10 yrs ago and had a well prof. drilled. If I remember correctly the first well was 41 ft and the new one is 45 or so; good water in both.

[Jerry D Young]

I used to jet in 2" PVC wells in SE Missouri and NE Arkansas in the 70s and 80s. Had a regular rig that my father designed after we did it all by hand for a while. The government now requires some special features and testing to certify a new well that weren't required in the past. We put in over 500 wells in a 14 year period. Some of the water was good, some not so good. None that was tested had any problems, but testing is a good idea now with the amount of contaminates getting into water supplies.

If the ground has some clay, but isn't all clay, and there aren't a lot of rocks, jetting in the well is fairly easy. There are several methods. The one my father developed was to use PVC pipe in 5' sections with threaded couplers on it as drill pipe, with a hand made bit. We used a 2" centrifugal gasoline powered pump to pump the water from a small pit I dug next to where the well was going in. We reused the water and just kept the hole full as we went deeper.

I shoveled the material we brought up by the flowing water, and when we hit the water bearing sand, we went a bit deeper, setting aside that sand. You could tell it would let water flow because when you shoveled it, the water ran out of it on the shovel. Non flowing sand and clay held the water in it.

Once the hole was deep enough (at least 20' to the top of the 10' strainer back then), the drill pipe was pulled, and the assembled well screen and pipe were dropped into the hole. Fresh water was pumped slowly into the pipe as the hole was back filled, and then the connection was reversed and we began pumping the well. Trying to pump a well sitting in muddy water doesn't get you much. It is critical to back flush the well while it is being backfilled.

We never had a failure on usable quantity of water if I was allowed to douse for the well. Quality, on the other hand was somewhat problematical. It might be good, or it might not. But we guaranteed a minimum quantity or the well was free. Never had to pay off on those we doused.

Here is an excerpt from a story I wrote that included putting in a 2" irrigation well.

Jasper waved and headed back to open the gate.Greg backed his pickup along the rear driveway, careful not to get off of itinto the new garden spot. He stopped at a likely position and got out of thetruck.

Greg and Jasper exchanged hearty handshakes and Millie came over to say hello.Greg was more than a little shy around Millie, knowing he’d been partiallyresponsible for some bad times for the couple. Her accepting his presence wasreassuring.

“Let me get my rods,” Greg said, going to the cross bed tool box on the truck.He returned to the area between the garden plot and the trailer.

Jasper and Millie exchanged glances as Greg began to crisscross the area nearthe garden with the L-shaped wires held before him. “You do want it here, nearthe garden, don’t you?” Greg asked, stopping at a spot where the wires werecrossing.

“The pump can push the water better than it can pull it. I’d kind of like thewell to be closer over here…” Jasper walked over near where he’d been pacingoff the shelter area.

“Oh. Okay,” Greg said. “This one was good, but there could be… yep,” Gregcontinued as he walked back and forth, the wires crossing and uncrossing as heweaved his way toward Jasper.

“Same stream,” Greg explained, swinging his arm in a line from the first spothe’d stopped to where he was standing. “Anywhere along this line is good.”

In Jasper’s eyes it was a nearly perfect spot. It was almost exactly where he’dwanted the well to be, without consideration of the dowsing. “It’s good,”Jasper said.

Greg headed back to the truck. “Help me with the pump, will you?” he askedJasper. Between them they carried a five-horsepower gas engine driven two-inchself-priming water pump to the spot. It was in a cage that supported a old timered hand pump plumbed into the intake of the pump with a tee and check valve.

“You lay out the small hose from the tank in my truck and unload the pipe andstrainer and stuff in the box right at the back of the truck bed. I’ll dig thehole.”

“I don’t mind helping you dig,” Jasper quickly offered.

Greg shook his head. “No offense, Jasper, but this has to be just so. I knowexactly how to dig it.”

“Okay,” Jasper replied, going to the truck to take the two twenty-foot sticksof Schedule Forty PVC pipe off the pipe rack of Greg’s truck. The ten-foot longslotted PVC strainer was in the bed of truck, over the wheel well on one sideof the water tank.

Jasper looked into the box sitting behind the tank. It contained some two-inchpipe fittings and cans of pipe cleaner and solvent welding cement. Greg lookedup from his digging. “Bring over the drill stems and the two-inch hoses.”

The drill stems were five-foot lengths of more two-inch schedule forty pipewith a male adapter on one end and a female adapter on the other.

After he’d carried the things over Jasper watched Greg finish up the hole.There was a short, shallow trench connecting a hole about the sized of theshovel to one two feet square and eighteen inches deep.

Greg laid an old bent crowbar across one corner of the bigger hole and set thepancake strainer that was on a short piece of pipe into the hole. The elbow atthe top of the pipe rested on the crowbar, holding the strainer off the bottomof the hole about four or five inches.

Using two inch flexible suction hose with quick connects Greg attached thestrainer to the pump. He laid out the second hose and connected it to theoutlet of the pump. “Turn on the water at the tank,” Greg said and Jasperquickly did so.

