A Well-Drilling (Customer's) Primer

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How much capacity is enough? Well, that's tied in with the well's yield, its recovery rate, and, of course, how much water your household uses. It would take me some time to explain the intricacies of each of these factors, so I'll take a shortcut by just giving you some commonsense parameters. First of all, you'll need to establish your household's minimum daily needs, which should include not only water used in bathing and drinking but that consumed by flushing toilets, washing dishes and clothes, and watering gardens, lawns, livestock, or anything else outdoors (including buildings, should a fire ever occur).

Obviously, measuring all this would take some effort, so I've provided a general waterrequirement chart for your reference. But another factor, peak demand, also comes into play. It's a direct result of our tendency to use the majority of our water during specific times of the day, thus putting a huge demand on the well over a relatively short period. Rather than actually calculating this, you can simply halve what you figured your household's daily needs are and consider that estimate as your maximum hourly water requirement.

If you're not much for arithmetic, the rule of thumb in supplying a modern household is to shoot for a flow of 8 to 10 gallons per minute at the standard pressure of between 30 and 40 pounds per square inch (psi). Don't, however, let that figure intimidate you: For some families, 2 or 3 GPM is a perfectly reasonable quantity of water.

By the way, you-or more specifically, your drill-rig operator-should be prepared to assure the well's yield by making drawdown and recovery tests. This procedure of bailing or pumping the hole will tell you not only what kind of a flow you can expect from your investment but also if the delivery will be consistent. In addition, a seat-of-the-pants test can be made while the rig's still working: The operator can time and measure the overflow from the hole (by using a weir or simply a bucket), then subtract from that volume the amount of water used to flush out the tailings.

Maybe I've thoroughly confused you by now. If that's the case, there's still hope: You'll feel better about your project if you talk to some neighbors who've had wells drilled on their property. Find out how deep their wells are, how much casing was used, what the cost per foot was, and what kind of yield they've experienced. It would also be to your advantage to ascertain whether or not they've experienced any dry-spell difficulties ...which would indicate that you might want to go the extra mile (don't take me literally!) with you r well.

Remember, too, that professional well contractors are often licensed by-and must answer to-the state and/or county government. They're bona fide business people and as such should be able to provide you with a contract that covers at least the following areas: health and environmental code compliance, liability insurance for the customer and the driller, casing specifications (including size and diameter, penetration, sand-screen protection, and annular seal information), a completion date, a test-pumping report, a copy of the drilling log, itemized costs (per foot for drilling, as well as for the casing, plus any additional materials or labor charges), and a guarantee of materials and workmanship.

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