Manderson Well Drilling

These facts and figures were put together to help the general public better understand how much ground water can be taken from wells on PEI, without causing any big problems; and also to point out what can and has happened in places that have ignored the basic rules of thumb for ground water.

The most important factor in the extraction of ground water is to make sure there is at least as much water entering the aquifer annually as is being taken out. 

The PEI Government uses a rule of thumb that no more than 50% of our annual recharge can be taken back out. The 50% rule is so that we will still have lots of ground water left to feed our brooks and streams. This is a luxury that few places in the world can afford.

The bad

In Long Island, New York in the 1930’s the water table was lowered to 30 feet below sea level. The natural path for water to travel is down hill, from the land to the ocean; But when the inland water levels are pulled down below sea level, the natural direction is reversed and sea water will enter the inland aquifers. Miami and Los Angeles ran into similar problems, with salt water pulled inland for up to 13 km.

These cities not only pumped more water than was being replaced by rainfall.  But to make matters worse they built storm sewers, and canals to divert most of the rain water directly back to the ocean. Under natural conditions 30% to 50% of this rainfall would have entered the ground & recharged the aquifers.

Land Subsidence

The over pumping of ground water was so severe in Los Angeles that the land level fell by 3 feet, and in Mexico city by 27 feet. This happens when thick claystone becomes dehydrated and shrinks, do to the over extraction of water from aquifers that lie beneath these claystone layers..

Land uplift

 In many areas, Lakes are used for irrigation and Municipal water supply.  When large bodies of surface water such as a lake are emptied the land can rise.  Similar to the way PEI rose up after the Glaciers melted following the last ice age.

Here’s how it works.

The natural way. - Soft water falls as rain, filters down thru the ground and eventually ends up back in the ocean. On its journey the water picks up minerals from the bedrock, dissolves them and carries the minerals to the ocean. The cycle continues, water vaporizes off the ocean surface, leaving the minerals behind and the ocean eventually turns salty.

What happens when we irrigate?

The well water put on the crops contains minerals.  Rain has no minerals) Approximately 80 % or more of this water will evaporate, either directly or thru the transpiring of the plants. As the water evaporates, the minerals (salts) are left behind.

This problem exists in parts of California and Arizona but has not been a problem in places with similar climates to PEI, for 2 reasons.

# 1, we irrigate for 3 months instead of 12.

# 2, We have a big recharge in the spring and fall that flushes the salts & minerals down from the surface.

 

How are we different?

On PEI we do not have a climate that allows for more than one annual crop. Our average annual precipitation is 39 inches. ( 31inches in 2001)

Many of the sedimentary rock types that lies beneath us can hold and transmit huge volumes of ground water, unlike the granites and metamorphic rocks in parts of NS and NB.

We have a blanket of Clay (glacial till) that lies over our bedrock. This holds water long enough so that it can seep down into the bedrock and keep the aquifers below filled up.

The big water users - 2003

The following is a list of some of the bigger water users on PEI at present. The numbers represent U.S. gallons (from wells only). The term return flow is the name given to water that is returned directly to the ground thru septic tanks, or irrigation water that seeps back down in the ground.

City of Charlottetown: 5.1 Million Gallons Per day (3,500 per Minute)

City of Summerside: 1.6 Million Gallons per day (1,100 Per Minute)

Cavendish farms: 2 Million Gallons per day ? (Assumed use)

McCain food plant: 1 Million Gallons Per day ? (Assumed use)

All fish plants: Unknown

Food Plants like Humpty Dumpty: Unknown

Potato wash plants, Shellfish cleaners: Unknown

Blueberry & Cranberry operations: Unknown

Irrigation: Unknown

Return flow from irrigation = approx. 20% ( varies from 10 - 30 %)

Rural houses use approximately 200 gallons per day each (73,000 gallons annually).  Most water used in rural houses is returned to the ground through septic tanks.

 

If one inch of rain falls over one square mile, the total would be 145,000,000 pounds of water, or 17. 3 million Gallons U.S. That square mile would be equal to 640 acres of land. If one third of this water seeps down to become ground water, then 5.7 million gallons per square mile is available for every inch of rain.

Annual rain fall necessary for irrigation

Although PEI has averaged 39’’ of precipitation annually for many years, I will use the figures from 2001 because it was the driest year we had for some time. The precipitation for 2001 in Charlottetown was 31 inches.

The next step is to figure out whether or not there is enough ground water to irrigate a crop without pumping more water than is being recharged annually. For easy figuring I will use 640 acres (1 Square mile).

Each time the farmer irrigates, he would aim to put on half an inch of water. It would be unusual to have to irrigate more than 12 times in one season (using a total of 6 inches of water.) Therefore the total water used to irrigate 640 acres would be 17.3 million Gallons x 6" = 104 Million Gallons: Less 20% return flow - 21 Million Gallons Total water used to irrigate 640 acres of land would be 83 Million Gallons.

