We had to have a last minute well test done yesterday. We had one done in 2011, when we bought the property, but it turns out the county requires the test to be less than a year old before issuing building permits. The permits are scheduled to be approved any day now, pending a few errands on our part- such as updating the well test- so that we can break ground this Thursday.

I packed up the girls and went over to witness yet another 3 hr well test - another routine formality to appease the county, right?

Our last test revealed a well depth of 275 ft and a static water level of 180 ft so the technician was expecting something similar. His first test revealed.....

NO WATER.
DRY WELL!

He assured me that the instrument could be broken (water level is measured by lowering a weighted wire down the well until an electrical current is detected- so it is possible that the wire was faulty).

He sent a second tube down the well. This time I believe he was performing an air line test (lowering a hose below where water is expected and measuring pressure). His finding?

NO WATER.



Test #2 in the search for water

This would be catastrophic for our schedule, our budget, and even our house plans and location would likely change. This would mean hunting for water and digging a new well (or a few new ones until we hit water!). This would blow our very tight budget. This could change where our house would be sited and start the whole design and permitting process over. This would most likely chance our septic plan (well and septic have to be 100 ft apart so they are designed hand in hand). This would mean delaying building until the winter? Or next spring?!! In summary- panic attack news.

The tech kept trying though. The final hunt was to lower a pump all the way down- almost 100 ft lower than water was found last time- to the very bottom of the well (measured at 270 ft this time).

And we saw this.....

The most beautiful brown water I've ever seen!

After the initial pool of muddy (iron rich) water cleared, we saw a strong flow of pristine water for the next 3 hours while he measured flow rate.


Lots and lots of clear water

Wow- that was close. The flow was great (13 gallons / min). It was actually a little better than it was in 2011 (11gpm) but the depth of the water had gone down dramatically. The pump was sitting 2 ft from the bottom of the well at 268 ft and he estimated the static water level was around 255 ft. This was an extreme and abnormal drought year and many wells around here have dried up altogether. We were lucky that our water didn't drop any lower than it did and hopefully we're seeing a worst case scenario this year. The tech warned me that this August and September could be bad (lowering water level further and degrading flow rate) but he also assured me that a good normal winter would return everything to normal.