Well, Well, Well

We had exciting work going on at the farm this past Monday. A little before noon, several big trucks came up the drive. The well drillers had arrived! 

We didn't expect this project to be started for another month but there was evidently an issue with another job. The crew asked if we were ready now - you bet! We've been planning the irrigation well since Summer, doing field layouts and system design with an irrigation company, and searching for someone who would actually take the drill job. We needed 75 gallons per minute flow, which caused two local companies to decline attempting it. 

Reaching out a little farther, we used Gingrich from Kalona. These guys were great in every way. 

We were still a little concerned in the beginning, after a site survey. The result was: "If you were one mile North I'd no-quote it, but down here in the bottom, we've got some possibilities." Evidently there's a stone shelf coming out of the bluffs to the North of us and the ideal water location is under there. There would be no way to know if we'd get the water we need until the drill is in the ground. We were hoping for maybe 50% of our requested flow and plan-B was to adjust the irrigation layout accordingly.

I pulled in the driveway for lunch and found this welcome sight. The truck on the right is carrying the drill rig and the truck on the left is a dedicated tanker which carries all the water needed for boring lubricant and final flushing. I'd say the water truck was 1,500-2,000 gallons capacity or so.

The drill rig was pretty big. The building to the left is over 20' tall for reference. There is a trailer to the right in the picture which was carrying the casing tubing, grouting sand, and drill fluid mix. The first job is to drill a 3" pilot hole to find out if the water is at the expected location. If not, the well has to be abandoned and plugged.

Huge relief, the water was there! We were thrilled after expecting to see 50 gallons per minute output, the well actually test pumped at 90 gallons per minute!

Here's a shot of the primary casing drill bit. It makes a hole roughly 12" diameter. The spiked wheels on the end rotate and the truck's pumps force water down the center of the bit while drilling.

This is the suction screen which goes in the bottom of the hole. It is slotted stainless steel and keeps the larger sand particles from getting to the pump. The pump will go down inside this tube, which is about 8' long and it's 8" diameter. This well is cased at 8" and will use a 4" pump. I'm quite intrigued by the design of submersible well pumps. Due to limitations on the diameter of the casing, pump companies have to design quite large pumps which fit in a relatively narrow cylinder. Our pump and motor assembly will be almost 72" long but only 4" diameter!

Here's a short video of some flushing done to clear any debris from inside the well casing. The whole system will be sanitized when the pump is installed and eventually tested by a sanitarian who is certified to test for the USDA, as required for organic certification. Marion county can't test for the USDA requirement but Mahaska county has someone who can, so that shouldn't be an issue down the road.