borehole issue

Matt

Member
Where would you stand on the situation of the borehole not delivering the required water that you need?

borehole company knew what volume of water we needed, they got a prognosis done based on near by wells, all were well over what we needed so agreed to let them do it.
had water tested, found salt so had to agree to paying for a reverse osmosis purification machine which fair enough, but it appears now we are struggling for water, have pumped less than 400m3 of water in total since it was drilled and only been in use for less than a month.
 

kill

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South West
Best to go back and have a word with the drilling company. Did they guarantee a volume on paper?. Apparently drilling to deep can sometimes loose water again . Sort any leaks you have before talking to anyone as it will always be your fault if noticeable leaks are present.
 

Matt

Member
well they quoted to supply water for a new pig unit and farm.
well is drilled to around 66m 220ft. was having trouble after a while with sediment so lifted pump and slowed flow, trouble is we are not keeping up with the pigs. with a bill for just under £39K i want it working right. The salt in the water bumped the bill up by nearly double.

have no leaks as all new water pipe which only comes 50m from borehole to plant room then 50 m into sheds, Incoming meter and borehole well head meter tally.
 

Davey

Member
Location
Derbyshire
Officially it will come down to whatever contract or emails etc you have. If it's not clear, or more likely not in your favour, I'd appeal to their good nature and ask for help.

Regardless, no point falling out unless you really have to.
 
The company we used was a local established one so went on their expert guidance.

I'm no expert but with that kind of expenditure wouldn't it make sense to pay the extra for an independent survey now? At least you'll have some firm data to use to either prove that the water is not there so that you may then have a case in respect of false claims by the drilling company or alternatively if it is there the system is not delivering what it is capable of.

A bit of good professional advice may be worth it's weight in gold at this stage. I certainly agree that for the investment you have made it should be working correctly. Hopefully someone more knowledge than me will be along soon.
 

solo

Member
Location
worcestershire
I presume the bore hole is not filling from the aquifer as quick as you are trying to pump it out. If this isn’t the case then the filters and reverse osmosis must be slowing your flow. Could you set up header tanks in the pig sheds to compensate for slow flow rates. We used to use rainwater off the shed roof to an underground tank and submersible pump with pressure vessel. It would provide about a weeks supply of water if no rain but on average over the year watered the pigs and cattle for about half their requirements.
 

Matt

Member
I presume the bore hole is not filling from the aquifer as quick as you are trying to pump it out. If this isn’t the case then the filters and reverse osmosis must be slowing your flow. Could you set up header tanks in the pig sheds to compensate for slow flow rates. We used to use rainwater off the shed roof to an underground tank and submersible pump with pressure vessel. It would provide about a weeks supply of water if no rain but on average over the year watered the pigs and cattle for about half their requirements.
Well it is either the equipment they supplied or the well pump test they have done twice in the last 2 to 3 months is way out. They tested it at 50 l /min and was dropping slowly after a period of time and at 40l a min it was rising.

If they won't do anything then having a big tank for storing water pre treatment is the only option i can see of and do like you say rainwater harvest.
Or other option is have the mains on a slow trickle to supply a couple of cube a day to relive some of the pressure. But the whole idea was only to be using the mains if we had a pump go.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I have never heard of a well drilling company guaranteeing water delivery, they can only find what is there. We had an 18” bore on the last farm drilled 400 feet delivering 12,000 gallons an hour within 2 miles there are 3 delivering 36- 48,000 gallons. It really is the luck of the draw.
Have they tried acidyfying the well?
 

solo

Member
Location
worcestershire
At 3000l/hr it sounds similar to the borehole here which supplied 80 sows through to bacon weight pigs as well as 4 houses, sprayer and cattle over winter. My main is 50 mm alkathene for abour 100m and then 35 mm for the houses and reduced to 3/4 alkathene for distribution around the buildings which would be at least 100 m to the fattening and rearing piggeries holding 500 Head. Pigs have long gone now. PJ Hirons is who I use near Droitwich for borehole servicing. He has just installed a water treatment plant to reduce the nitrates to two Cottages I have.
 

zyklon

Member
Livestock Farmer
Exactly. Ours was around £5k. The price the OP stated doesn’t make sense.

Only problem we have started to have this year is the filter has to be changed every month due to a build up of black type clay. Main pipe to pump was changed as the inside of the pipe had built up that much in layers of this stuff, the water couldn’t get through restricting flow rate.

Maybe the OP is experiencing similar problem.

What filter do you guys use? Bloody expensive changing them.
 
Last edited:

kill

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South West
We left the mains water just feeding our house and our borehole waters all the stock to save buying a very expensive treatment plant that's meant to be dealer serviced twice a year that would work out more expensive than my mains water bill.
 

Matt

Member
Exactly. Ours was around £5k. The price the OP stated doesn’t make sense.

Only problem we have started to have this year is the filter has to be changed every month due to a build up of black type clay. Main pipe to pump was changed as the inside of the pipe had built up that much in layers of this stuff, the water couldn’t get through restricting flow rate.

Maybe the OP is experiencing similar problem.

What filter do you guys use? Bloody expensive changing them.

IS the treatment equipment very expensiven£39 k sounds a lot of money our last bore hole done a couple of years ago was £5k with a pump in and that is a lot deeper than yours


Drilling the well to 70m was 8500 c/w liner and gravel ect
the rest of it is filters and pumps and 2 water tanks.
the reverse osmosis machine which process about the 1m3/hr is just under 9K
have got a 5000l tank which the borehole pumps into, it goes through a sand clack filter and gets dosed with chorine based disenfectant stuff for any bacteria.
then when the 30,000l clean drinking water tank calls for water there is a pump which draws from the 5000l tank pushed water through another clack filter, this time with activated charcoal in it then through the reverse osmosis machine.
then you have a pressure sensitive pump drawing out of the big tank as and when the pressure drops in the pipe work when animals drink.

They may not be the cheapest around on fitting ect, but they knew what we needed and to a certain degree I expect it, they didnt know we would find sodium in the water which is fair enough having to pay extra for that part, but it was based on supplying a certain amount of water. otherwise it is a bit of a licence to print money. Its not like im looking to irrigate off a borehole.
 
Location
Cleveland
well they quoted to supply water for a new pig unit and farm.
well is drilled to around 66m 220ft. was having trouble after a while with sediment so lifted pump and slowed flow, trouble is we are not keeping up with the pigs. with a bill for just under £39K i want it working right. The salt in the water bumped the bill up by nearly double.

have no leaks as all new water pipe which only comes 50m from borehole to plant room then 50 m into sheds, Incoming meter and borehole well head meter tally.
39k for a borehole?!
 

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