Greg opened the valve on the discharge end of the water supply hose and beganto fill the hole and trench. While it was filling, Greg had Jasper help himsolvent cement a cap to one end of the strainer and a coupling to the other.There was a short piece of the two-inch PVC pipe in the truck with one bell endand one smooth end. They added that two-foot piece to the strainer.

They cleaned the smooth ends and the bell ends of the two twenty-foot pieces oftwo-inch PVC and Greg laid them out the way he wanted them. The hole was fullof water and Greg put a little water in the hand pump and pumped it until hehad water up to the intake of the engine driven pump, explaining to Jasper,“It’s a self priming pump, but this is quicker and easier.”

Picking up one of the five-foot long drill stems, that had a home made sand biton it, Greg had Jasper screw it into the threaded elbow on the end of the longflexible hose. “Okay, Jasper. Crank the pump.”

The pump engine started on the first pull and water began to flow through thesystem. When it reached the bit a bit of water sprayed, but not much. Jasperand Millie, who had come out to watch, were amazed as Greg lifted the drillstem, pushed it down and turned it one-quarter of a turn to the right. Helifted the stem and turned it back left before pushing down again and turningit to the right. It was only a couple of minutes before stem was all the waydown in the ground.

“Kill the pump.” Jasper did so and Greg lifted the drill stem back up. “Unscrewit.” Jasper did and Greg then had him hold the first stem down low as hescrewed another five-foot length of the drill stem onto the first. Jasper stoodup and screwed the assembly into the elbow while Greg held it. “Crank her up.”

Jasper started the pump again and Greg began to repeat the process of push andturn, lift and turn back. “Okay, Jasper,” Greg said as soon as he was back inrhythm, “You need to use the square point shovel there and clean out the bottomof the hole. That’s what is coming up out of the drill hole.

It took a few shovel attempts but Jasper soon had the technique of lifting outthe cuttings slowly and letting them drain a little before dumping them besidethe hole, in a different pile as instructed by Greg. Jasper also adjusted thewater flowing into the hole to keep it full, but not running over.

They were on the fifth drill stem, about twenty-two feet down when thedischarge from the drill hole changed. Before the cuttings had been pretty muchbasic dirt. Now there was a significant amount of sand mixed in. Greg hadJasper start a new pile.

During the sixth drill stem the sand became coarse and more predominant. Gregasked Jasper to start yet another pile of the drill cuttings. “See how thewater drains out of that, instead of pooling on top like the early stuff?”Jasper nodded. There was a significant difference in the soils.

“We could probably stop here,” Greg said when he had the sixth drill stem allthe way into the ground, but I’d like to go at least another five feet. Perhapsten.”

“What ever you think best,” Jasper said.

They went the full ten feet. Jasper saw the cuttings turn back to fine sand.The water wouldn't’t drain out of it. “That’s it,” Greg said. “Kill the pump.”

The two began to lift and remove the drill stem a piece at a time. “What’sgoing to keep the hole open?” Jasper asked, beginning to get worried.

“The water. Or, more accurately,” Greg said, “The sediment and water. It’s whyI re-circulate the water rather than use all fresh. Beside it taking way toomuch water to do using fresh and making a royal mess, fresh water simplydoesn’t hold the hole open very well. That’s why regular drillers use a ‘mud’when they drill. For these shallow wells just the sediment from the surface isenough to keep the hole open. If need be I have some Quickgel in the truck. I’dadd a cup or two of it if we were going through all coarse sand. Now we don’twant to wait too long though, before we put in the screen and pipe.”

Jasper nodded and picked up the prepared well screen and lowered it into thedrill hole when directed by Greg. “Hold that ****** tight,” Greg warned. Hespread solvent cement on the smooth end of one of the twenty-foot pieces ofpipe, and the bell end of the screen assembly. Then with a motion that Jasperfound amazing, Greg hoisted the pipe to a vertical position and slipped the endof it into the bell of the pipe Jasper was holding. He gave it a slight twistas he seated the pipe in the bell.

He began to lower the pipe down slowly and then gave it to Jasper to holdagain, down low. He added the second piece of pipe, which stuck well above theground when the strainer hit the bottom of the drill hole.

While Jasper steadied it, Greg used a hacksaw to cut the pipe off severalinches above the ground. Jasper put the piece of pipe back in Greg’s truck asGreg cleaned the upper end of the well pipe and solvent welded a threaded maleadapter to it. Greg took the elbow, detached it from the hose and screwed itonto the well, using RectorSeal #5 pipe dope.

“The other long hose,” Greg said. “Connect it to the valve on the tank andbring it over to the pump.”

Jasper hooked the second long two-inch flexible suction hose to the intake ofthe pump. “Isn’t this the wrong way?” Jasper asked. “We’ll be pumping out ofthe tank into the well, won’t we?”

“Yes,” Greg replied with a big grin. “But believe me, this ain’t no well yet.Just a pipe in the ground with a screen. We’re going to make it into a well.Now, fire up the pump at an idle.”

