Higher, Deeper, Better

Both the drill rig operator and the rig owner walked my property witching for water with a length of copper wire extended in front of them.  They did so independently (on separate days) but still stopped at virtually the same spot very near my house.

“Here,” each of them said.

Yesterday morning, in thick fog, a drill rig set up on the spot called “here” and began stinging down into the earth.

At 167 feet, after drilling down through the overburden and then alternating layers of shale and sandstone, the drilling rig struck the first groundwater.

The drillers can read what they are drilling through by both the “behavior” of the drilling rig and by sampling the grinds forced up to the surface as the rig stings deeper into the ground.  Upon first striking water, the driller measured only 2 gallons per minute, but water yield increased incrementally as the rig continued penetrating the earth with its bit.

The drill operator stopped drilling and knocked on my door once he reached 200 feet, as we had agreed upon before they set against the landscape.  I opened the door to find a mud-spattered man staring back at me.  “Wow,” I said to him, “I don’t mean to be rude, but you are a mess!”

The driller smiled.  “Just part of the job,” he said.  “We are down two-hundred feet and are getting ten gallons per minute.  And we just hit granite.”

“Ten gallons.  That’s good.  Does granite make a difference?”

“Yes.  Granite tends to make a solid layer.  Water tends to ride on top of it.”

“So what do you think about going another fifty feet.  Would that do any good?”

He shrugged.  “Pretty hard to predict. You might go a hundred feet and get nothing more.  You might break though and get more water before fifty feet.”

“I need to think,” I suggested.  “This is a tough decision.”

“I have a few things I can do out there for a few minutes.”

“Okay.  Let me nut through this.  I’ll come out in a couple minutes and tell you to either stop or go a bit deeper.”

I closed the door on the driller and rather paced my house for a bit.

For the purpose of securing a new home loan, most mortgage companies require a minimum yield of 5 gallons per minute.  10 gallons per minute is thought to be ideal for a bustling household of four people.  My present well is producing something less than 5 gallons per minute.

Really, my drilling gamble had already paid off.

I strode outside and found the driller wrestling with a length of PVC pipe near the rig.  I extended my hand to him.  He removed a muddy glove and we shook hands.

“You’re the man,” I told him.  “We can stand at 200 feet.  I’m happy.  Thank you so much.”

I walked away feeling much better about virtually everything in this life.

Water, after all, is everything.

The rig arriving in fog

Set for drilling

—Mitchell Hegman