Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

A few things come to mind....First of all, when there's a water system
involved quite often they require you disconnect the well. You might want
to check and see if that's the case first,because there could be penalties
for hooking the well back up (if they find out)..
Second,do you know if any of the neighbors or well drillers in the area
might know something? For instance,if the well ran dry or was
contaminated?Of course, a water test is in order. 
Third, there are many alternatives when the well is so shallow-a hand pump
should work just fine..or a solar pump... 
Pay careful attention to isolation distances from pollution or
contamination sources. The isolation distances must be 100 feet from a
drainfield or animal yard and 150 feet from a cesspool or drywell.
It should also be noted that if a shallow-well is used too much(like maybe
for irrigation?), the water-table may fall as the underground reservoir of
water is reduced. If this level falls below 7 metres, the pump will not
work. 
A good website with info on wells and pumps is Handpumps Resources
http://www.lifewater.ca/manuals.htm

Barb

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/27/2007 at 1:16 AM anjclem wrote:

>Hi All,
>I am looking for advice on a pump for our well.
>When we bought our place there was an abandoned well, the house now
>being on a community water system. The well casing is open with two
>pipes that may have been for a jet pump, but the pump is gone now.
>There is water at 12 feet and the well is at least 40 feet deep (using
>the string and weight method).
>We would like to use the water for garden and pasture irrigation as
>cheaply as possible so what we are thinking about is some sort of hand
>pump that would draw the water and start a syphon to gravity feed to
>the areas where we need it.
>So, the question is: does anyone know of a pump (maybe rotary?) that
>would draw the water to start the flow but then allow the flow to
>continue without further pumping?
>I'd appreciate any suggestions, thanks, Jim.