So, this new house has a well. Which isn’t containing much water at present. It’s deep – we’re also in a drought. So, could just be that.
I’ve had a bloke around who is adjacent – irrigation systems – and he says that he doesn’t know this well but usually they go to bedrock. Which may well be so. So making it deeper might not make much difference.
It’s also true that there’s a layer of mud at the bottom of it. Which, he says, if we clear that out then we might get more water.
The sides – not that I know about such things but I’ve read it somewhere – look right. Brickwork, but with gaps. The water supposedly seeps through the gaps into the well from the surrounding earth. The thing is the walls of the well continue to look dry. So, I’m assuming that the water table is a long way down. Maybe we do need a deeper well?
So, that’s then the set of questions. If we’ve a well. But not a lot of water. What’s the next step? Get the mud cleaned out then see? Get it dug deeper? What?
Has your place been connected to mains drainage in living memory?
A neighbour from where I grew up found his well dried up because the water wasn’t seeping through from the septic tank. (30 foot of sand will filter the waste enough to be potable.)
Could be that if you’re in a sandstone area.
Sediment builds up in some wells, so getting the mud out sounds like a good idea.
Has anything changed recently in the vicinity? Another well dug and pinching your water?
I have a well here in the US.
The thing to do is find a well-digger company and have them look at it.
You don’t know how deep the original drilling is, they should be able to find out how deep the water level in that area is, and they’ll have the equipment to clear it quickly if that’s the solution or be able to offer alternatives.
The problem could end up being that the water level is just too low – drought, and other wells in the area drawing a lot of water, could draw down the level to below where you’re at.
First thing I’d ask you is do you have an abstraction permit, Tim? Before you start fucking around with a well, find out if they’re available & how much. It’s no different from the UK. The water in the ground doesn’t belong to you.
What’s the local geology like? Can you find out? In the UK if you sink a borehole you have to document the geology all the way down & send the info to the British Geological Survey. I wonder if Portugal has a similar system at national or local level. That would give some clue as to the depth of the aquifer if you can find local borehole records.
What Bis sez, and always, always clean out the junk at the bottom first, and see what happens…
And even if it isn’t potable for some reason… a greywater line is great for everything that doesn’t require drinking water. Which is everything but Coffee and Cooking…
Honestly. There is no substitute for local knowledge. You really need to talk to the farmers.
A well? Like, a 3′-4′ diameter hole that end with a flat muddy bottom? Can’t be very deep if it is. Or is it driven pipes down a ways?
If you’re not actually down to bedrock, have a well-guy drive a sandpointed pipe down a bit deeper and see what he hits, right in the middle of your existing well-hole. If he hits a new water layer, you can hook an electric pump to it, or even a cheap hand pump.
If you’re on bedrock, think in terms of buying a huge plastic tank and getting your water trucked in. Otherwise, you need to drill through the rock. No fun, not cheap.
(P.S. This is a sand point, just in case . . . ):
https://www.amazon.com/1-1-4-Inch-36-Inch-Pipe-Length/dp/B0CNJMZXWX/ref=sr_1_4?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9_do3XKV7ZbPAB_tLuGUewSCASfApkGBjY9yKB-GPOCEpeP8qvqbEhwszXegnljudcN10ASk8DfA3TK5mlwy_NRtjZDqCSKf6u5bcpnRtHGTTZxQ3az90j9K97SF8vbnTBg1OUj252YJHwO1LbakrRx9TSlSXrxjmdQ_1SbY6dttOpktYhPaOHY88m5kXBX9S4S5TQ4yNpytNkoGT83PNe1pbK63Za21IXX_o6ghtxL-kGF7s0_BMwFgtrMQ1w72R94zZ_YsHkIoFyzFajW0g3D6iFu6Mq_bWOpb5sjqHKw.P-yqHwEAi2zyz5wPVNm5UGMBAjaxotbKv-ExFrPL-OU&dib_tag=se&keywords=sand+point+well&qid=1724539369&sr=8-4
We have a well, too. It’s a pipe – perhaps cast iron, perhaps some plastic – in an unlined hole bored by a well-drinking machine. its 700ft or so deep – reaches an ‘underground river’.
I suspect that you have more or less the same options as us when there’s an issue with the well – call a practicing expert and have them advise. It costs money, but oh well. (ha ha)
The brilliance of the internet and where a thought can take you! I’ve just spent 10 minutes idly reading about the 19th C well in the slave courtyard of Seriki Williams Abass, the ‘Brazilian Baraccoon’.
And even if it isn’t potable for some reason… a greywater line is great for everything that doesn’t require drinking water.
There’s a strong likelihood, getting an abstraction permit will require having an analysis done.* I don’t think there is a “greywater” definition for a domestic water supply. The presumption will be it will be used for potable.
With the place up in the mountains we use the asetia for water. The agricultural irrigation supply. That’s not “potable”, despite actually being identical with one of Spain’s high price bottled waters. Just we get ours with ice crystals in. It’s one of the reasons we’ll never do anything with the house. Lack of an authorised supply of drinking water. I don’t think we could sink a well. It’s on a terrace carved out of a 45° slope.
*One of the reasons I suggested Tim starts by inquiring about abstraction permits. Another reason is knowing what’s going on here. We’re on water use restrictions. It’s not really a shortage of water as such. It’s that development has exceeded what can be supplied to consumers. A couple of low rainfall years in a row has depleted the reservoirs so there’s no margin left. The other side of the frontier seems to have similar rainfall to here. One of the results has been the authorities here have got very touchy about people abstracting without permits. The fines can be considerable. Now I don’t know how corrupt Portugal is compared with Spain. But I can imagine there’s a tendency to come down hard on people with a well in their garden produces a few litres to prove “something is being done”. Rather than somebody else down the road illegally abstracting 100,000 litres a day who has good contacts. That’s how this country works. So, like I advised. I’d be very careful about fucking around with wells. Just having one could be a liability.
“ What’s the next step?”
Wait for rain.
I had a property with a well (in the UK) depth about 20 feet. The water level rose and fell dependent on amount of rainfall and season… full in Winter, low level in Summer.
The village is downstream of a large reservoir (albufeira da barragem do roxo) and surrounded by increasing large scale irrigated farming watered via a canal network from that reservoir (perhaps also tapping an aquifer?). It seems likely the local water table would drop over time, even without the droughts that have been occuring since the 2010s.
The river roxo looks pretty choked with vegetation so water flows have been low for some time. Given the villages around there are mostly set back from the natural waterways, that probably hasn’t always been the case.
If extracting water from well with a submersible pump, ensure the pump can never suck mud from the bottom of the well. Horribly expensive things happen to submersible pumps when then suck mud/silt/fine sand. My former neighbour found that out.
I used to run mine with pump strung a metre above the well bottom.
I also rigged mine to display a prominent red light whenever the pump was running. Everyone in the household knew to keep an eye on the light if it came on. Gave early warning of leaks in the system when it failed to turn off.