If the same square mile (640 acres) received 31 inches of precipitation and if only one third ended up as ground water. then the total recharge for that square mile would be:

17.3 X 31’’ = 536.3 million gallons

1/3 of 536.3 = 179 Million gallons that ends up as Ground Water. Subtract the 83 Million Gallons we used to irrigate, and you have 96 Million gallons of ground water left over .

In this worst case example we used 46 % of the recharge to irrigate . 54 % would be left to keep the rivers and brooks going. In reality, only one third of the land on that square mile can grow potatoes each year because of crop rotation.

Now the 46 % is 15.3 %. Any farm has a percentage of woods and swamp land. lets say that 15 % of the land with in the Square mile is not farmed. The 640 acres becomes 544. Now the 15.3 % becomes 13.3 %.

Factors that still have some grey area

Snow drifting off the open fields robs the area of some precipitation. On the other hand the snow stops when it hits the nearest woods, giving the wooded area a higher recharge than normal. The wells are often drilled at the edge of a woods.

All vegetation on potato fields is killed in early to mid September. With no plants to use up the water, a higher than normal percentage of the fall rains on these fields will become ground water. The down side of this is the over saturation of loose soils and we have all seen the impact this can have on our brooks and rivers.

One of Canada’s most respected Geologists, Clinton George Milligan wrote these words following a geological survey of PEI back in 1949. " When one considers that certain rivers which carried fishing boats 20 years ago are now scarcely able to float a canoe, the amount of material being carried to the sea becomes apparent’’.

The bottom line is that high capacity wells have been supplying water to Charlottetown and Summerside and many other industries on PEI for a long time with few problems. The water levels have been monitored in these well fields for many years and the past records of places like the Winter River basin, Brackley and the Travelers Rest watersheds can give us a good idea of how more high capacity wells will affect us in the future.

Pressure Testing Of Well Seals

We invented a well test in which we can remove the water from the well bore with air pressure and watch  with a camera as the column of water is removed. If there are any leaks in the casing or if the seal at the bottom of the casing is leaking, it can easily be seen with the camera when the well is under pressure.

Down The Hole Cameras

 We have 3 borehole cameras.  One is for both field use and is with the rig for on site troubleshooting while drilling.

One camera is designated for use with our air/camera pressure testing of wells.  Another camera is available for troubleshooting in general.

     Breaking in your new well

The biggest problem with a new well is sediment in the water. To get the sediment out of a new well it should be pumped for at least 48 hours straight, at a rate greater than the maximum pumping rate expected when the system is operating normally. Throughout the heavy pumping, the pressure gauge on your cold water tank should read less than 20 psi. When a new well is being pushed this hard, the water level should be monitored and the pumping rate reduced if necessary, but only if the pump is in real danger of overcoming the capacity of the well (sucking air).

The faster water moves up the bore hole, the more sediment it will remove from the well. For example in a stream or a brook , if the speed of the water is doubled, the streams ability to move sediment varies with the sixth power of the moving water. A stream just capable of moving a piece of gravel weighing 25 grams would be able to move a stone weighing 1600 grams, if the speed of the water were merely doubled.

Rusty Casing

Rust (iron oxide) forming on the well casing can cause the water to be discoloured if  the water has been adjacent to the casing for an hour or more. This problem is usually worse in the morning because the well has been idle all night. Most wells only have 10 to 20 feet of casing that is exposed directly to the water. It is the wells that have more than normal amounts of casing that have the real trouble with rust. Eventually the rust will become hard and established and will no longer cause a problem. In the meantime, the more water you pump from these wells the better they will work.  If the pump comes on every hour or so the water will stay clear.

    Cascading Streams

If you can hear water running into your well you have a cascading stream. This can only happen if there is a space between the bottom of the casing and the water level. This will generally bring sediment into the well for awhile, but will stop once the fine sediments have been washed out. If the well does not clear up within a month or two then it should have casing installed to the water level, or a galvanized tank should be installed to catch the sediment.

When a stream is cascading, the water from it is pushing back the water in the larger aquifer below and the lower aquifer becomes a storage space for the cascading water. Even if the cascade is only producing one gpm, this means that each day there is 1,440 gallons of water dumped into the larger aquifer.

As this is much more water than a household will use in a day, it is fairly safe to say that all of your water supply is in turn coming from the cascade. Even if your well is 200 feet deep, you are still drinking water from the uppermost stream in the well.

     PEI Bedrock

The bedrock on PEI began to form roughly 300 million years ago and was pretty much completed about 250 million years ago. Throughout  this time the Maritimes were not a coastal region, but were far inland within the former Super Continent (Pangea), at or near the equator.

