The Wishing Well

I didn't know that "drill a new well" was on my blood pressure list. But, had I known, I would be crossing it off today. Yes, we drilled a well right next to our existing well. Typically you can tap into a well and use a smaller casing to save the cost of the depth already drilled. From there, you drill deeper. In our case, the windmill tower kept the drill rig from getting close enough to tap into the existing well so we had to drill another well.

I learned about this last weekend when Bill told me he signed a contract and the well driller would be starting on Wednesday."What???!!!" I exclaimed. Bill talked about the well and the fact that the diminished flow concerned him. What I missed was the conversation. I "heard" what he said but never offered comments and the next thing I knew we were in a contract to drill a well at least 160 feet deep. The current well is 90 feet and we've had it "blasted" a couple of times to build up the water flow. This ancient lake bed we reside upon has it's challenges to be sure.

So the well drillers came and drilled down to 160 feet but were pulling up grayish water with lots of sand particles. They suggested going deeper and we agreed to go another 40 feet. Fortunately they encountered a small gravel strata at 180 feet and capped it at 200 feet.

So now we have a new well and have to go about the business of capping the existing well. Lots of work. According to the well drillers it will cost $1500 to close down a well. Sounds a little too much to me so I'm going investigating by calling the EPA Wellhead Protection program to check on the legal requirements.

With the ending of the old well, I figure I should use it as my "wishing well." Would you like to join me and add your wishes to my well? And, even though it may be considered cheating, I think I will add "drill a new well" to my Blood Pressure List and check it off!

Windmill photo by Kyna Conlin Moser