I got my well tested, How do I know if there is enough water? Do I have a good well?

Many potential homeowners have well and water quality testing done as well as the pump equipment inspected. When the receive the reports they often aren’t certain what to do with the information. In this blog we’ll explore what information is outlined in these inspections/tests and give guidelines on how to use this information as you make decisions about purchasing your new property.

Well Test Information

Most well tests will have information about well depth, water flow, depth to water and the duration of the well test. When it comes down to it, you really need to know how much water the well can produce and you need to have an idea of what you plan to do on the property that will require water. The guy testing your well has no idea if you plan to turn the property into a parking lot, a verdant orchard or a water theme park and so they can’t tell you if the well is “good” for your needs or not! When you have the well test information, compare your plans and needs to the available water supply. If the well can support the needs, then you have a green light. If the well can’t support the planned needs then you need to slow down! Let’s use two examples to help you understand how this data is important.

Let’s say that one property has a well test that was conducted for 4 hours on a well that is 350’ deep and the water level in the well stabilized at 200’ deep with the well being pumped at 20 Gallons per minute. This is a pretty good well! Why do I say that? The water level was stable and far above the bottom of the well! 20 Gallons per minute can easily provide enough water for a large home with a large garden/orchard (especially if there are storage tanks involved).

Now let’s compare this to another well that is 350’ deep and the test was conducted for 4 hours. The water level was at 325’ and still dropping at the end of the test and the flow rate at the end of the test was 5 Gallons per minute. This information is concerning, why? The water level didn’t stabilize and a longer well test will need to be performed to get the true, stable output from the well. This stable output is likely to be less than 5 GPM, which is not a lot of water to run a household on. The water level was near the bottom of the well, there’s no reserve! If you plan to have a large home with a large garden/yard then you need to conduct a longer test and you’ll likley need to plan on installing storage tanks, planning to live on a very frugal amount of water or even drilling another well if possible.

Equipment condition

Less important than the actual water flow available is the condition that the well, pump and the various water system components are in. They do need to function in order to test the well, but if they are old and out of shape, that’s OK! You can get an estimate from your well/pump contractor for any repairs that are needed and negotiate this with the seller. Be cafeful thought, don’t put a low yield well in this category and just negotiate the price of drilling a new well in with the purchase price. Drilling a new well is not guaranteed to get you water, especially if you are in a dry or water deficient area.

Water quality testing

Water quality testing should be part of any real estate transaction that involves a well. Tests for bacterial contamination, excess minerals, pesticides, etc… should be conducted and the lab report reviewed to see if anything is present. If there are some contaminates, is there a treatment or filter system installed that is capable of removing the contaminates? If there is no filter system, what is the cost to install one that would treat these contaminates? Water test results should include what was tested for, how much was found, what level of contamination produces problems and what those problems might include. There are things that should be a clear “no” on the property. One example in our area is boron. If you have high levels of boron in the water and plan to put a vineyard on the property then you have a big problem. The boron will kill the vineyard and the cost to remove boron is prohibitively expensive! It would be better to locate another property with a better water source for growing a vineyard than to purchase this property and try to remove the boron from the water. Again, this is a case of knowing what you want to do with the property and ensuring you take the appropriate water tests for that application.

At OPS our team regularly helps our clients understand the condition, productivity and water quality coming from their wells. Give us a call if you are in the Napa Valley and we can help you understand your well better!