When the bedrock of PEI was being formed, it was a desert, complete with sand dunes in the dry seasons and floods in the wet seasons. (Scientists believe that the greatest mass extinction of life also took place approx. 250 million years ago when 90% of all species in the oceans perished, and on land 60% of the reptiles and 30% of the insects disappeared.)

Underneath Queens and kings county bedrock lies large salt deposits, left behind by the evaporation of an ancient ocean (the Windsor sea).

One of the events that led up to the building of P.E.I. started about 380 million years ago. Around this time two continents had collided together. The ocean that separated them, the lapetus, was closed off, and as the continents met they formed what was then the highest mountain chain on earth, the Appalachian's. Similar to the modern Himalaya. Much of our P.E.I bedrock was formed as huge rivers carried sediment down from these mountains and deposited it in the lowlands.

In some areas,( Irishtown & Governors Island) the bedrock reaches depths of 14,000 feet. The bedrock in Southeastern PEI is estimated to be 30,000 feet deep. Samples taken from deep bore holes indicate plant and animal life did exist here over the ages, including dinosaurs.

The speed at which the rivers ran determined what size of sediment they were capable of carrying with them. As a river would lose its speed, it would deposit finer material, which would become a clay or silt stone.

These layers of claystone play an important roll in PEI ground water. They deflect migrating ground water and act as horizontal partitions within an aquifer. The ground water above and below these claystone partitions can be of different ages, and quality. The water above the layer of claystone probably entered the ground locally, whereas the water below the claystone layer probably entered the ground at a point up hill and beyond the lateral extention of the claystone layer.

When oil companies do seismic work prior to drilling, they look for claystone layers to act as oil and gas traps. If the clay/silt stone layer is cracked then the oil or gas may have escaped to the atmosphere millions of years ago. This is one of the reasons that drilling for oil or gas, at best has a 90 % risk of failure.

There were so many rivers over such a long period of time, depositing fine and course sediment in different directions, that it is practically impossible to follow any one ancient river for any distance. This makes well drilling a real challenge as the rock formation can change dramatically in a very short distance, as can water quality and quantity. ( See The Ice Age & PEI  and Ancient Geological History of PEI)

The Ice Age & PEI

When the last of the Glaciers melted back toward the north approx. 10,000 years ago, it left PEI covered in a blanket of loose till. This makes it hard for Geologists to say with any certainty, what kind of bedrock lies under any one spot, without actually drilling down to it.

The type of till that was deposited by the melting ice influences both the quantity and quality of PEI ground water. For example: If the ice melts in place, as stagnant ice, and the debris was dropped in a pile, then water has a harder time getting thru the fine sediments and reaching the bedrock. If there were active rivers and streams which sorted out the sediment from course sand to fine sand to clay. The area with course sand would then allow water to pass through to the bedrock almost immediately, with little or no filtering, but allowing large volumes of a poorer quality water to reach bedrock. 

It is thought that much of the ice that covered PEI came from Labrador & that when it melted, PEI rose up at least 75 feet when the weight of the ice was gone.

The largest rock ever recorded to have been moved by a glacier was in Germany. The rock was 4 km. long, 2 km wide & 120 meters high.

During the 3 million years of ice advances and retreats the sea levels rose and fell as much as 460 feet.

Earwigs in Wells

Ear wigs are not native to PEI, but they are here and here to stay. These hard shell bugs are approximately one inch long and have what looks like a pair of pinchers behind them. They like dark damp places, and are right at home inside your well. Earwigs will also crawl into pipes and get trapped there when a new house is being built.

Tell tale signs of earwigs:

Look inside the screen of your kitchen faucet.  You may need a magnifying glass to recognize the black specks as body parts. Your bath tub faucet has no screen in it.  If you run the tub full of water the earwig parts will settle on the bottom.

Loosen the cap on your well and remove it quickly. If earwigs are present they might still be on the inside of the cap when you turn it over, or you might see them with a flash light scampering down the well. If disinfection does not clear up the bacteria, the earwigs may have to be physically removed from the well. This procedure cost's approx. $500.00

To find the procedure for cleaning up a well after being infested with earwigs  See Disinfection 

Chlorine 

Cities & towns that rely on ponds or lakes for water have no choice. They have to use chlorine or risk getting E coli from Beaver or Racoon & Duck droppings in the lake. 

If you are away from home & do not trust the water, put 2 drops of bleach in with a litre of water & leave it sit for an hour before drinking. Use 4 drops if the water is cloudy.

 For places that use wells to supply municipal water. If the wells are working the way they should, there should be no need for chlorine except for the times when a well is being worked on or the system is being flushed.

Chlorine has been used for about 100 years with great results.  But should we be using it to treat clean well water with a good history?  Will the bacteria ever become immune to the chlorine?  Some bacteria are already resistant, but chlorine still kills the vast majority.

