| | Private wells & water systems | | On Black Dike is an old (c.1920) hand-dug water well located next to the dam of a "cattle tank" (think "pond or "dirty pond!"). Saturation from the pond has been adequate to keep us in water, but we had to deal with old fence posts branches, mesquite beans, and even dead critters down in the well. I pumped the well for weeks until the water level dropped almost to the bottom, and cleaned out what I could. No, I didn't waste the water - it was used to settle fill under the house slab! Looking down the well in times past (yuk!). Made the ladder of lightweight steel framing stuff, but it wasn't compatible with super-chlorinating, so I trashed it when it appeared to succumb to rust! | 
| | and YES, the well is covered now! A water test found the water okay except for coliform, and a 50 ppm treatment of bleach took care of that. The water was very murky, and is now filtered with a sediment filter and then with a charcoal taste filter, resulting in good clear water that tastes just fine! | | | 96 watts of Photocom amorphous PV are rack mounted on a 16' x 3" steel pipe, in order to avoid shadows from larger trees near the well. The yellow box is a lineal current booster built by Bobier Electronics. This is the power for a Shurflo 9300 DC submersible pump in the well. It delivers about 1 gpm while lifting about 50' in the well plus another 80' to the storage tank near the homesite 850' distant. The well is about 35' away, in the shade at the lower right. The hill behind the well is the dam containing the cattle tank. So the cows doo-doo is just that close - we'll continue chlorinating every month until sometime after we get those doggone cows fenced out! | 
| | The water is pumped from the well to our hilltop homesite, where there's an 1,100 gallon polypropylene storage tank. Water gravity-flows into the pumphouse and thru a charcoal filter (for taste), to a Shurflo "TurboBooster" pump, basically a DC pump as used in RV's but with a bit more capacity. I used a salvaged water heater tank as/for a pressure tank, adding a pressure gauge, a tire valve for adding air, and a top faucet to relieve pressure. It all works great! The booster pump is now powered by just one 40-watt PV on the pumphouse roof, feeding a very old 12-volt marine-type battery, no controller at all. I don't understand why the battery still lives! |  | | And, although I'm fairly convinced that Shurflo is building the best available pump of this type (diaphragm type, which is the most efficient known), they need to be better than they are! If/when the diaphragm fails, it will almost certainly destroy the pump (cost about $800). Replace the diaphragm every couple of years, and hope for luck! I also find it irritating that we can't buy just the diaphragm from Shurflo - rather one must buy the head kit, and pay too much for what it is! | 
Shurflo 9300-series | | A word about wells in general: There are more variables regarding wells and pumps and pumping systems than can be detailed here. Generally but absolutely not always, in the mountain areas of Arizona, "surface water" can be reached without drilling excessively deep. The type of solar equipment used here will lift a maximum of 230 feet at a reasonable cost (under $2,000 for pump, wire, and solar equipment). The equipment is easy to install by hand - neither special skills nor setting rigs are required. You're not likely to be so fortunate in getting a well on your property. Most likely you'll hire a professional well driller and pay the price. A 4" well is all that's needed, which will cost around $20 per foot - something more if casing is needed. If the static water level is below that magic 230 feet, the cost of solar pumping equipment will immediately double or triple or more, so take whatever steps you can to avoid that if possible. I'm not convinced about water witching; nor do I understand how an hydrologist might know more. Drill near (not in!) an arroyo or other feeder source, and save drilling footage by staying off the hilltop. It's not hard to pump the water up the hill, and your odds are better drilling in the valley. |
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