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| Well Education | |||
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The purpose of this page is to educate our customers about groundwater and the process we take to provide water flowing out of your sink. |
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SEE A WELL DRILLED - SLIDE SHOW (HTML Version) SEE A WELL DRILLED - SLIDE SHOW (Java Version) DIAGRAM / CROSS SECTION OF A WATER WELL
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| When we drill a well, our goal
is to find an adequate source of groundwater. Many people think of
groundwater as underground lakes or streams. Although that is the
case in rare circumstances, most ground water is simply water below the
ground that fills in space between rocks or the cracks and crevices in
rocks. The amount of water that a rock can hold depends on its
porosity or the ratio of open space to the total volume of the rock.
In sand and gravel, this ratio generally is 30 to 40 percent.
Ground water can be found anywhere! It's all a matter of how far we have to drill to find it. Ground water comes from rain and snow percolating down through the soil. It drains down toward the zone of saturation, the area in which all openings are filled with water. The top of the saturation zone is called the water table, where the pressure is the same as that of the atmosphere. Although we start seeing water below the water table, we drill until we hit a gravel aquifer or sufficiently cracked limestone. Aquifers consist of permeable rocks or granular materials that transmit water freely. These aquifers or cracked rocks (limestone) are able to replenish any water pumped out very easily. Depending on the formation of your well, it will only be able to replenish that water at a certain rate (Gallons Per Minute). The submersible pump must be matched accordingly not to pump more water than the well "makes". If your well is a gravel aquifer well, a well screen in placed at the bottom of the well to filter out the the sand and gravel, while still allowing the water to pass by. If your well is a limestone well, a well screen is not needed and the bottom of the steel casing is left open inside the limestone. |
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