Penicillin became available in 1943 and in 1947 the first penicillin resistant bacteria were reported.  DDT was discovered in 1939 and by 1990 there were more than 500 species that were resistant to at least one pesticide. 

 

 

Disinfecting Your Well

Step 1

Remove the well cap & dump 1 gallon of  bleach  into your well for every 50 gallons of water in the water system, including the well. 3 Gallons for the average well on PEI. Use any bleach that has  5.25 % Sodium Hypochlorite .  

 

Step 2

Hook a hose to the outside tap & run the hose back down the well for at least 15 minutes before going to step 3. Leave this hose running down the well  until the end of step 4.

 

Step 3

Turn on the hot water tap in the bath tub and run it until you can smell the bleach.  This might take up to 10 minutes or more.  The tub faucet runs at about 4 gallons per minute & the hot water tank might hold 40 gallons or more.

 

Step 4

Now go to every hot & cold tap in the house. Run each one separately until you can smell the bleach. Do not forget the dish & clothes washer & toilets & shower heads. If there is any question about whether or not you can smell the bleach, just keep dumping more bleach in the well until the doubt is gone.

 

Step 5

Turn off the hose & remove it from the well & put the cap back on.  Leave the bleach in the system for 12 hours minimum. Use a minimum amount of water during this period.

Its ok to flush the toilet a few times.

 

Step 6

Flushing out the bleach.  Run the outside tap wide open. Shut off the power to the hot water tank.  Hook a hose to the hot water outlet behind the washer. Run the hose outside thru a window or door. This might be a good time to have that hot water outside tap installed.  Run the hot & cold  hoses until the smell of bleach is gone.

See also Other Pointers for disinfecting

 

Other pointers for disinfecting

 The above method works in most cases, but it does not disinfect the aquifer just beyond the well.  Also, in older wells some bacteria is protected by hiding in their own Bio Film that is attached to the sides of the well.  To fix this, the pump must be removed and the well brushed to break up the bio film.  The debree should then be removed from the well. (Pump the well for 24 hrs min. before adding chlorine.)

A chlorine mixture equal to a minimum of 4 times the well volume will be mixed, and placed into the well using a  tremmie pipe from bottom to top.  This solution has a chlorine concentration of 200 mg/L and a PH of 6.5.  The PH can be adjusted with vinegar at approx. 1 gal. per 100 gal. of water.  Leave the solution in the well overnight.  Pump heavy till the smell of chlorine is gone.  For more info see www.johnsonscreens.com.

Another factor that might cause the disinfection not to work, has to do with the PH of the water. 

 P. H. Verses Chlorine effectiveness

An article from Ground Water Canada September 2003, (Written in Wisconsin), goes into detail on how chlorine products, bleach included, raises the PH of the water. The higher the ph the less effective the chlorine is. Chlorine is 100% effective when mixed in water with a ph of 5.5.

 When mixed in water with a ph of 9, the chlorine is only 2% effective. If you mix up a solution that is 200 ppm chlorine in water with a ph of 7.1, the ph will raise to 9, making the chlorine only 2% effective. Too much chlorine can actually defeat the purpose. 

In an article from the magazine National Driller Dec/ 2004, “The Water Well Disinfection Manual” for Michigan State advices using 1 gallon of White Distilled Vinegar in with each 100 gallons of chlorinated water.  The vinegar helps keep the PH of the solution down.

 

How to take a water sample

You can pick up the sample bottles at any Access PEI site. Call 888-8000

Step 1

Turn on all the cold water taps inside and outside the house & let them run a minute or two.  The idea is to make sure the well pump is running & the sample is as direct from the well as possible. Leave all the taps running until the end of Step 3.

 

Step 2

Wash your hands with disinfectant soap. Remove the tap screen and soak the faucet to be sampled with rubbing alcohol.

 

Step 3

Turn on the faucet to be sampled & let it run a minute or two. Slow down the flow & fill the sample bottle.

 

Step 4 The do not's

Do not rinse out the sample bottle and do not over fill it.

Do not set the cover down or turn it upside down.

Do not touch the inside of the cap or bottle with your fingers.

 

Step 5

Put on the cover & turn off the taps. Keep the sample cool & drop it off (the same day) at the nearest Access PEI site Monday through Thursday before 3 pm. and Friday before noon.

 

For testing beyond what the Charlottetown lab can do.

One of the biggest labs in the Maritimes is in Bedford, N.S.   PSC Analytical Services

1 800 565 7227

 

Aquifer testing

 

Manderson Well Drilling is the leader in eastern Canada in Aquifer Testing.
We have bore hole packers from 4’’ thru 12’’.  These packers can be inflated at different depths in a bore hole to determine water quantity & quality at any given depth.  We can pump water from below or above the packers. Flow from the pump is measured accurately with a water meter that has a digital read out.

