Living in the country I get my water from a well which pulls water from an aquifer. I assume. So my question is in the winter when the ground is frozen a few feet down how does surface water get past the frozen ground to the aquifer?
Well and aquifer
- Thread starter Donald
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It's a big reservoir, it gets enough in the summer (If your lucky).
Not necessarily, it's more likely that you have a spring well, there are no aquifers in the state of NY to my knowledge
Originally Posted by Pelican
Not necessarily, it's more likely that you have a spring well, there are no aquifers in the state of NY to my knowledge
Ok. I am a computer guy. Not a geologist. I thought all wells pulled water from an aquifer.
My property does seem to have various springs.
When there is no aquifer, how does one know when you drill a well if you are near a spring and will hit water?
Not necessarily, it's more likely that you have a spring well, there are no aquifers in the state of NY to my knowledge
Ok. I am a computer guy. Not a geologist. I thought all wells pulled water from an aquifer.
My property does seem to have various springs.
When there is no aquifer, how does one know when you drill a well if you are near a spring and will hit water?
I heard from a (New York) Well-Driller that: "water travels under-ground thru cracks and crevices".
If a persons Well is not refilling quickly enough, the Well-Driller can lower dynamite down the hole and set it off.
Doing so will upset the cracks and crevices allowing the water to better fill the well (a less expensive attempt before drilling a 'new' well).
Other areas of the country have aquifers / always interesting how the water level is lowering and may take years to refill.
If a persons Well is not refilling quickly enough, the Well-Driller can lower dynamite down the hole and set it off.
Doing so will upset the cracks and crevices allowing the water to better fill the well (a less expensive attempt before drilling a 'new' well).
Other areas of the country have aquifers / always interesting how the water level is lowering and may take years to refill.
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The water here does not go down through the dirt. All the little temporary streams when it rains lead to the dry and sandy mojave river. The water that runs into the dry river soaks through the sand and into the aquifer.
Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid
I heard from a (New York) Well-Driller that: "water travels under-ground thru cracks and crevices".
If a persons Well is not refilling quickly enough, the Well-Driller can lower dynamite down the hole and set it off.
Doing so will upset the cracks and crevices allowing the water to better fill the well (a less expensive attempt before drilling a 'new' well).
Other areas of the country have aquifers / always interesting how the water level is lowering and may take years to refill.
In the old days they pounded the well and that pounding did as you describe. It fractured the ground around the well vs a drilled well.
I heard from a (New York) Well-Driller that: "water travels under-ground thru cracks and crevices".
If a persons Well is not refilling quickly enough, the Well-Driller can lower dynamite down the hole and set it off.
Doing so will upset the cracks and crevices allowing the water to better fill the well (a less expensive attempt before drilling a 'new' well).
Other areas of the country have aquifers / always interesting how the water level is lowering and may take years to refill.
In the old days they pounded the well and that pounding did as you describe. It fractured the ground around the well vs a drilled well.
Originally Posted by Donald
When there is no aquifer, how does one know when you drill a well if you are near a spring and will hit water?
They use sticks or bent wire and witch for it. Thats what they did here. They also told is where to put a 2nd well if needed.
When there is no aquifer, how does one know when you drill a well if you are near a spring and will hit water?
They use sticks or bent wire and witch for it. Thats what they did here. They also told is where to put a 2nd well if needed.
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Originally Posted by Pelican
Not necessarily, it's more likely that you have a spring well, there are no aquifers in the state of NY to my knowledge
Maybe there are.
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To the OP's question, in the winter with frozen ground water isn't entering the ground for a few months. How deep is your well and what level does water come in? Surface water can take years to percolate down to an acquifer.
Not necessarily, it's more likely that you have a spring well, there are no aquifers in the state of NY to my knowledge
Maybe there are.
To the OP's question, in the winter with frozen ground water isn't entering the ground for a few months. How deep is your well and what level does water come in? Surface water can take years to percolate down to an acquifer.
Yeah, there's so much water down there that seasonal fluctuations like ice or drought don't affect them most of the time. But if the ground has a frost layer, keep in mind that the bottom of it is probably melting a little too. Water in these things moves miles easily. I know the recharge area in mine is west of here.
