OTwell

I had a well drilled this morning. there are no other wells in my area but I thought I would gamble. Water rates prohibit even watering my trees. Drilling rig used airpressure to remove the material and sombody called the fire dept because of the dust blowing off the dry shale. I was looking for shallow water because I know there is no deep water so I stopped him at 100 foot, no moisture at all just dry shale at 100 ft. Driller pulled out, I told him I would fill the hole. I went to the house and ate lunch. Went back to fill it after lunch and I heard water splash, waited awhile and I heard something else fall into water. I got a 100 ft cord and tied a plastic bottle on it, dropped it in the well and pulled up a cup full of gray water. I then got an 8ft 2x2 board, tied it on the cord and let it down. I thought I could see how far the water came up on the stick. I tied a knot in the cord a 100 ft. When I pulled the stick up the whole board was wet plus 50ft of the cord. I ordered a $100 dolar submergable pump and thought I would see how much water I could pump. Any advise. I am hoping the well don't cave in before I can determine if it is worth fooling with. Any Advise?

Your well driller probably knows the ground water in your area as much as anyone. I would give him a call in the morning and describe what you found.

You didn't mention if he cased it. It won't last long in shale.

Sounds like you need to start over and call the well you have an expensive exploratory hole and lesson. Apparently what Mike said is true, you were listening to it caving in, and that is only what is above the water. If you try to pump any water the movement will just accelerate the filling in below water level. I have never heard of drillers not putting casing in unless they are in sound bedrock. Water wells can be a tough proposition. We are fortunate here in NH that there is a drilling company that is completely trustworthy. I have never heard of them advertising like all the other drillers do. They don't need to.

I would hurry up and get a casing in it, some water is better than no water!

Now that you have water, get that driller back and case it. you will need to determine what depth the water is entering the hole so you can put permiable casing at that depth. Jim