Water is critical for survival. Life cannot be sustained without it. For those of you who live in the city, you simply turn on your tap and water flows freely; and if it doesn't, you have a utility company to call for service and fix your water problem.
What do you do if you're in the country with your own well, and you turn on the faucet one afternoon - only to have brown water trickle out and then stop flowing altogether? This happened to us just yesterday! We are normally conservative with our water usage and we've also had quite a bit of rain this season, so running our well dry was not an immediate concern... until it actually happened.
Image Credit
How can a well go dry?
There are several reasons a well can go dry.
DROUGHT. We have a shallow well that's about 175 feet deep and taps into a unconfined aquifer. If not enough rain falls to replenish the groundwater, then there isn't enough water available in the ground to pump out.
NEW WELLS DRILLED IN THE AREA. There were two new homes built up the road from us, which means additional wells drilled into the aquifer. More straws in the bucket means that the bucket gets drained faster, and your straw might now be too short to reach the water level.
USAGE. If water is being removed from the well faster than it can recharge (seep) back in, then the well can go dry. In our well, the 175 foot depth provides us with a column of water that acts as a storage tank. We draw from this column of water, and fresh water seeps back in at a rate determined by the permeability of the rock around it. If we suck out all the water too fast, we end up with no water at all.
So what to do now?
First, check your pump & lines. Sudden water stoppage could be due to equipment malfunction: a dirty filter, a tripped breaker, a well pump giving up the good fight, a leaky water line, and so on. Our pump was still in good working order and we could find no evidence of a broken or cracked water line anywhere.
Next, wait. Maybe have a beer, you know, cause you're out of water. It's possible that the well ran dry simply due to usage. By next morning, our water was back, though it was murky at first due to stirred up sediment.
If your water does not return in a day or so, time to call a well service. There are options for improving an existing well such as drilling deeper or hydrofracturing to open up underground pockets to increase your well's performance. The well service will be able to tell you what steps are recommended.
Prevention
So what can you do to prevent this issue?
Have your well professionally inspected. Seriously. Do not skimp on this. A well service will be able to give you the heads up if there are any concerns that you should be aware of. We were warned when we bought our place that our shallow well might have groundwater issues down the road and that drilling a deeper well might be in our future. So, it's something we have to keep in mind, and save up for.
Just because you have a well, that doesn't mean you shouldn't store water!
One of the great things about living out in the country and having a well is being a little bit safer with your water supply. But don't let yourself get lulled into complacency simply because you have a well. You may have more power over your water, but with greater power comes greater responsibility. Make sure you've got enough potable water set aside to tide you over if your water dries up suddenly.Watch your usage.
Pamper your well, because drilling a new well can be prohibitively expensive. This means low-flow shower heads, staggering baths and showers, limiting or hand-washing laundry.
The Final Word On Our Well
So what about our personal situation? Our well seems to be functioning now, after a day of very limited water use. This leads us to believe that we probably just used too much water too fast. Now, we've got water back, it's running clear, and with good water pressure. We'll continue to be extremely careful with our water usage, as well as increase our water storage. A well service will be here next week to check things out for us & give us the final word!
This little experience was an excellent reminder (and kick in the rear) that we cannot get complacent with our water supply and have to remain good stewards of it.
Thanks for reading! Want to see more?
Check out our main Fluster Farm site!
Fluster Farm on Twitter
Fluster Farm on IG
Very good article explaining the details of how wells actually work. It is good to see it in a picture.
Something similar happened to us last year, during a drought situation. The water simply stopped flowing. We knew nothing about the setting here so we called a professional.
It took us a while to even find the well, which was embarrassing, but it turned out to be under the house. The expert had never seen such a setting.
In the end it was a broken pump so he had a bunch of people involved in hauling out the old pump, 250 ft deep, through the house, and replacing it with a new pump.
Four days without running water.
Yes, we now keep a lot of drinking water saved and have 3 rain barrels supplemented with 5 gal buckets for outside water usage.
We are very careful about our water usage now.
Wow, that sucks! That is weird that it's under the house. If you have to service the well itself, drill deeper, etc, that would make it incredibly hard.
Indeed very odd. and what a mess to haul it up and through the house.
I hope it was well done!
This is a great reminder on what to look for and do! I am on a well, in a very dry area. We don't use too much water, but in the summer we use more because the animals need sprinklers to help keep cool in the hottest part of the day. I am sure I could do something else for them, but I also need to water the area around them (to water the grasses and to keep it generally cool). So at least me using a sprinkler serves a dual purpose! Haha. Keeping the area greener helps keep the area cooler. I guess we will find out one day if this method is no good. It's so warm here!
I definitely would have been pretty freaked out when the water just stopped. Can't just call the landlord when you own the property!
Greenery definitely helps. Our property is maybe 80% wooded and it makes a big difference heat-wise. The shade seems to help keep the air near the ground cooler!
So rare to find an article with perfect grammar on steemit, and good content too! Reads like a regular magazine article!
Thanks :)
Oh wow! Water is so normally so accessible we tend to forget how important it is... until the well runs dry. Thanks for the reminder, and hope you'll have it fixed soon.
Reading your article I was kinda hoping you'd mention swales in prevention. I don't know, is your property suitable for them? Do you have much elevation change? They are great for preventing wells from drying out, but can also be used to bring water back to completely dry wells.
I've had a well go dry when the casing cracked and it filled with sand. It's not that the groundwater was sucked dry, but all that sand in the casing kept the pump from pulling up the water fast enough. I ended up putting in a new well, after many 'good old boy' antics, like shooting down the casing with a .30-06! You can guess how that turned out, lol. Hope you have plenty of good water for a long time to come!
Hey @flusterfarm! I want to invite you to the SteemitHomesteaders slack community. We're new, with about 50 members, but are growing every day. A good bit of your commentators are already there. We aim to be a community of homesteaders, gardeners, preppers, farmers, DIYers, and other like-minded Steemit users that help each other learn and grow on Steemit. If you're interested, you can read more about it and join from the link below.
https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
Congratulations @flusterfarm! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard!
Participate in the SteemitBoard World Cup Contest!
Collect World Cup badges and win free SBD
Support the Gold Sponsors of the contest: @good-karma and @lukestokes
Congratulations @flusterfarm! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!