# Good Sign For Water?



## BillT (Oct 31, 2011)

I have a spring that runs year round at the bottom of a hollow. I would like to drive a Well Point right at where the spring begins. I'm hoping for a good source of water there at 25 Ft or less. Then I would like to install a traditional hand pump on it. 

I have very little experience with this and am wondering if a spring like mine as described, a good sign for water below? or is that not necessarily true?

Thanks

Bill


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Just because the spring is coming out at that point doesn't mean that you are going down to the source, it could be coming from above and following the hollow with the underground source being higher. A lot depends on what composes the hollow, what's below the surface? Is it clay, gravel, bedrock or whatever? Sometimes, like where my spring source is there is a seasonal stream about 15 feet away and it takes a lot of rain and snow melt to come down the stream bed to where it goes through our road culvert and that's because there are probably large cracks in the bedrock where the stream runs. There are times I can hear the stream running up in the woods but it never reaches the road ditch. I suspect that my spring doesn't even come from the stream bed area but through cracks in the bedrock.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

not necessarily true.
A well point and a little pipe is not all that expensive. So you can try it. You can always pull it back up and pound it down somewhere else. One of the best ways is to ask a couple neighbors to see if they have swallow wells.


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

I have a spring that runs year around also. If it's in a hollow, it's probably been there longer then people have lived around there. I have two wells on my place about 400 ft. apart. The water table is at about 30 to 35'. If your ground is like mine or worse you will end up running into rock before you reach 25'. Around here they used to, and still do in some places, use a piece of clay tile about 18" in diameter and place it where the water is coming out of the ground.


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## HomegrownGal (Feb 11, 2013)

There's a soil scientist refered by one of my county offices who conducts soil maps of your property! It's basically to show how water flows and where drain fields should go. He also includes a topography map. The report tells what kind of bedrock, and other useful information when planning your homestead. Instead of spending years of trial and error, get this done so you will know what kind of crops or trees will/won't grow well no matter what you do. I'd like another well down in the field a few hundred feet lower in elevation than my house well. I plan to as soon as I can afford it. It will cost me $300 for a report on 18.5 acres.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Without knowing about the geology of your area it is hard to say but a spring should be considered "a good sign", it definitely isn't a bad one. Of course like other have mentioned there is no guarantee depending on where that water is coming from, also no guarantee that you will be able to get to the water with a point if you are dealing with rock.

It is possible to "develop" a spring though, without necessarily drilling a well. A person must be cautious of the regs where they live but there are many ways of doing this. A simple way is to make a "dry well" in the drainfield of the spring and fill with appropriate material (rock/gravel/sand). Then you can pump from there or use gravity if practical (usually difficult)


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## BillT (Oct 31, 2011)

Appreciate the replies.

I considered the "dry well" idea but feel the water would be cleaner if I get it from below. I actually started to build a dam, but a heavy rain washed it out. 

I pretty much like hiwall's outlook. I can just try it and if it doesn't work, I can just pull it back out. None of my neighbors have shallow wells. I'm actually the only one, that I know of anyway, that has a spring at the bottom of the hollow.

Another possible good sign is not only does this spring run year round but, to my surprise, it ran during a widespread drought we had about 8 years ago. The drought was so bad, that a lot of people were running out of water and many were digging their wells deeper to get to more water. The spring wasn't running as strong, but it sure still ran. 

Bill


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

While I have pulled many shallow wells, I have run into a couple that resisted every effort to pull them out(just a friendly warning).


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Yeah it can't hurt to try to find it with a point, going deeper there will be more filtering so yeah, a bit less chance for contamination. But if going the shallow well route there are ways to make it pretty darn safe, even just filtering through several feet of biologically active sand can do a lot. You might want to do a water test at some point though, just for the info, in an emergency it's probably not going to be an issue but sometimes springs can have extremely high mineral content so it would be good to know for the long term.


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## BillT (Oct 31, 2011)

I agree on the water test, if we want to use it for drinking and cooking. Right now that well would more or less be a back up if we ran out of Rain Barrel Water in a dry spell or a drought. It would be an extra bonus to have it be good enough for drinking. I'll see how it looks. If it were impressive enough, testing it would be the next step. This is all if I have enough luck to find some. 

At the same time, I am also enjoying the adventure of it. It is also nice to be able to give it a try at minimal costs.

Bill


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

A caution- if unused a driven sand point often plug up and must be pulled and cleaned.


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## BillT (Oct 31, 2011)

OK, thanks.

Bill


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