Your local well driller knows the depths of where the good (and bad) water generally is.
Your local well driller knows the depths of where the good (and bad) water generally is.
Here in the mountains an aquifer works as a hydraulic effect, as the mountains just a half mile behind and infront of my house have a water table. That water table is fairly high up there on the mountain, lots of snow, the water never has enough time to ever equalize down to the valleys thru its under ground path ways. Water is lazy and always follows a path of least resistance. In the spring time its coming right out of the shear rock faces like rivers, there's a lot of water pressure pushing that water. And that just at the surface, what you can see, thats maybe 2% of the water table.
So, even though my house sits right on a very large pristine river, and my well is 50 feet from the embankment, an only 60 feet deep, I never get any water from the river. I get water that is actually in a sense under a hydraulic effect and it also is inbetween a couple of clay layers that are natural to the mountain aquifers. Even the houses that are right on the largest lake in Idaho with wells 50 to 100 feet from the lake do not get any water from the lake. The aquifer effect is that strong.
Same reason you can find water a few hundred feet down in the desert. It follows its under ground pathways, and normally clay plays a large role in that.
Chris142's Water table most likely is an aquifer that is supplied from the surrounding mountains like Big Bear, ect There is a lot of higher ground near where he lives that receives a lot of snow pack.
Area's that have water tables available for well tapping like up state New York without large mountains do not have quite the same quality of water as places like my house. I have just about crystal clear mountain spring water all year long. 60 Gal per min. Never runs dry. I pretty much refuse to drink any water except water from my home. I pretty much only drink Water!
Wells do not get any water from the surface water table. water does not penetrate down far enough into the earth at you home, it just does not happen. Your well water would be so contaminated you would not want to drink it! Think about your septic tank and leach field?
So, even though my house sits right on a very large pristine river, and my well is 50 feet from the embankment, an only 60 feet deep, I never get any water from the river. I get water that is actually in a sense under a hydraulic effect and it also is inbetween a couple of clay layers that are natural to the mountain aquifers. Even the houses that are right on the largest lake in Idaho with wells 50 to 100 feet from the lake do not get any water from the lake. The aquifer effect is that strong.
Same reason you can find water a few hundred feet down in the desert. It follows its under ground pathways, and normally clay plays a large role in that.
Chris142's Water table most likely is an aquifer that is supplied from the surrounding mountains like Big Bear, ect There is a lot of higher ground near where he lives that receives a lot of snow pack.
Area's that have water tables available for well tapping like up state New York without large mountains do not have quite the same quality of water as places like my house. I have just about crystal clear mountain spring water all year long. 60 Gal per min. Never runs dry. I pretty much refuse to drink any water except water from my home. I pretty much only drink Water!
Wells do not get any water from the surface water table. water does not penetrate down far enough into the earth at you home, it just does not happen. Your well water would be so contaminated you would not want to drink it! Think about your septic tank and leach field?
Nature can be fickle. My well driller got surprised as he was drilling, was going thru solid rock, got to 300 ft with no water. Since he drilled several of my neighbors he pulled his records and told me they got water with 150 ft Wells. Sort of suggested the dynamite trick but kept drilling. While I was getting a headache just thinking about adding the cost of the dynamite route, around 350 ft he hit water which then came up to within 20 ft of the surface. So lots of clean water from deep down. Great! He finished the job at 385 ft, but boy did that amount of drilling cost me!
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I used to live about 1000 feet off of a river in a semi rural setting. The well was around 150 feet down. As it was explained to me, the local geology at my location in a river valley, after a couple or three feet of topsoil the driller hit river rock which he said was the old river bed as the river used to meander in the years before the levees went in. The river was still flowing through that rock layer and that's where our water was sourced.
When we went to sell the house the well was tested per law and it came up positive for E. coli. The explanation was a failed septic system just upriver from us. The well was disinfected.
When we went to sell the house the well was tested per law and it came up positive for E. coli. The explanation was a failed septic system just upriver from us. The well was disinfected.
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