Jasper did so and saw the water slowly boil up out of the ground much as it hadwhen they were using the drill stem. “Start backfilling, using the coarsestsand,” Greg said as he watched the flow. Jasper wasn’t too sure how much of thesand was going back into the hole, but Greg kept him after it until all thesand that had come out of the hole was back in it.

Greg stopped the pump and changed the elbow on the top of the well for athreaded cap. He had Jasper put the next best sand in the drill hole, and thenthe dirt. Greg began removing hoses from the pump and Jasper got a littleworried.

“Okay, that’s good,” Greg said when all the drill cuttings were back in thehole. He put the elbow back on the well and connected it to the intake of thepump, moving the discharge hose away from the pump area.

Using the hand pump, Greg primed the well and then started the engine drivenpump. He had Jasper move over to it and when Greg gave him the signal, Jasperkilled the engine and Greg turned a ball valve mounted on a tee in the intakeline of the pump. Jasper could easily hear the air whoosh as the water drainedback down into the well.

Thankfully, Greg explained. “We pumped clean water in slowly while we put thecoarse sand back. That filtered any fine stuff out of the screen and up whilethe largest particles of sand kept falling. We have the coarsest sand availablearound the screen for best water flow. I capped it while you refilled the holeso it wouldn’t drive the dirty water back into the screen.”

Greg closed the valve and had Jasper start the pump again. It took a fewseconds to prime since Greg hadn’t used the hand pump to prime it. They did thesame thing several times and Greg said, “This is making a well out of a hole inthe ground. Some of the guys around here just punch the hole, put the screenand pipe in, and backfill. They don’t flush it or prep it in any way. Maybe youhave a well and maybe you don’t. I don’t walk away until she’s pumping the bestI think she can. This pump and release surges the formation kind of like a fracprocess does on an oil well. Okay. Let’s see what this thing can do.”

This time when Jasper started the pump Greg walked over to the discharge hose.A full two-inch diameter stream was coming out of the hose for an inch or sobefore falling to the ground.

“The bucket,” Greg said, nodding toward the bucket in the back of his truck.Greg filled and emptied the bucket a few times, running a stop watch each time.The bucket was filling in six to seven seconds. “Over twenty-five-hundredgallons an hour,” Greg said. “Not the best I ever got… That was a fullthirty-six-hundred gallons. But this is a good well.” Greg brought the hose upto his lips and took a sip of the water. “Not too bad tasting.”

Jasper tried it and agreed.

“Have Millie make some sun tea with it. If it’s nice and clear it’s really goodwater. If it’s dark, well, I’d have it tested, but I doubt you’ll want to treatit for irrigation use. If you ever want it for drinking water, I’d see what thetests say and act accordingly.”

“Thanks, Greg,” Jasper said, shaking his hand.

“Let’s get this cleaned up. I’ll be ready for that barbeque by the time we’redone.”

It took a little while to get everything loaded back on Greg’s truck and theholes filled up. “You say you have a pump to use?” Greg asked after he closedand latched the tailgate of his truck.

“Yep. In the shed.” Jasper showed Greg the three-horsepower gas engine Searslawn pump he’d picked up at a garage sale and rebuilt. “It pumped out of a tankafter I fixed it,” Jasper said.

“Should work fine, if you got the seal in properly. You want to hook it upnow?”

“Don’t have the stuff. I’ll get it next week and hook it up next weekend. Ilike that flexible suction hose you use. Where’d you get it?”

“TSC. I use it for both suction and discharge, because I use the hosesinterchangeably. You don’t really need it for discharge, though I would suggestyou get it for the intake.”

Jasper nodded. “I’ll make a manifold and run a bunch of water hoses.”

“You need plenty of discharge. Run the pump at slow speed if you’ve only got acouple of hoses going. If the pump housing starts getting even warm, you aren’tgetting enough flow to keep the pump cool. Really have to watch this kind ofpump using garden hoses.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Here’s the money for the materials.” Jasper took outhis wallet and gave Greg the cash he’d promised for Greg’s out of pocketexpenses. “Come grab a beer, Greg. I’ll get the steaks on the grill.”

“Steaks! I was expecting brats or chicken. Not steak.”

“Means a lot to us to get this well in,” Jasper said quietly.

“Aw! No big deal. I punch these in all the time.”

Millie took out a bottle of Greg’s favorite beer from the cooler, opened it,and handed it to Greg when he walked up to their small patio at the back of thetrailer.

“Thanks, Millie,” Greg said shyly.

“That is quite a process you’ve come up with,” she said, fussing a little overthe food set out on the picnic table.

“Once I figured it out, it is pretty easy. There’re lots of guys doing it. ButI think I do it better than anyone else.” There was no false modesty there.Greg had a point. He did have a good system. He’d never had a failure. Atleast, not when he’d been allowed to dowse.

[Bill Foster]

Thanks for the info. Good story, I like your writing style. I'm going to try dousing one day....when no one is looking.