Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to drill your own water well

drillyourownwell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 233 posts

Re: How to drill your own water well

#201

Post by eesmith »

peterleiser wrote: post #174
moooo99 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawns in the US consume as many resources as they do because the typical lawn you see isn't a species native to the US, instead it was imported from Europe. With the soil being different etc., it is not surprising lawns, especially when they're as big as in the US, require so many resources.

What is the species that is not native?

Kentucky Bluegrass - Poa pratensis - is a common lawn grass which despite its name is not originally from North America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poa_pratensis

Another is Perennial Ryegrass - Lolium perenne - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolium_perenne .

A third is the common bent - Agrostis capillaris - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrostis_capillaris .

Re: How to drill your own water well

#202

Post by eric-hu »

cj wrote: post #196
eric-hu wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious: if the water isn’t considered potable, would you want to be watering plants with it? Is the contamination more often bacterial than chemical?

My friend has a condo in the Virgin Islands where water isn’t in high supply (majority of water is sourced from rain) The HOA where the condo is has an on-site water sanitation facility which recycles toilet, shower, sink water. They don’t consider the recycled water potable, but I guess they consider it safe enough for watering plants, for re-use in toilet water, etc. TLDR: in the above case, it’s bacterial risk or…

Yeah that seems reasonable enough to me. I’ve seen parks and green spaces in Southern California that have warning signs about not drinking irrigation water.

My earlier comment was motivated by a concern that tapping a non-potable water source for one’s own family might bear health risks without more analysis of the state of that water. For all you know, even if you only use that water for plants, maybe you’re growing food with water high in arsenic and it’s accumulating in the food.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#203

Post by cman1444 »

stickfigure wrote: post #155
presidentender wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad drilled water wells in the US after spending many years working on oil wells overseas. His clients would often hire witchers (water witches, water witchers, well witches - I think the distance from Appalachia to Montana clouded the specific vocabulary). You'd have this very old man dodder around the property with a pair of sticks, and when the sticks magically chose to pull together and cross, that's where you…

It's shocking how many people still give weight to astrology.

I consider myself a pretty cynical person, but I tried it myself to prove someone else wrong and I couldn't help but feel like it actually worked.

We were looking for a water pipe, not just sitting groundwater. The only explanation I could come up with was that for some reason a magnetic field was being created by the pipe underground. I don't remember if the water was flowing or not when we did it.

I feel silly even commenting this, but we truly did find the pipe exactly where I was standing when the rods pointed together.

Of course it's very possible that I unconsciously tilted my hands in the spot where I suspected the pipe would be. Even though I did make a conscious effort to not do exactly that, I wonder if there is some psychological factor in the phenomenon.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#204

Post by bombcar »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #180
presidentender wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad drilled water wells in the US after spending many years working on oil wells overseas. His clients would often hire witchers (water witches, water witchers, well witches - I think the distance from Appalachia to Montana clouded the specific vocabulary). You'd have this very old man dodder around the property with a pair of sticks, and when the sticks magically chose to pull together and cross, that's where you…

When I built my house in the country, the well driller insisted on witching. He said "we should drill right here." I said "No, move it 100 feet that way. Your spot is right in the middle of my future driveway." "I can't guarantee we'll hit water there" he said. "I paying you. Just drill where I said" I said. And of course we hit water.

Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country has a whole section on wells. The main key seems to be onsite when it is drilled, because otherwise they'll just leave after drilling one, even if it is dry.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#205

Post by kip_ »

gallamine wrote: post #175
gregmac wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The test would be finding a spot where a witcher says there isn't water, and then drilling there. There's water almost everywhere in the ground -- the questions are is there enough of it to meet the need? is it usable (ie: not contaminated with salt or toxic chemicals)?

> There's water almost everywhere in the ground In Arizona?

https://new.azwater.gov/aaws/maps-resources will give you a good idea of how far down wells have to go in various areas of Arizona.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#206

Post by kip_ »

gallamine wrote: post #175
gregmac wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The test would be finding a spot where a witcher says there isn't water, and then drilling there. There's water almost everywhere in the ground -- the questions are is there enough of it to meet the need? is it usable (ie: not contaminated with salt or toxic chemicals)?

> There's water almost everywhere in the ground In Arizona?

Particularly https://azwatermaps.azwater.gov/gwsiweb/

Re: How to drill your own water well

#207

Post by earleybird »

runjake wrote: post #199
presidentender wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad drilled water wells in the US after spending many years working on oil wells overseas. His clients would often hire witchers (water witches, water witchers, well witches - I think the distance from Appalachia to Montana clouded the specific vocabulary). You'd have this very old man dodder around the property with a pair of sticks, and when the sticks magically chose to pull together and cross, that's where you…

I was shocked to randomly drive by a local water utility company and a guy walking in a field holding what looked like dowsing rods in his hands. I didn't stop to ask, but it wasn't a locate antenna (I am familiar with those, and he didn't have any wires or electronic equipment on him). I was pretty surprised they were messing around with dowsing, knowing it's scientifically unproven/disproven. Then again, people sti…

Might not have been dowsing but a geoelectric survey of the inductive/capacitive/resistive variety. The BBC Time Team folks occasionally use these for non invasive surveys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU9aRZK4j84&t=663s

Re: How to drill your own water well

#208

Post by mozman »

yarpen_z wrote: post #70
jcarrano wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still makes sense to have a well because it is a waste to water the lawn with drinking water.

We don't really have suburbs like the one in the US. Having a perfect lawn that requires constant watering and meticulous care is not common.

I have care for my lawn and put a lot of effort into it, with most of my prop being grass with a small portion that is gravel

Re: How to drill your own water well

#209

Post by BrandoElFollito »

In my days of fighting paranormal activities and beliefs (homeopathy, wells witchers, ...) we were usually told that we do not have open minds and do not accept anything outside of our limited science.

For one, you need to have an open mind, but be careful to not your brain fall off (https://youtu.be/RFO6ZhUW38w?si=1Snzh3lhFJ6d381g&t=12)

Then, we were very much interested in seeing these unusual things happening. As I mentioned it in a previous comment, I declared at the radio that I would immediately switch my PhD topic (in physics) to study them. Because, you know, Nobel prize. I did not get to see anything unusual, did a uneventful PhD and, well, do not have said Nobel prize.

But the important thing was: I wanted to measure. To have an experiment where what was unusual would be measurable. This means that tests with well diggers were a complete failure when they were asked to find water in controlled conditions.

OTOH, they were good when in the wild because (probably) they could read the landscape and see signs of water (conscientiously or not).

Same with homeopathy: when I have a headache I get an aspirin and before it had time to reach my stomach I feel better. I also once swam away from what I thought were sharks and I probably broke a swimming record because my arms were moving like a blender.

This is to say that scientists do not limi themselves - they just want to see and measure something to say that this is a thing. Unfortunately as soon as they do it the whole paranormal things fall apart. But we are still hoping.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#210

Post by Animatronio »

OfSanguineFire wrote: post #104
badtension wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could bypass that with a domestic wastewater treatment plant.

That does not appear to be the case. A friend of mine spent a considerable amount of money a few years ago to build a wastewater treatment system on his property. Then the gmina told him that, under new legislation, he would still have to connect his property to the common sewage system. This is something that he and many of his neighbours were reluctant to do, because it brings new monthly service charges. He tried…

A sewage system doesn't work well without periodic flushes. Having too few houses connected to it means it is at risk of drying and clogging. Most probably when it was designed they took into account the number of houses is was supposed to collect waste water from. Anything less then that number would be risky for the whole system.
Post reply on HN