We also have probes that can be placed below & above the packer that will measure the water level & temperature & conductivity during the testing. Data from the probes can be monitored at the site with a lap top.  

See pressure testing of well seals.

Bacteria

E-Coliform (E-coli)

E- Coli belong to the Coliform group of bacteria’s. The E represents the name of the Scientist who identified them (Escherichia).  When E coli is present, raw sewage is also present.

Most types of E-Coli are harmless, but if you tangle with the strain # 0:157-H7 or a few others you could wind up in the hospital or even the morgue. (Walkerton Ontario).

The bad ones can cause kidney failure and strokes. Labs can easily identify E-Coli, but it is not so easy to figure out what strain it is.  About 1 percent of the wells on PEI test positive for coliform.  There are about 110 strains of  e-coli & of those about a dozen are harmful.  Close to 100% of the e coli problems on PEI are caused by leaking septic tanks. Contamination from farm animals is rare. The health people will tell you to boil contaminated water before drinking, but most folks can’t get too excited about drinking boiled sewer water.

 E-Coli comes from the intestines of warm blooded animals.  The biggest producers on PEI are Humans, Cattle, & Pigs.   In a Human, 20 Billion E – Coli are produced & discarded in Feces every day.   The total number of all bacteria in the large intestines of a human is about 100 Trillion. It is the job of many of these to kill intruders. With few exceptions, E-Coli indicates that surface water is entering the well.

Coliform (Excluding E-Coli)

These bacteria are of no harm to us & are only used as an indicator bacteria. The idea is that if they can get in a well, so can the harmful ones, such as E coli. and some Viruses.

Coliform can live any where there is organic material, where as the E-coli can only live where there is human or animal waste.   Coliform Bacteria can be found anyplace there is moisture & any kind of organic material to keep them alive, like vegetation & insects. Over 90% of all coliform lives within the top centimetre of the ground.

Low counts of coliform in a well or water distributing system are probably harmless. Some kinds of coliform can stay alive in a water system even without an outside food supply.  If the system is disinfected, the counts will generally go to 0.  If the low counts persist, the well should be checked out.

High counts.   If counts are high or change radically from one test to another, then surface water could be entering the well. It may be through a failing seal at the bottom of the casing, or insects entering the well through a faulty well cap.

Coliform in a new Water System

 The most common ways a new water system becomes contaminated with coliform are.

1     When the new pump is installed, all it takes is an insect, or a blade of grass to hitch a ride into the well via the pump, pipe, or electrical wire.   Any part of the plumbing system, pipes, furnace or hot & cold water tanks could have been a temporary home for insects or spiders. If hard shelled bugs get in the system it can take months of disinfecting to get coliform counts to Zero.

3     The well can also get contaminated while it is being drilled. All it takes is a bit of clay to fall in to the well from the surface, or some clay or grass to be stuck to the casing or even dirty hands or gloves handling the pipe. Most drillers will disinfect the well after drilling.  

For the most part, the well gets the blame for unsanitary piping in the house.

Coliform in a well that is only a year or two old.

By far, the most common way for this to happen is for insects to enter the well from the top.   Often the Vermin proof caps are installed wrong or get damaged by frost or snow blowers or skidoos, & bugs will enter thru the 1’’ conduit where the electrical wires enter the well cap.

One common problem is that spiders will crawl up next to the screened vent under the well cap & will lay eggs in next to the screen. The new born spiders are small enough to go through the screen & the small coliform counts begin.

A recent University study found that it is possible for a well to get some coliform in it during and up to 3 hours after a heavy rain. If the well vent sucks in air at this time, the high humidity could bring in some coliform  from the surrounding vegetation.

Debate   (over coliform testing)

There has always been a debate on whether to use coliform as an indicator for contamination.  In parts of Europe, E-coli is used as an indicator for contamination, not coliform.  The following quote is from one of the largest laboratories in the US.

"Coliform counts of less than 100 ppm per 100 ml sample are believed to be environmental bacteria thought of as regularly being housed in the well and not being added to by outside contamination."   Johnson Screens - 2003.  Johnson Screens assume that the well has been investigated and no source of outside contamination was present.

In the meantime  many home owners will have small coliform counts holding up their mortgages & costing them dearly for a new well or water treatment or months of disinfecting.

Background Bacteria (unidentified  bacteria)

When your water test report says Background 25 for example, it means that there are 25 bacteria found that the lab can not identify, Other than to say that they are not disease carriers & are not harmful.

 SubSurface Bacteria   (Microbes)

These Bacteria live in our ground water & in the rock that holds the water. They are extremely tough and can live at great depths needing only hydrogen & carbon dioxide to survive. They are found in sedimentary rocks similar to PEI’s.  A test hole was drilled in Russia, just to see how far down these bacteria could be found.

