Drought and dry well update

So, the other day I reported how my shallow (18 ft deep by 6 ft diameter) well ran dry first time in yearsssssss and blamed it on the drought. HOWEVER it appears I may have blamed my well prematurely. Sure it was running dry buttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt examination has revealed I SUDDENLY DEVELOPED AN UNDERGROUND WATER LINE WATER LEAK GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Hey if you keep pumping water out of it to a remote location where its not getting back in SURE IT CAN BE PUMPED DRY

However I had already planned to lay a new and improved line anyway (already have new pipe and fittings) which were gonna do tomorrow so not to worry mate. 30 and 40 years ago I ran that black roll plastic as was used back then but tomorrow Im running new 200 PSI rated heavy wall pipe woooooooooo hooooooooo

My buddy is showing up tomorrow morning with a backhoe and a trencher, I do attorney work for him and get re paid with backhoe and trencher and plumbing jobs

Many of you apparently missed my reason for hooking onto city water in the first place (had wells for 40 + years) was ONLY because its necessary to sell the place and discussed costs and advantages and disadvantages of wells versus city water. HOWEVER Im gonna have the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS NOW AND CHOICE. Im keeping the well operative (dont worry Im NOT backfeeding the city lines and am code compliant lol) I may use the well for car washing or watering etc., time will tell and its nice to have the choice and options ALL STILL WITH NEW HEAVY LINE

I wont know how to act after 40+ years of only one choice, pumps and priming and electricity etc etc., Now I just turn the valve I guess and most of our friends in similar situations (2 people only no kids) never go beyond the use permitted for $12.01 per month. Or I may use the well to some extent ??????? and pay for its electricity????

Yall take care n God Bless

"Lifes not really that short, its just that youre dead for such a long time"

John T

In that case John, I'll take the SHORT end of the stick!

Glad you got it figured out. We water the garden with a pump and the local river (not sure if is hold say that). but we only pump maybe 300 gallon a year for it. The house is all city water and the field corn is at mother natures will.

just had the same thing. Last person to put in water line used the cheap 1" plastic pipe, which worked for a time. But its time was up on me the other day. Water pressure finally split the pipe, looks like along a seam where its press-welded together. Had to crawl back into the cave the spring is in, dig thru a mud slide & crawl up a natural chimney into a old dry well, cut the line & replace with proper pipe. Why do other peoples shortcuts always catch up with me? Naturally it broke while I was out of town for a week & left the wife without water.

Yeah 30 and 40 years ago that type of pipe was used but I have the new 200 PSI pipe ready to go.

John T

I dont have much problem with using 300 gallons out of say some river for some purposes, but I bet if that was the Colorado river the water nazis would toss you in jail n throw the key away. Every drop of that water is spoken for and protected pretty much.....We were in Arizona and Utah and Nevada and Colorado this summer and the low amount of Rocky Mountain snow melt caused that river to be very lowwwwwwwwwwww.

John T

Same thing happened to me this summer, but with galvanized pipe, not plastic. This is the line we put in from the well to the house when I built 39 years ago. Elbow rusted thru in the basement. Fortunately I caught it before any damage was done. But being gone for three days, leaving wife at home until the well guy could come was not good. Replaced it with schedule 80 plastic. He told me he was 3-4 days behind because so many shallow wells were going dry with the drought. Good business for him drilling replacement 4" wells. Now I got some lawn work to do next spring.

That has to be of some relief, especially with the hot dry summer weather, showering and bathing to stay clean and comfortable sure is something to appreciate.

I guess thats why the town here, specifies the copper tubing, which is expensive, I was surprised they would not even allow the better quality, higher pressure thicker wall plastic, guess they don't want leaks.

My nephew's in-laws have a stunning place northwest of Dallas. Its a very large, old home that has been renovated.

The prior owner did the water lines inside the house. When the in-laws needed some plumbing work done, it turned into a complete re-do. The former owner had used GARDEN HOSES for the water lines inside the house.

Darwin award?

Umph. Wouldn't it be handy if it would just fall from the sky when you need it??? And I don't mean snow...
16 feet is a decent level. I had one at 8 feet, that had its own drawbacks... H2O. Feast or famine huh?

Parents had a similar problem with the well at the farm. turns out the first length of pipe was half rusted through right below the check valve at the threads. the water was coming up about 240' then falling back down.

Dad them replace everything between the pump and the top, they put in plastic sch. 80 pipe.

Donovan from wisconsin

I had 2 well put in, one last year and the other this year. The last well was drilled to 75 ft, the gravel filled in the last 15 ft. They put down 55 ft of 5 inch pipe in the hold and a 5 ft plastic screen. Farmers all around me pumping water on their fields. To my surprise, my water lever is only 29 ft below ground.

My cost for a new well, everything, $2800.

"If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving is not for you."