any body worried about their well this year?

navycpo7 wrote: Well here is some info,(yep I do work for a well pump company), up here we do not have aquafers. Amazing how many people think we do. There are watersheds but they do not have a big impact on your wells. Most wells are nothing but cracks and in the ground. Most of our water comes from the high country snowfall. The local snowfall does not do much. Those that normally get somewhat brown water during spring runoff may see that when this all melts. It is all about paying attention to somethings. Especially your toilets. If you have normal ones, then look into the tank, see if water is all the way up to the top of the center tube. If so adjust it down about a 1/4 inch. Water should not be flowing over the top. Also put some food coloring in the tank, let it sit for a few minutes then check the bowl. If it is in the bowl, fix your flapper also. This can help a couple of things. (we have proven this over and over). Running toilets can ruin your well and your septic. So check them out. Running toilets use alot of water in a 24 hr period.

Not in the traditional sense since an aquifer implies sedimentary layers. While fractures are the main pathway for moving rock, the storage capacity of the water is in the igneous and metamorphic granite and gneiss up here. These have a few percent porosity and very low permeability (ability to transmit fluid through them). This is what makes up the natural storage tank whereas the fractures make up the pipeline for water in the mountains. If storage were only fractures, your well would dry up very quickly, kind of like draining the water in your pipe in the house. There is not a lot of storage capacity in those.

Instead of aquifers, the water-saturated part of the mountains is referred to as the phreatic zone. Because of low permeability, it is not easy to charge this phreatic zone. It takes much time. Most well recharge is through the fracture system and your fluctuations in wells may be dramatic if the phreatic zone is deep. At that point the water pumped or flowing into the well comes mainly out of the fracture system and that means your well may dry up. If the phreatic zone is high, the fractures will be slowly filled by trickle flow from the surrounding rock mass (storage tank). Though you may draw down the well with high water use, it will come back over time as long as the well bore remains in the phreatic zone.

So what is critical to understand is that fractures hold only low volumes of rock but deliver it fast. The granite and gneiss phreatic zone has a larger volume of water, but very slow delivery. This is what makes water use up here so demanding in the sense you need to conserve and be conscientious about use in general.

And one more thing. If you live in a valley between mountains or hills, chances are there is a thick layer of dirt (sediment) accumulated above the bedrock. This is good since that will capture a lot of runoff that can then make it back into the rock that makes up your reservoir. Those who live on top of rock outcroppings likely have either deep wells or wells that will brown (disoved tannins) up rapidly with the spring runoff of snow melt. Both well types are not great with a few exceptions. Wells that brown up rapidly imply fracture systems linked directly to the surface. Your well levels are especially susceptible to the amount of runoff. Large amounts of snow or rain will quickly recharge your wells and a thick, slowly melting snow cover will charge your wells long into the summer. Deep wells may have fantastic flow if they intersect a large fracture system. Conversely, you may have a deep well because few fractures are present and you need the well bore volume to act as a cistern for flow from a low-producing well (the kind that depends on water seeping in from the 1 percent pore space in the rock). This means you are already deep into the phreatic zone and thus ought to be less susceptible to the up and down migration of the phreatic zone.

Hopefully this will give you better insight into your well water.

may all your phreatic zones be plentiful! no change in pond (ground water) level during this runoff. this well has always been plentiful, so hopefully it will continue to be so.

Franz, we are finally filling our new spa today (something that I highly recommend for you and your sunshine, btw) and the ground water is 45 degrees. That is the usual temperature (the lowest) for winter. In summer, we see it at 55 degrees. Even with all the warmer weather (hit and miss), the ground does not appear to have warmed much (yet). Could colder ground temperatures delay the spring "recharge" ?

Wily Fox aka Angela wrote: Franz, we are finally filling our new spa today (something that I highly recommend for you and your sunshine, btw) and the ground water is 45 degrees. That is the usual temperature (the lowest) for winter. In summer, we see it at 55 degrees. Even with all the warmer weather (hit and miss), the ground does not appear to have warmed much (yet). Could colder ground temperatures delay the spring "recharge" ?

Not at all. As you know, it takes a lot of heat flow to warm up water, much more than it takes to warm up rock. So even when the ground begins to feel warm, the water temperature will lag behind.

You and Holly have been talking haven't you? lol Troublemaker. lol

Wer, ich? :file: and how'd you know my middle name? you should listen to her, she knows of what she speaks

Wily Fox aka Angela wrote: Wer, ich? :file: and how'd you know my middle name? you should listen to her, she knows of what she speaks

Ya, Sie. lol

Thanx for the info, Rocdoc. Makes me feel better about my slow well. Even at the height of the last drought, my well was fine--but it's always had a very slow recovery rate. I'm not worried this year at all. The tyrants (IREA) turned off the power and my water comes from King Sooper until I can find an alternate power source for the well pump... :Whistle

Have you considered having a hand pump installed?

Rockdoc Franz wrote:

Wily Fox aka Angela wrote: Wer, ich? :file: and how'd you know my middle name? you should listen to her, she knows of what she speaks

Ya, Sie. lol

you should just give in now and save yourself the time and trouble... you can thank me later

Wily Fox aka Angela wrote:

Rockdoc Franz wrote:

Wily Fox aka Angela wrote: Wer, ich? :file: and how'd you know my middle name? you should listen to her, she knows of what she speaks

Ya, Sie. lol

you should just give in now and save yourself the time and trouble... you can thank me later