On this episode of “Know Your Well,” we’re discussing well construction. What all should a homeowner know about the ins and outs of construction, and what should be left to professionals? This episode will help you understand what it takes to get from Day 1 of construction to a running water well.
Today’s guest is Thom Hanna. Thom is the technical director of water well products and hydrogeologist for Johnson Screens. He is also the author of the “Guide for Using the Hydrogeologic Classification System for Water Well Boreholes,” which you can buy in the NGWA online bookstore.
“Know Your Well” is a production of the National Ground Water Association. This podcast was created and edited by NGWA’s Abby Valencic. and hosted by Ben Frech.
WellOwner.org is supported by the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, as part of the USEPA funded program “Improving Water Quality through Training and Technical Assistance to Private Well Owners.” To learn more about the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, go to RCAP.org.
Episode Transcript
Ben Frech:
Welcome to Know Your Well, presented by wellowner.org and the National Ground Water Association. On each episode of Know Your Well, we explore different topics that impact private well owners across the country, from water quality, to everyday water well maintenance. My name is Ben Frech, and I will be your host as we explore the wide world of water wells. On this episode of Know Your Well, we’re discussing well construction. What all should a homeowner know about the ins and outs of construction, and what should be left to professionals?
Ben Frech:
This episode will help you understand what it takes to get from day one of construction to a running water well. Helping us with his expertise is Thom Hannah. Thom is the technical director of water well products and a hydrogeologist for Johnson Screens. He’s also the author of Guide for Using Hydrogeologic Classification Systems For Water Well Boreholes, which you can buy at the NGWA online bookstore. Thom, welcome to the show.
Thom Hanna:
Thank you for having me on. One of my favorite topics. I love talking about water wells, so let’s get going.
Ben Frech:
Yeah, us too. Let’s get into our first question. So how did you enter this industry? It’s not an industry a lot of people think as maybe available to them, and I know a lot of people have interesting stories as to how they got placed into this industry we’re all a part of. What’s yours?
Thom Hanna:
So my story is, I actually started in graduate school. So I thought I was going to be, and I was, an exploration geologist for about six years. And when I was in grad school, things were shifting away from natural resources and mining was up and down. While I was in grad school, I took the hydrogeology classes they offered. It was kind of interesting. When a real slow period hit the mining industry, I was able to get into hydrogeology and then mining came back. And it was interesting, so I knew the mining side and I knew the hydrogeology side, so I got into mine de-watering and mine water issues, and I was off and running, and at one point, partner of a consulting firm that dealt with just mine water issues.
Ben Frech:
Interesting. The backgrounds that I’ve seen when I’ve been talking to people who have gotten into this industry, it’s always very, very diverse, and it’s cool to hear about how we all found our way here. So let’s get to why we’re talking today. Let’s talk about water wells. So, imagine you are a new homeowner who just bought a piece of property, just built a home on it. How would you start figuring out if you need to decide to build a water well or not? What would be your first approach to this?
Thom Hanna:
I would actually back it up a little bit from that. If I was thinking about buying a piece of property, I would look into the water situation before that. Because most of us, we like having water in our homes. So it’s one of those things that if you looked at it ahead of time, it may influence your decision on buying that piece of property. So maybe the place when you start looking at that piece of property is, look at are there wells in the area? Are people on sewer septic? Are they on a pipeline? What is the source of water for that piece of property? And from that, you can search some records, or if you’re curious too, again, rules and regs change by state to state. So I’d do your homework upfront before you even built the house.
Ben Frech:
Right. And so let’s just talk about that. How can I tell? What determines a good site for a well? If I determine that I want to, obviously, have water in my home, what would the landscape look like for a good well to be drilled?
Thom Hanna:
Yeah. So hydrogeology varies significantly and depends on what part of the world you’re in. For example, my house sits on about 3000 feet of shale, and it would be very, very difficult to have a water well at my house. I grew up in Michigan. Michigan is a big sandbox, so it’s very easy to have a well, and there’s many houses on well and septic in Michigan. So again, the first place to start is look at what’s around in that area. And if it’s not readily available, then you can search the state engineer’s office or some of those things.
Ben Frech:
Yeah. And so let’s get into that a little bit. In your experience, what has been, on a local level, as far as who homeowners call to see if their land is tenable to have a well, or if there are wells on their properties? Is it usually the very local level at the county? Health departments, I know in some situations, or I know it’s sometimes the Department of Natural Resources. I know you’ve worked all across the country. What have you seen as a common thread?
Thom Hanna:
Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s very interesting. Water is buried in different places in state and local government. Why is that? So in the West, quite often, it’s under the state engineer. Why? Because water was originally surface water in the building of dams and they took over the water wells. In other places, it’s the DNR, Department of Natural Resources. So again, I think the thing to do is look up in your state. The state’s going to have ultimate authority. Look up in your state and look up water well permitting. And this day and age, everything’s online. You can go and start digging up. You could go into a data search and look at that area around that property and find out about the wells in that area, because that data is probably readily available.
