Well questions

[Mathew]

I grew up here in southern california and though moving out of this state is attractive me and my wife. Family is here our roots are here. I've worked around wells in the past and never truely seen one that produced more than 3.5 gallons per minute. But now I'm looking to by a property a well on it. I'm a General contractor so building myown home would be cool when its done. All my highly educated freinds and siblings that moved out of state to buy a home or can't buy a home here becasue there to busy paying off there student loans, and paying there big city studio appartments. I'd like to put a home on this gently sloped (6%) 3/4 acre lot overlooking them all while safley out of the city 25 miles away.
As A condition of Escrow I am aloud to arrange a well test. But of course the well contractor I called wasn't going to be able to make it here by wensday when escrow ends. I witness well test before on horizontal wells but never vertical. So today I did a flow test myself is this right?
So here is what I did:
Connected the well to my 8kw generator and started pumping a 9:10 am this morning. At this point the flow rate was really high. It filled a 5 gallon bucket in about 20 seconds. But the well was sitting for a few months. Obviously had allot of (Static Head?) water built up in the pipe that was static head. It slowly tapered down until 10:23am when when the flow slowed to a even steady rate but it kept pumping that way. I knew the water level has reached the pump. I was expecting the pump controller to shut down the pump and restart after the pipe had refilled. Is it normal to continue pumping like that?
I started the flow rate portion of the test under that slow consistant flow. I let it flow continiously for 4 hours until 2:23pm. measured the water in the tank and calculated it out to 326 gallons/240 minutes= 1.358 gallons per minute. This is a well recovery test right? is it the same as a flow rate? And is this the test that I wanted to for my needs.
So does this mean the well is not sufficient? I guess what Im trying to say is with 2X5000 gallon water tanks to maintain water flow. Will the county allow me to build on this lot without the cost of drilling another well.

 

[Craigpump]

No, not really. Yield is based on the continous out put of the well. How many gallons per minute was being pumped after 4 hours?

As for whether it meets code, that depends on the how the codes read. Here in Ct for example, that well would have to be 300' deep with that yield in order to be considered legal.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Mathew]

Okay as we ended the test which the pump was ran for about 5 hours and ten minutes overall. I put a 5 gallon bucket that had a measurements on it under the fill pipe in the water tank. It took a little under 4 minutes to fill. I recorded that time on paper but its in my truck. as far as the depth of the well it's said to be 600' deep. Information I optained from the previous owner, and cerified with the neighbor. I have not seen any documentation to prove this yet.

 

[Craigpump]

IF the well is 600' deep and IF the standing water level was 20' from the top, there would be a nominal 1.5 gallons per foot of well. So, with a 20' static minus the 20' a pump is typically set off the bottom, there would be 560' of water x 1.5 equals 870 gallons.

 

[Mathew]

That seems about right the first 5000 gallon water tank had about 2' of water inside it before the water level dropped down to pump hieght and the flow decreased (should the pump have shut off at this point to allow the well to recover?) My question is: are the county officials likley to have issues with water flow rates. It seems pretty obviuos that with two 5000 gallon water tanks on site. Meeting the demands of of three people and a few fixtures shouldn't be in question. We don't take 700 gallon showers. I know Im probably asking obvious questions to for most people. My issue is reading information on local government website the seem to all mention 2 gallons per minute. And the well its self doesn't meet that requirement.

Unless I put a smaller pump in the well to reduce the pumping rate to only 2 gallons per minute which would allow me to run that pump for a very long time without dipping below 2gpm.

BTW Craigpump thanks for doing the math I've been meaning to do that I just havent gotten to it.

 

[Craigpump]

Changing the pump doesn't change the fact that the well makes less than 2 gallons a minute. Those tanks aren't just there for domestic use, they're there for fire protection.

I think if you made a few calls you would find out the state agency that has records on the wells and they could provide you with more info including who drilled it. Here in Ct the local health department maintains those records.

 

[Mathew]

That what I was hoping too but the countysays the have no record of it. Its apparently normal for them not to have records on wells before made beofre 2001. And Yes that water is there for fire fighting, I have to run a draft to a more convinant for them to a location. I'll ask to county again today.