They were still thriving at 3 Kilometres. They have been buried for hundreds of millions of years and can survive in temperatures up to 113 degrees Celsius.  Water boils at 100. A typical 100 ml water sample might have from 1,000 to 100,000,000 microbes (bacteria) in it. 5 Million of these will fit on the head of a pin.  The lab in Charlottetown can not test for these bacteria.

From Professor Karsten Pedensen, at Goteborg University & National Geographic.

Soil Bacteria (Microbes) Louis Pasteur in the 1800’s recognised that soil bacteria were essential for life “They are the primary force for fracturing tough molecules of atmospheric nitrogen and making it available for plants”. In a teaspoon of earth there are over one Billion of these bacteria. The Japanese have been using a soil bacterium (mold) to ferment beer and soy sauce for 500 years.  National Geographic

Iron Bacteria’s (Microbes) also live in most wells in PEI in small numbers. They are the cause of the slime build up on some pipes & inside the toilet tank. The deposits left behind by these bacteria are 80% minerals & 20% organic material. Small amounts of coliform can stay alive on that organic material. One more way that small amounts of coliform could show up in a sample.  

Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (Microbes) are found in a few wells on PEI. They often live within the slime that the Iron Bacteria leave behind. They produce a rotten egg smell in the water. Both iron bacteria & sulphate reducing bacteria can mostly be controlled by cleaning out the well &  disinfecting twice a year. See Disinfection.  

Neither is tested for at the Charlottetown Lab. Both belong to the general subsurface group of bacterias.

Altered Bacteria  Engineered bacteria have been around for decades. E coli are the Bacteria of choice for gene splicing & cloning.  For example, human insulin is made in big tanks by trillions of genetically engineered E coli.

Bacteria have been developed to eat up oil & gas from contaminated soils. One researcher says that it would take Mother Nature 55 years to do what these bacteria can do in 36 days. Similar bacteria live naturally in the soil and play a roll in the decay of our asphalt roads. They are not nearly as aggressive as their man made cousins.

The Japanese developed a detergent that uses bacteria to attack stains on cotton fabrics and captured half of a 2 $Billion a year industry.

In 1987 in California a bacteria was altered to keep frost from killing strawberry & potato plants. The idea worked, but the plants used for the field tests were ripped out by Environmental activists.  Many people are worried about run away bacteria strains.  Science has been accused of swallowing the spider to catch the fly and of chancing another Australian Rabbit problem.          From National Geographic.

Dry Wells ?

It is rare for a well to go completely dry. More often an old shallow well’s capacity will fall short of the demand put upon it by the pump. For example - a well that was producing 10 gallons per minute (gpm), might fall back to 6 gpm during a dry spell.

If your jet pump is pumping 8 gpm, then the pump will suck air and lose its prime. The way to get around this is to restrict, or decrease, the amount of water that the pump can pull from the well. ( Pump half as much for twice as long ).

Try this: for a jet pump

Place a gate valve on the water line between the pump and the tank. Then change the small pressure hose on the pressure switch so that it is fed from the TANK side of the gate valve. This allows you to build up higher pressures in the pump head, which in turn slows down the pump.

This will buy you some time, but a new well will probably have to be drilled at some point down the road.  

Why is the well going dry?

These wells slow down due to a shortage of pressure to push the water into the well. The pressure comes from the weight of ground water & this changes continuously as the water table responds to rain fall or the lack of it. Each well requires a different amount of pressure to push the water thru the different rock formations & into the well.

If the water level in your well dropped 2.31 feet, then you would lose one pound per square inch of pressure (PSI)

In a well made of fine grained sandstone, with tiny fractures, the drop of pressure could be critical , because much pressure is needed to push water thru this type of rock and into the well.

If we lose one PSI in a well made of coarse grained sandstone with bigger fractures, it would not make much difference because water will flow thru this kind of rock with ease & little PSI is needed.  

Another thing that can cause a well to appear dry is Biological fouling.  This is when subsurface bacteria will form a slime on the walls of the well where the water enters, plugging off the stream.  To fix this problem see Other Pointers for Disinfecting.

 

Aquifers:  Are there rivers running under the ground?

Not on PEI.. The water in your well is coming from an aquifer .  This is a layer of sandstone that could be from a few inches to several feet thick. The water is stored in between the grains of sand in the rock.

One of the largest single aquifers known is the St. Peters Aquifer in central U.S.A. It covers 290,000 square miles and is from 80 to 160 feet deep.