Ben Frech:
So let me ask. Once you’ve figured out… Let’s go through it here. You want a well, you can have a well, what would your next step be as a new homeowner or as a new property owner?
Thom Hanna:
Well, this is kind of interesting too. If you are not finding what you need, or maybe you don’t feel comfortable in that, maybe you need to contact a hydrogeologist in your area. And there are places these days where, for example, where I live right now, the county is now going to be taking over a role in permitting of local wells, and they’re going to require an evaluation of your property.
Thom Hanna:
So those types of things are changing. Another good resource are the local water well contractors themselves, too. They’ve drilled in the area, and it would be a good idea to contact a local water well contractor. He may have drilled a number of wells in that area. He can give you an idea of typically what the aquifer situation is, how deep the wells are, typically how much they produce, and he can probably give you a ballpark cost on what it might cost to complete a well in that area.
Ben Frech:
Yeah, that’s great. The website that we operate, wellowner.org, has a find your contractor tool, which you can find certified as NGWA member contractors in your area. So if you’re listening to this and you want a good stepping stone for finding a contractor, that’s a great place to start. So what should people expect? I know you’re talking about the cost estimates, and that probably has many different factors. But I mean, just for a domestic residential well of a single family home, how much of a scale is that price really going to fluctuate?
Thom Hanna:
Yeah, that’s a great question. And again, it’s going to be hydrogeology dependent. So if you are in Michigan, it could be relatively inexpensive. A 150 foot well, again, don’t hold me to these numbers, might be $3-5,000, something like that. There’s going to be a number of variables. But if you are along the front range of Colorado in the foothills there, you might have to drill over a thousand feet to get a half a gallon per minute for your house, so that well could be quite expensive.
Ben Frech:
If a well driller tells you, “I need to drill down 600 feet to 1,000 feet for your well,” is your well then, off the base, off the start, at more risk of future problems because you have to drill deeper for the water? Or once you’ve reached that point, is it going to operate, besides potential flow issues, like any other well?
Thom Hanna:
Well, again, it depends on what’s around your well. And those are things to be aware of, too, if you’re buying a piece of property. I think from a lot of standpoints, what’s in your neighborhood, and we’ve heard, there’s been many, many stories through the years of contaminants leaking off site of industrial locations and so forth. And again, those are things you’re going to need to look at. Depth may or may not play into that. There could be confining layers between you and sources.
Thom Hanna:
The other thing is, too, when you get into certain environments, it could be a fractured rock environment, you could be connecting into the same fracture your neighbor’s well is in. And this happens quite often, again, in low yield, fractured rock aquifers. If we’re all connected into the same fracture, my well might de-water my neighbor’s. So it gets kind of interesting in those aspects, too.
Ben Frech:
Right. And I mean, let’s go into that. After you’ve drilled the well, what is enough water? I mean, what are your optimum outputs you’re wanting from this thing to provide as much water as you want when you want it? Is there a point where if you’re not getting it, you should start looking into other options?
Thom Hanna:
Right. Yeah. Depends on what you’re doing with it. Most states have a limit, an upper limit on, these wells are called… The permitting requirements are much less stringent. The name escapes me of what they call them in some states, but typically there’s a maximum yield of 15 gallons per minute on those that you’re allowed to use. But I think for a household well, five gallons per minute will service your needs quite nicely. Now, again, some places you don’t get that much. Maybe you get a gallon per minute out of your well, and now you’re looking at putting in some sort of storage tank. So you would pump your well to a storage tank. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge storage tank, but you’ll have some form of storage that then you can use it as needed. Exemplars. That’s what I was thinking of. It’s an exemplar.
Ben Frech:
Right. Right. And so, what’s the timeframe? I mean, obviously the drilling, if it’s deeper, it’s going to take time, there’s going to be some other environmental issues, but what’s the length of time from contacting, the contractor getting out into your backyard, your field, towards when that water is coming through your faucet? I mean, what’s the best case/worst case scenario?
Thom Hanna:
Sure. First, I’d back that up a little bit further too. If it’s my property, I’m going to want to drill my well before I build my house. And there’s a couple of reasons for that. I want to know what my water situation is before I build my house, because that might dictate what kind of facilities and what I need in my house to handle that water, whether it’s water treatment for water quality, taste, odor, that kind of thing, or maybe it’s a low yield well, and I will need a tank, and so forth. So I want to be able to put that into my plans for my house, where the water lines would go, all that. So it’s easier to go that way than build the house and find out later there’s no water there. The next part is-
Ben Frech:
Great point.
Thom Hanna:
Yeah. Unfortunately, I’ve seen that happen.
Ben Frech:
I shouldn’t laugh because that must suck for the homeowners, but yeah.
