Submitted by franticallyfarting t3_y2iurz in Maine
Having a well drilled in mid coast Maine and we are 500 feet deep and still no water... Deepest well in the area is 300 ft. Anyone with well experience? Do we keep drilling or stop and try a new spot? Do we try hydrofracking? Any advice would be appreciated!
I would let the pros make the call on this. What is some random anecdote from reddit really going to help.
My son works for a well drilling company here in Maine. He said "We almost always stop at 500 and frack and then keep drilling if we don’t hit water."
Lived on a farm half hour outside Portland. Had drilled wells. One year, one went bad because of ammonia and acid from the chicken house. The other 2 went dry. They came and drilled. Nothing until after 700 feet. Was damned expensive but we got water.
Thats always the concern when you start drilling. The pro's know best.
When our well was drilled they fracked at 300 feet and we have had years of great water. Would think the pros would recommend fracking at this point. Hope it works out for you!
It’s a gamble every time. The drillers probably know best. Every well is different even if your neighbor has one at 150 with great pressure, you might have one at 700 and vice versa. Who is doing the well if you don’t mind me asking?
Our neighbor across the street was dry at 400' so they fracked. They got water but it wasn't fit to drink and too dirty to treat economically.
Our well, roughly 500 ft away, came in strong with clean water at 200', no treatment necessary. It's a crapshoot, especially if you drill near a tidal river.
YMMV. We drilled to 550, and had lukewarm water flow, and ended up fracking. Meanwhile, most of our neighbors were at ~200-300 ft. Just bad luck.
On the upside, we'll be the last ones in the area to have our well go dry during a drought. Yay? I concur with the others - ask your well guy what they think.
They don't use additives like gas/oil fracking. Just very high pressure water.
What about contaminates in the bedrock? I have high uranium in my well water, like 10x EPA safe levels. So I don't drink it.
alpha417 t1_is35hgz wrote
... what does the well drilling company think?
we're at 700 feet... so ymmv.