Conservation & Ecology
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If someone offers you the “No Water No Fee” line, then snap their hand off if they agree to insert one tiny additional word in their gracious offer - ‘usable” before water
Initial testing of a well in Lincolnshire
(rock strata from where water is expected to be engaged) are very well documented in terms of their location, expected productivity and depth. By the same token, areas that have little or no aquifer or are very deep (too deep to be economically accessed) are known too. It would take me an hour or so to decide whether a particular site is likely to have groundwater beneath it and at roughly what depth. So, in the UK, we have a very wide spectrum of probability ranging from 99.9% chance of finding the water required to 0.01% of finding it. The trick is finding where on the spectrum the particular site lies.
As far as guaranteeing water is concerned, this is a difficult one because, when dealing with Mother Nature, there are always going to be some uncertainties. Most reputable people in this field will not guarantee that the water will be found. Ultimately, the risk falls to the employer. The specialist should be presenting the facts through a diligently generated feasibility report and support their conclusions with solid evidence, which will
be the geological succession for the site and the reproduction of historical records reflecting existing wells drilled in the area previously, and what flows were achieved from those. One word of warning is to look out for the
folk who do offer a “No Water No Fee” guarantee. I first saw this about twenty-five years ago and it was nothing short of a scam designed to draw a client in to them. If you drill a borehole or well to any reasonable depth, you will always get some form of seepage or slight ingress into it. Obviously, this will eventually make its way to the bottom and, if you look down it, you will see your face looking back at you. This means they have found water! There is no meaningful amount for you to pump, but they have provided water. So, if someone offers you the “No Water No Fee” line, then snap their hand off if they agree to insert one tiny additional word in their gracious offer - “usable” before water … although I suspect the colour draining from their cheeks will say a lot.
Is a well a really credible alternative to my mains supply? I have no maintenance issues, no risk of not getting the water, water quality is good etc?
Apart from a hydrogeological assessment being undertaken, clearly there has to be a business case for a well to be viable. Let’s start with good old fashioned hard cash shall we?
When your mains water comes through
that pipe into your tank or storage lake or lagoon or whatever, for every 1,000 litres (1m3
) you will be paying between £1.10 to
£2.20 for that volume of water, depending on where you are in the country. When you consider that 40% of all mains water in the UK comes from public utility supply wells, then there is an obvious question to ask. How much then does my utility provider pay the Environment Agency to pump 1,000 litres (1m3
) of water from that well ? The
answer staggeringly is about £0.015, or 1.5 pence! So, what happens in between them buying
This suggests that the groundwater is some sort of grey/brown bacteria- ridden solution that smells like Forrest Gump’s socks
Well head showing water pressure and control valving 126 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017
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