Tapping an artesian well.

[Sprucegum]

I have a fair bit of water seeping out of the river valley bank.
I'm thinking if I drive a pipe in there with perforations along the bottom 4 feet or so, water should collect and run out the pipe. I would drive it in horizontally, its a steep bank.

Anyone else done something like this?
Anyone have a natural spring they use or have modified?

[ely]

i have seen folks use what they call a sand point, on the end of 3/4 pipe or even bigger for that matter. it is a point that enables you to drive the pipe in but it has holes in it too that lets the water fill the pipe.

all that being said i have a spot on a creek that never goes dry, it actually drips water all the time. i am going to drill a 36 inch hole down into the sandstone and insert a tinhorn that way even if the spring does not openly flow i will have a large volume of water to pump out for use. the 36 inch hole will be about 13 feet deep. thats alot of water.

[Dana]

Ely what are you going to drill the hole in sandstone with?

[Paschale]

Now that's just too cool!  I hope your experiment works, and hopefully you can post some pictures for us too!   8)

[Tom]

When you are tapping a water source horizontally in a bank, how do you know that you are tapping a stream from below and not just ground water from the surface?  There would be a big difference, I would think.

[ely]

dana, i plan on using whats called a texoma digger. we use them in the powerline industry to dig holes for setting poles in. and have lots of different size augers. first i have to clear a trail down to where the rock seeps.

tom, the area in question for me drips water all year, even in a drought. when the whole creek dries up there will still be a hole of water in this bend.

[Tom]

I've seen horizontal pipes installed in the sides of cutouts in the Smokies and always wondered how they knew that the water was potable.  I know that testing can tell but don't figure most of these are tested.

[Ianab]

At my old farm farm we were totally spoiled for water. There was a natural aretesian spring that just bubbled up from deep down and poured into a small stream. The spring seemed to have several outlets, some just bubbled up thru the sand of the stream bed and surrounding area. One had a big concrete culvert pipe planted over it that server as a sump for the pumps. The remainder would overflow into the stream. I guess about 1/4 of the water went thru the sump, and that had 4 x 3kw water pumps drawing off it and supplying 4 neighbouring farms. They wouldn't come close to keeping up with the flow even if they were all running. The flow never varied with the seasons and was crystal clear, although high in lime. I dont know where the original source of the water was, could have been miles away.
If the flow you are looking at varies a lot with the weather it's probably shallow groundwater, quality will depend on how clean the local environment is. If it flows steady even in dry times it's probably coming from much deeper and is likely to be better (more filtered).
You should be able to find a lab locally that will test water samples for a small fee, give you an idea of how good it is.
Tom, I'm guessing in the old days they drank a cupfull and if they didn't get sick it was good  :D
Cheers

Ian

[Tom]

Ian,

I'm thinking that a lot of that is done today too.   :D


My concern is that the density of human population and its runoff has probably affected a lot of the shallower springs.  Bio hazards from wildlife don't bother me as much as knowing that a city of septic tanks is close by.

[SwampDonkey]

Lots of artesians here in my area. I pointed one out to a new home builder who I told to build on a dome like knoll in the field. How I knew it was there is the water weeps from the toe of the dome. He had a well dug into that dome and the water was shootin out like a fire hydrant. Wish I had a video. There is another behind my house in another field, handy to the road and it's another rise on the ground, weeps water out of it most of the year except real dry periods. We had several springs we get water from just in off the fields in the woods when we used to pick rocks or hay. The water was as cold as ice cubes. In some old forestry camp sites, 2 that I recall off the top of my head, had a couple and they were near good sized brooks. In those areas you had to make sure it was good water because the surface water was as dark as coffee coming out of stagnet bogs. Anyway, again the water always came shooting out of the pipes thay had in the ground. They weren't just pipes run up the brooks because that brook water was not that great looking. I'm sure the water would be ok because trout have always lived in it. We used to call them 'red bellies', they were brook trout but had red bellies compared to brook trout from clearer water with white bellies. An old timer down the road had 2 springs beside his house and 4 fish ponds all spring fed. At the barn we had water piped in from a hand dug well my cousins still use and the water trough for the cattle had a pipe about 4 feet virtical at the trough. That ran all the time non-stop until it froze in winter. We used to go at the pipe and put a hand over the pipe to try to hold back the water, never could and we'de spray water at one another and the cows from the pipe. ;D :D When we was kids there were 3 hand dug spring holes on abandoned homesteads within a couple miles from home, used to go get water at them when biking. On alot of our back country roads, which most people miss by travelling the TransCanada, you could stop at all kinds of springs that locals piped and troughed for the weary traveller. But there is one near Perth (Hillandale) where I've seen bikers stand under in hot weather for a shower. We used to have alot of bikers and hitch hikers back in the 70's and 80's, not too common now. People are getting so lazy, they start the car to go 400 feet, makes me sick.  :

[highpockets]

We use a spring for our water.  As a matter fo fact there is documented evidence of this spring being used during the civil war.  Jacque and I bought this 140 acre place in 1973. the spring had a 3' x 3' wood curb maybe 7' deep.  I dug it out to some 12' and had to get a 3" pump to pull the water down to see the veins.  There were three different veins. I then dropped some 5 yards of washed gravel into it. On top of that I set a 1,000 gallon concrete tank with a hole in the bottom. The I filled with clay on the sides and added a curbing.  We have used this water for many years. It has a slight amount of iron but makes the nicest iced tea and coffee.  It flows out of a 4' pipe into the pond.     