 

Flowing wells

If the aquifer extends up in to a nearby hill, and if the water level in the  aquifer is higher than the top of the well that is located on the side of the hill, then water will flow out over the top of the well.  Flowing wells can be found in low areas such as valleys or places right at or below sea level.  Here are some locations on PEI where artesian or flowing wells have been drilled: Wellington, Days Corner, Poplar Grove, MacNeils Mills and Northam, West end of Summerside.

 Most common problems & concerns

 

•  My bathroom fixtures turn brown.

The most common causes of this are:

The fine sediments are not yet washed out of the well. Run your pump for 48 hours NON STOP. The water pressure at the cold water tank should not exceed 20 psi and the water level in the well should be monitored through out the pumping. You will need at least 2 garden hoses running wide open to keep the volume up and the  pressure down, to get the maximum flow rate possible.

Check the stratigraphic log on your well drillers report. If the log shows thick layers of claystone, then the well may have to be pumped for a week or more to remove the fine sediments. (see breaking in your new well).

If the staining problem is constant and is not improving with time, the water could be low in oxygen. When this water meets the air inside the toilet tank, the iron in the water comes in contact with oxygen from the air and the iron turns to rust and slowly settles out.

Some of this rust can be filtered out by installing a fine filter. The chances of a deeper well yielding better water in these areas is not great.  

•  There are grains of sand in the water

For an old shallow well, the end is probably near. What is likely going on is that when the pump is running, the water level lowers down past where the water is entering the well. The water will pour into the well & bring sediment in with it.

For an older deeper Machine drilled well. The cause of the sand is probably that the water level in the well has dropped (while pumping) to a point lower than the uppermost stream in the well. As the water cascades down into the well, the sediment comes in with it. There is likely still lots of water left in the lower streams. To clean the sand out, you need to pump the well heavy enough to keep the water level pulled down below the upper stream until the sediment is all washed out and pumped out. Follow the instructions under the heading (Breaking in your new well.)

For a new well. See breaking in your new well.

•  Hard black specks gather in the tap strainers

          There is probably insects getting in the well via the well cap.

•  My water turns red when there is a heavy rain

There is surface water entering the well. Do not drink this water.

•  My water smells like rotten eggs

          There is probably sulfate reducing bacteria growing in the well. Disinfect the well.           See Disinfection.

•  My well is only 30 feet deep, do I need a new one?

Probably not, but you should have a sample taken every spring when run off is at its peak.

The seal at the top of the well should be checked to make sure no surface water or insects can get in.

Remember that your water supply is coming from an aquifer that's close to the surface: Special attention should be paid to the immediate area surrounding the well, (approximately a 50 foot radius), especially the land directly uphill from the well.

Herbicides, pesticides, motor oil, antifreeze, window washer, road salt or spilling gas when you fill up the lawn mower, can be critical when your water supply is only 20 or 30 feet below the surface.

•  Should I be worried about nitrates, chemicals and fertilizers in my water?

The lab in Charlottetown is not capable of testing for all of the sprays and fertilizers that we are using on the land.

What they can test for is Nitrates and in most areas of heavy farming the numbers are growing. There are some areas in East Prince where 100 feet of casing is not enough to bring the nitrates down to within government guidelines.

Ideally a well should be drilled uphill and as far from these big fields and sprays as you can practically get.

At MWD we test for nitrates as we are drilling and put in whatever casing is required to bring the nitrates down.

•  Is spring water safe to drink?

Not really. It all depends on the source of the spring. Some Spring water may have only been in the ground for a few weeks and may be carrying E-coli or harmful viruses.

Ancient Geological History of PEI

This part of our site is not related to Ground Water, but is a story about the ancient geological history of PEI.

The Island was built up in several phases, starting near the South Pole and drifting with the continents to our present latitude & longitude.

The spot on the globe that we now occupy was once part of a deep ocean floor with no continents is sight. Probably similar to the floor of the present day North Atlantic.

From the beginning

Approx. 600 + million years ago on the South Pole there was a large continent that Geologists call Amazonia. Erosion of the highlands of this continent carried sediment out to the ocean and eventually built up deep layers of sedimentary rock (sandstone) over hundreds of square miles on the continental shelf. Now we have what’s called a Terrane. Terrane is the name given to things like volcanic Islands, Sea Mountains and sedimentary basins that stand alone in an ocean. When a continent moves across an ocean these terranes are scraped off of the ocean floor & pushed along with the bigger continent.

When the continent of Amazonia began to drift northward, the Terrane was scrapped off the ocean floor and was pushed along by the big continent. This Terrane is known as the Miramichi-Bras d’Or Terrane. As it was pushed along, its sediments were infiltrated by molten rock from deep with in the earths crust. This liquid rock pushed its way up through the sandstones & other sediments, causing molten rock to flow out over the surface of the Terrane in many places. This was caused by pressures that are associated with the moving of continents.