Thom Hanna:
Well, yeah. You see people hauling… Where I live, I live in Southwestern Colorado, and there’s a lot of people that haul water around here. I mean that’s the alternative. If you end up on a piece of property without water, you’re going to end up hauling water. Not my favorite thing to do. But anyway, if you have a relatively shallow well, if we’re less than 300 feet and on consolidated formation, I would think that contractor could drill that well in a day or two.
Thom Hanna:
So it would be come in, might be able to do it in a day, maybe two days. That’s to drill the well, complete it. But then after you drill the well, what you want to do is do a yield test or pumping test on it, which again, depending on the aquifer, could be as much as an hour, it could be longer than an hour, but you want to know what the yield of that well is. So then, again, that’s part of the determination of what kind of surface facilities I’m going to need to service this home.
Thom Hanna:
At that point, too, you’re probably going to want to collect a water quality sample. And if it’s my well, I’m going to send that off to the lab. Typically, the health department has a one size fits all test, which is called fecal coliform, which just tests there’s a leak at the well site. But I would take my sample to a certified lab and get it tested for primary, secondary, and contaminants if it’s what I’m going to be drinking.
Ben Frech:
Right. And I guess this other question came to mind. Is there a way for people to gauge how much water they need, or how much water they use. If they’re, let’s say, moving from a house in a municipal water system, where they don’t have to worry about necessarily… Just from a supply, not from an environmental standpoint, but just from a supply, they don’t have to worry about running dry. Is there any way that they can really gauge how much water they need this well to produce to not have a change in their lifestyle?
Thom Hanna:
Sure. So there’s a number of resources for that in this day and age online. I know the NGWA also has some of that information online. What’s the typical usage of a household with so many fixtures, lawn irrigation, those types of things? So those numbers are available, and you can look at it based on your home, how much lawn irrigation, or do you have a garden, that sort of thing. So that information is available online.
Ben Frech:
Excellent. And so, getting into this… And we do have another podcast episode about once the well is drilled, just your daily maintenance of it, but I want to keep in this area of construction of the well and getting on a new well. If you are in a rural situation, but you still have neighbors who are close with a well, are there situations where, or potentially, you’re both building houses at the same time, where one well can serve more than one house, more than one residential house? And if so, is that recommended, or are there any benefits to that past sharing the initial construction costs potentially?
Thom Hanna:
Sure. So those are called community well systems and they are quite common in some areas. And again, it’s going to come back to, you’re talking to the hydrogeologist. If the hydrogeology is such that maybe you have a group of homes that sit on bedrock with a little valley below them, that’s alluvium filled, but may have a lot of water, it may be very advantageous to put in a community well that serves a small number of homes. And again, that’s going to be dictated somewhat by the state rules and regs. There could be lot size and other hurdles that might have to be jumped through to permit that well. And the permitting might be a little bit different as well, but yeah, it’s quite common.
Ben Frech:
Yeah. And I guess… So let me ask you as we wrap up here with general knowledge. You have been working in this, and obviously ground water is mainly managed by the states, as well as water well permitting and those types of things. Have you seen any trends in the last, let’s say, 5-10 years in drilling new wells that have kind of surprised you? Or have you seen any big movement towards more permitting for residential wells or less in certain states?
Thom Hanna:
It’s kind of interesting. One thing I have seen, depending on where you’re at, I think water wells have become kind of a political tool in some areas as far as growth. So if your rules and regs state that you need a certain acreage per well, that can really limit growth. And there are some places that have instituted those types of regulations. And so, good, bad, indifferent, it’s been a tool to control growth in some areas.
Ben Frech:
Excellent. And so, I’d like to remind listeners right now, check out our other podcasts about day to day, week to week, well maintenance after you have drilled your well. But Thom, is there anything else that you think new homeowners and people interested in getting their initial well, or first well, or second well drilled should know right now?
Thom Hanna:
Yeah. I guess there’s a lot of good resources out there, and one is the NGWA and the local contractors. Talk to the local contractors. They probably have the most knowledge of what’s happening, hydrogeologically around your area, what typical wells look like. Those guys are trained professionals and they’re a great source of information.
Ben Frech:
Yes. And again, we here at NGWA and wellowner.org can’t emphasize enough how much we encourage you to only use certified water well contractors, many of which you can find at WellOwner.org with our find a contractor tool. Thom, thank you so much for joining us. This has been a great episode, and that is all for this episode of Know Your Well. Know Your Well is a production of the National Ground Water Association.
Ben Frech:
This podcast was created and edited by NGWA’s Abby Valencic. I’m your host, Ben Frech. And to learn more about maintaining your well, go to wellowner.org. WellOwner.org is supported by the Rural Community Assistance Partnership as part of the US EPA funded program, improving water quality through training and technical assistance to private well owners. To learn more about the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, go to RCAP.org. Thank you very much.
