Shallow Water Well
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Basics
- A Water Well that only taps into the Unconfined Aquifer (aka the Water Table )
- Easier to dig, less risk of contaminating the Confined Aquifer/Potentially Faster Groundwater Recharge but also higher risk of Silt Accumulation and Contamination from Nearby Pollution Sources
Methods
Hand Dug, Brick Lines Open Wells
- Think “wishing well” etc
- Not perfect, but doable
- Also higher risk of back-contamination due to it being open etc
- A Stepwell is the most elegant form of this, and would make for some AMAZING megaproject
Hand Dug, Basic Pipe Well
- ”Driven Point Well” is the technical term
- ”Point Driven Well” and “Sand Point” are related terms
- Only a couple hundred USD in equipment (cheaper for the next once you have the tools/if a Tool Library is used etc
- ”Hand Auger” / “Iwan Auger”
- Unlike other Post Hole Diggers these use a mechanism akin to a Tunnel Boring Machine but a manual T-Handle (and require it to be lifted out of the hole and spun/dumped out
- Using Water / Drilling Mud may alleviate this, but also adds it’s own issues
- Extensions are also available, as well as adapters for direct connection to a Drill Pipe + Sand Tip etc
- Drill Pipe (+ Pipe Dope )
- A Sand Tip + Perforated Pipe Mesh Well Inlet etc
- Although often this is a monolithic unit, with an attachment point for the next “stick” of Drill Pipe
- ”Hand Auger” / “Iwan Auger”
- Hand Excavate as far as possible (area around the pipe will allow for sealing backfill etc too which isn’t horrible to have
- Then insert the Sand Tip-Pipe Assembly and drive it down in a manner akin to Ground Rods etc
- Basic mechanization using an SDS Drill etc may work as well
- Driven Point Unconfined Aquifer Well for more work on this concept
Basic Mechanization/Rigs
- While a PROPER Well Drilling Rig is only really needed for Deep Wells going below Confining Layers of Clay/Rock etc into that Confined Aquifer, if available they can make the process of digging an Unconfined Well easier
- Simple ones can largely just be a frame for the SDS Drill and allow more ergonomic (and/or semi-automated) addition of the next “stick” of Drill Pipe etc
Well Completion
- Backfill AROUND the drillpipe:
- Coarse Material around the inlet
- Then above that Impermeable Material such as Concrete / Grout , Clay or POTENTIALLY Inerted Wax etc
- A “Cap” of Masonry / Concrete came be made around the base of the Above Ground Drillpipe/Pump Assembly
- Shielding+Bracing of the Drillpipe+ Manual Well Pump etc can also be done at this phase
- If using an Electric Well Pump + Filtration Assembly, a Dedicated Shed Well Pumphouse etc may be warranted
- Protective Bollards may be warranted as well depending on expected/potential Vehicle Traffic
Well Development
- Initial Period where you “break in” the well
- In shallow wells, especially if using a Manual Pump, it is quite simple, just pump water until it no longer is producing (much) silt etc
- Water Well Journal - What is the Goal of Well Development
Well Rework
- Common in Fossil Fuel Wells and POTENTIALLY Confined Groundwater Wells (citation needed)
- Need to read up on procedure+regulations etc
- Essentially though would be doing something to deal with loss of function due to something other than the Water Table no longer being at that depth
- Which with proper Water Well Planning + Sustainable Well Water Pump Rates etc shouldn’t be an issue
- This can be:
- Silt Buildup
- Pipe Scale Buildup / Similar Buildup in the Formation Itself
Well Decommissioning
- Re Orphan Wells etc
- For shallow wells this may be less of an issue?
- Is a simple “put the removed clay, then topsoil back where you found it” or use of a Similar Replacement compliant, or is Concrete etc still necessary?
- All in all though just removal of the Too Structure, then either Plugging with Concrete or Removal+Backfill
- Removal of some extra diameter around where the pipe was may be an overkill, but nice way to address Micro/Nanoplastic pollution if PCV Pipe etc was used (largely irrelevant if using Metal Pipe)
OSE Work at FeF
Here is a short video showing how to find water and dig a shallow well.
It looked very accessible, and something that could be taught and included in the Open Source curriculum.
OSE Well Drilling History
There's a bunch of pictures of this on the internet, google Open Source Ecology open source well drilling rid or well, or open source well pump. (and please paste pictures below)
- We dug a well in 2008, down to 70 feet or so, but it collapsed upon insertion of casing, down to about 25 feet.
- We put a manual pump on it, and it worked well. We built our own pump cylinder, which was fun - using PVC and a seal. It's quite a decent design - could pump about 100' or more.
- Old well today may still work, haven't tried reconditioning it.
- Well was subsequently disused, as it dried up in the summer.
- We had a 3 foot wide well dug professionally (about 30' deep)- it is available but has never been developed. One issue that came up for us was potential of groundwater pollution from agricultural runoff - for which reason we never used the well and connected to city water.
- At this point, using the 3' well should work - given a proper purification system such as ozone - if we took the effort to do this.
Internal Links
- Rainwater Harvesting / Stormwater Harvesting / Cistern etc
- Alternatives/Supplements to Well Drilling
- Well Drilling Rig and Well Water Filtration