Now we have a Terrane made originally of sandstones, partly covered with molten rock. At this point most of the original sediments (sandstones) were altered, or changed in to much harder rock from the heat & pressure provided by the molten rock.

At the same time the Mirimiche terrane was being deposited , There was another terrane being built up in a different ocean. The Avalon terrane was of volcanic origin. Geologists figure the Avalon terrane was dominated by huge volcanoes, similar in size to Mount St. Helens. Rocks from the Avalon have been dated from 550 to 740 Million years. The Miramichi Bras d’Or terrane was formed near the coast of the former Continent Amazonia, which now makes up present day South America. The Avalon Terrane was formed off the coast of the former continent ProntaGondwana which makes up present day Africa

About 350 to 400 million years ago all of the continents and terranes on earth assembled in to one big super Continent (Pangea) surrounded by one super ocean.

The Mirimiche Bras d’or & Avalon terranes ended up together and sandwiched between big continents, (along with several other terranes). Former oceans closed as the continents met, and one of the biggest mountain chains on earth was formed as the continents collided with each other. The Appalachians may have been as high as the modern Himalayas. They stretched from Alabama to Europe. (The Atlantic Ocean did not yet exist). 

The region that would later become the Maritimes was now pretty much in tact. We had drifted from  near the south pole to the equator & were deep within the super continent Pangea, no where near the ocean.

As the mountain building continued there were also deep depressions developing in the maritime region.

At one point sea levels rose & sea waters invaded the region about 330 million years ago. This lasted about 15 million years and when it was over there were large deposits of salt , potash & gypsum left behind from the evaporation of this sea. Windsor Sea. (Thence the name Windsor salt.)

Salt deposits from this episode lie deep beneath Queens & Kings County’s.

Most of Prince County is thought to have been above sea level during the time of the Windsor sea.

315 million years ago

The beginning of the final episode for what was to become PEI. The Appalachians were eroding away, the sediment carried down stream by huge fresh water rivers and deposited in the lowlands as the rivers lost there momentum. The Caladonia hills of N.B. & the Cobiquid Mountains of N.S. also supplied sediment to parts of PEI.

290 million years ago

The next 40 million years would build up sediments from 8,000 to 30,000 feet thick on top of parts of the Mirimiche Bras d’Or & Avalon terranes .

Desert conditions were the norm with sand dunes similar to the present day Sahara during the dry season & floods in the rainy season. (Referred to as the Mega Monsoons.)

248 million years ago

PEI is now pretty much intact. Still near the equator & still far from any ocean. This huge pile of sediments had already started its transition from soft sediments to sedimentary rock.

Remember that large layers of salt lie beneath many parts of queens & kings county. The weight of the sediments on top of the salt caused the salt to form diapers, and these salt diapers would push the bedrock upward in some places. Some of the hills in Queens & kings were formed in this way.

Other hills were formed by a process called folding. This is when a particular spot on the earths crust comes under pressure, for whatever reason, and simply pushes the bedrock up in one place. Usually in a line causing a row of hills. At least 5 different folds have been identified on PEI.

100 to 200 million years ago

The Supercontinent is breaking up into pieces. A crack thru the region turns into a valley and continues to open into what is now the North Atlantic Ocean.

About 100 million years ago Europe & Newfoundland were split and the continents drifted to our present position at a rate of approx. an inch or two per year. The Merimiche  Bras d’Or & Avalon terranes were split in two in the process.

Prince County & western Queens County are underlain by the Merimiche Brad or terrane. Also the east end of PEI, from east point toward the west for about 40 or  50 Kilometres, is underlain by the Merimiche Brador Terrane .

Therefore it could be argued that Summerside & Tignish and East point are an ancient part of  South America.

Most of Queens and Kings County are underlain by the Avalon Terrane and it could be argued that Charlottetown and Wood Islands are an ancient part of Africa.

The boundary where the Merimiche Bras d’Or terrane meets the Avalon terrane can be seen at the Reversing Falls Bridge in St. John NB.

Most of this information was taken from a book written by the Atlantic Geoscience  Society.  The Last Billion Years.

Other sources are Understanding Earth,  a Dalhousie text book & The Changing Earth, Former Dalhousie text book, written by Clinton Milligan. Clinton is from Tyne Valley PEI.

Guarantees

Things that MWD is responsible for.

The well casing must be grouted and sealed so that no surface water can enter the well via the outside of the casing. All welds must be tight.

Things MWD are not responsible for:

• Anything beyond our control, such as hard water, high nitrate levels. Bacteria that is getting into the aquifer by some other means such as an old open well near by, or a vertical fracture in the bedrock. Any problems caused by over sizing pumps, or installing a pump to a depth that is not compatible with that well.

• Any problems caused by using cable guards or torque arresters in a well. The improper installation of a Vermin proof cap.