Dry conditions prompt well-digging frenzy

Source: The Business Journal
 Written by Chuck Harvey


Dry weather conditions have kept Valley well diggers busy, both for residential and agricultural uses. In addition, the underground water table and well levels have fallen, meaning higher demand for new wells and deeper wells. Fresno alone has 260 pump stations. But the county has many more wells, including those dug for residents in the country and wells used for farming and industrial users. Fresno County has a total of 26,567 well drilling permits on file. In 2012, the county issued 503 well drilling permits. As of Dec. 20, 2013, the county had issued 893 well permits. Ag and domestic well permits are handled the same and are included in the numbers. Despite the high cost of digging new and deeper wells, many more are coming on line every month. With one of the driest Decembers on record, the underground water table is being heavily tapped. Some water experts believe the situation could lead to a moratorium on water wells except for repairs of existing wells. Well restrictions are already in place for the Paso Robles basin in San Luis Obispo County. There the board of supervisors approved an emergency ordinance that prohibits new development or planting of irrigated crops within the Paso Robles groundwater basin unless water use can be offset by another water use on a 1-1 ratio. Reports state that 375 wells were drilled into the basin in the last five years. Drillers see much the same situation in Fresno County. Along with prolonged drought conditions, they blame a lack of dams and imported water availability on significant loss of underground water. Additional dams would hold water during wet years before moving it to percolation ponds for recharging the underground aquifer. Currently, recharge efforts are not enough to keep well levels from dropping, especially on the Westside of the Valley. So well diggers must go deeper. “We are going deeper than ever before,” said Kim Hammond, a member of the office staff at Arthur & Orum Well Drilling Inc. in Fresno. She said some people whose wells have stopped working called in well diggers to replace them with many more wells. In agriculture, most of the additions and replacements are done by large farm operations. Cost can go as high as $400,000 for a deep well and a pump powerful enough to pull water up from a deep well. That has eliminated many mom-and-pop farmers who can’t afford that kind of expense, Hammond said. She said that with well levels dropping about 10 feet a year, many farmers need wells dug down 500 feet or more. With the drilling cost at $32 a foot, drilling a 500-foot well costs about $16,000. Besides the hefty cost, farmers are having a difficult time getting loans for wells, Hammond said. Despite the costs, well demand remains strong and that has put pressure on equipment and well-digging experts. “We have seven rigs and three operate 24 hours a day,” Hammond said. “It is a good business,” said Steve Arthur, a partner with Arthur & Orum Well Drilling. “We are busy and we run the equipment so hard that repairs are needed.” Also, when well levels drop and a well needs to be dug deeper, it is a slow process Arthur said. A drill can take a well down about 20 feet a day, so lowering a well by 600 feet is a month’s job. Arthur said that even the process of closing up and abandoning a well costs between $2,500 and $3,000. Wells that are dug deeper require a standard well drilling permit. A permit is not required for a repair. Most of the drilling and repairing has been in unincorporated territory outside of Fresno. Water levels have not dropped as drastically as in rural areas to the east and west. “The wells have held up really well,” said Gary Serrato, general manager of Fresno Irrigation District. “The drop off went to the east side.” Still, city water levels that had been at 120 feet are now at 150 feet down, Serrato said. He said that a plan by the city to build a $227 million surface water treatment plant in southwest Fresno would help stabilize the city’s underground water resources. Groundwater use has been fairly heavy in recent years because of lack of rain and reduced allocations from state and federal water sources. Some areas are in especially short supply and have been designated by Fresno County as water-short areas. The areas are east of Fresno, primarily in the foothills, and in far west Fresno County, west of Interstate 5 and including Coalinga. Within the water-short areas, a well yield test is required before building permits or permits granting mobile home occupancy will be granted. The homeowner or well operator must be able to confirm that water is available and will be served to the property. During the winter, the well must have a minimum end-of-test discharge rate of 10 gallons per minute without storage or two gallons per minute with 2,000 gallons of water storage. Fresno County also requires water well inspection and permits for new well construction reconstruction of existing wells and destruction of abandoned wells within unincorporated areas. The water well permitting program helps to assure that private water wells are constructed in a way that won’t contaminate groundwater supply. The county’s Environmental Health Division issues the permits. By the Numbers Fresno County Well Drilling Permits • 26,567 issued for all-time • 503 issued in 2012 • 893 issued as of Dec. 20, 2013 Source: Fresno County

 URL to original article: http://www.thebusinessjournal.com/news/energy-and-environment/10332-dry-conditions-prompt-well-digging-frenzy 

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