[JJackson]

Swamp Donkey, there's a nice artesian well at Acadia Forest Reserve, folks came from Chipman and Minto to get water when I worked there. Water was always cold, which was nice in the summer heat and it has great flow. Have a few springs on and around my property in Sussex, I dont think there's a shortage of springs  New Brunswick

[Kirk_Allen]

We have an active artisian well on our property south of the house. A pipe was put in during the early 1800s according to my Grandfather.  The pipe was replaced by my great Grandfather and it has been flowing water out of the top of the pipe ever sense.  

Everyone in this community has drank from it at some time in there life.  

Dad says it was a primary watering hole for Abe Lincoln when he went from Springfield to the Courthouse in Paris, Illinois.  The road we live on is called the Lincoln Trail.  

I have been told that Geologist have confirmed a MAJOR aquafur is under that part of our property. I know that the three wells in the area of the artisian well have NEVER gone dry.  

[Kirk_Allen]

In Haines Alaska there is a Pipe coming out of the Rock wall horizontally and PURE CLEAN DRINKING water pours out of it year round. 

It is located right next to the road south of town near the fish cannery.

There is a pull off for vehicles and the several times I have been by it there seems to always be folks there filling bottles and jugs. 

It is the COLDEST water I have ever drank.  GOOD STUFF!

[Coon]

We use spring water from two different springs on our farm.  There is plenty of water coming out of the ground year round.  These srings are not really high flowing except for in the spring.  When we can we haul all of our drinking water from there as well as sell some of it locally to a few friends.  Not many people know that we have these springs as they are in the bush down at the edge of the swamp.  The people that have tried this water love it and claim that it is of the best water in the countryside.  Myself I still feel that the water in BC is far better than this is.  But then again, who's gonna drive all the way to BC for just drinking water. :D :D
Brad.

[Frank_Pender]

I have a 14', hand dug well here on the Tree Farm that had the origianl homestead house planted on the top.  The place was homesteaded in 1851.  The water still flows and the well is full year round.   A hundred feet to  the North of the well is a spring that has flowed for over 100 years.  I hve two well on the place that are capable of producting at least 100 gallons a minute.  I can't afford the pumps to pump that much water.   There are three other well that will  produce at least 50 gallons year round, as well. 8)  There is water here year round when many in the area are low or dried for the later Summer. 8)

[jon12345]

Our well is a spring with a cement box around it, only 4 or 5 ft deep, from there it runs to another tank which is cement and is about 4x8x2, then into the house.  Never had it tested, never got sick from it. 

[Sprucegum]

I'm pretty sure I am tapping into ground water but its deep ground and has to travel at least 1/2 mile horizontally through the sand to get here so I figure it will be clean. The only dense population around here is me and I know enough to pee downhill  ???
The water tries to run year around causeing some neat ice flows. If their not covered in snow again I'll try to get some pics this weekend.

[parrisw]

There must be something like this a few houses up from my house, all year round there is water coming out of the ground from this persons yard and flows down the street, into a sewer drain.  I always wondered what it might be??

[SPIKER]

I'm pretty sure I am tapping into ground water but its deep ground and has to travel at least 1/2 mile horizontally through the sand to get here so I figure it will be clean. The only dense population around here is me and I know enough to pee downhill  ???
The water tries to run year around causeing some neat ice flows. If their not covered in snow again I'll try to get some pics this weekend.

  smart enough to pee down hill thats a good one.

I have several springs that flow on.off year round, one usually always has something comming out but also usually has a small covering of oil slick in spots :(  don't think I want to drink it but ought to tap it for oil at these gas prices ;)

was out there 2 days ago and one is flowing a hole 2+ inch in dia and bubbeling up about 1" high running though the weeds to twards the creek where it stops in the eeds and flows into the ground again and out the bank into the creek bottom.   out of 5 yrs owner ship the creek only was partly dry once. it is 90% spring fed.  very clear water with lots of salimanders & craw fish in the 1~2" lenght but the creek is usually less than 2" deep by 3' wide.   all rocks (90% sandstone)   I use the tractor to remove a lot of the sandstone/wash for the gravel drive & barn base.   I can usually only get in and out 4~5 trips with a full FEL untill the water softens tha bank too much to get back out.   slow process but cost seat time and a few cents in fuel.

the biggest problem the dang springs seem top pop up where I drive the tractor incrossing spots so it makes the ground wet there, as I THINK the weight on those spots collapsed the aquafers enough to force the water UP and on top instead of goig dirrectly TO the creek?   one spot was a heavy flowing spring and I messed it up by attempting to open up a spot in the creek that was always flowing sandy boils up into it to make it deepr pond / hole as it had some small fish in there on occosion from upstream pond that feeds horses so I was gonna open it uip but it is pretty much bedrock at the creek bottom (something I didn't know then)   I think I damaged the aquafer at that point and it now flows out across the path worse. :(

anyhow lots of ways to get it out just look around for some good info.

mark M