We purchased this house over 1 year ago and then our well dried up 3 1/2 months ago (never had one problem for the 8 1/2 months before that). For 3 weeks we hauled water in from a company that fills swimming pools based on neighbors suggestions. Apparently running out of water was common in the neighborhood towards the end of summer. After 3 weeks of doing so, we determined our well simply was not making any water. One well driller gave us an estimate of $5000 to drill our existing well 150 feet deeper (original depth was 360 feet). He also gave us an estimate of $6000 to do a brand new well. Of course we shopped around and had another well drilling company look at it. They gave us an estimate of $2500 to drill our existing well 150 feet deeper. That's 1/2 the price. We checked with the better business bureau to make sure they weren't crooked and went ahead and hired them. That's where it all went bad.
The first thing that happened is they hit an old pump that someone had left in the well years ago below our pump. They claimed they didn't have a drill bit that would go through it so they said they needed to pick a new spot for a new well. They "dowsed" around and determined a new spot (about 10 yards from the original well). They started drilling and after 2 days were already down to 500 feet, 140 feet deeper than our original well. They came back on the third day to check the water level and determined that the well wasn't making any water. So, they advised us it was best to keep going instead of picking a new spot somewhere else in the yard. After the third day they were down to 840 feet, and still no water. They kept going. They finally quit when they ran out of 20 foot extensions which was 1140 feet.
The well is still not making water. They try to hydrofracture it and in the process they blew a hole in the ground over to the old well and couldn't build any pressure. So, they call in a special hydrofracturing company from out near Boston (I live in upstate New York)that can hydrofracture really deep in isolated zones. They performed 10 different fractures from the bottom up in 60 foot zones. They then let the well sit for about 36 hours before putting the pump back in (new pump, new pipe, new cable, etc). Without doing any kind of flow test, recovery rate test, or water quality test, they put the pump in and plumbed everything into the house while my wife and I were both at work and left a bill with us for a total of $27,000.
Now we have plenty of water. However, it is full of salt. It's terrible. You can't even drink it. A water quality company came out to the house and tested it with a PPM meter that goes up to 8000 PPM and our water pegged their meter. They said even a reverse osmosis system can't clean up water with more than 3500 PPM.
So here we are now looking at drilling another new well after paying $27,000 for a useless one. Oh, my wife is pregnant and expecting in 3 weeks.
The first thing that happened is they hit an old pump that someone had left in the well years ago below our pump. They claimed they didn't have a drill bit that would go through it so they said they needed to pick a new spot for a new well. They "dowsed" around and determined a new spot (about 10 yards from the original well). They started drilling and after 2 days were already down to 500 feet, 140 feet deeper than our original well. They came back on the third day to check the water level and determined that the well wasn't making any water. So, they advised us it was best to keep going instead of picking a new spot somewhere else in the yard. After the third day they were down to 840 feet, and still no water. They kept going. They finally quit when they ran out of 20 foot extensions which was 1140 feet.
The well is still not making water. They try to hydrofracture it and in the process they blew a hole in the ground over to the old well and couldn't build any pressure. So, they call in a special hydrofracturing company from out near Boston (I live in upstate New York)that can hydrofracture really deep in isolated zones. They performed 10 different fractures from the bottom up in 60 foot zones. They then let the well sit for about 36 hours before putting the pump back in (new pump, new pipe, new cable, etc). Without doing any kind of flow test, recovery rate test, or water quality test, they put the pump in and plumbed everything into the house while my wife and I were both at work and left a bill with us for a total of $27,000.
Now we have plenty of water. However, it is full of salt. It's terrible. You can't even drink it. A water quality company came out to the house and tested it with a PPM meter that goes up to 8000 PPM and our water pegged their meter. They said even a reverse osmosis system can't clean up water with more than 3500 PPM.
So here we are now looking at drilling another new well after paying $27,000 for a useless one. Oh, my wife is pregnant and expecting in 3 weeks.
