Shallow Water Well

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 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

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.

https://youtu.be/5rYPRMm8Arw

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