Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

You guys know much about these? I live in an urban neighborhood in a big city in Minnesota and a friend of mine from St. Cloud saw me looking at emergency water storage and suggested I put one of these in my basement. It it was feasible, I could filter the water with a Berkey and have an emergency supply. I could also use it for plant and yard watering purposes. Any thoughts?

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water...PointWells.pdf

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

Do you know how deep the watertable is in your area?


Seems pretty clear on that point.

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

Looks like the biggest thing would be the kind of soil under your basement. Also, would it be "undocumented"? Minnesota is not a "hands off" sort of state.

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

Prof, those were the Wisconsin regs. About two seconds after posting I decided it would be pretty dumb to put in my basement. Aside from their reasons there is also too much opportunity for damages.

I have been unable to find MNs regs on these but I'm thinking about a side-garage application. I have a built on addition to the garage that serves as equipment storage and gardening room and it would be quite handy in there. I'll keep looking for the regs.

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

I know, it was the rest of it, about the contamination and such I was pointing out.

I'd find out if there's even any usable water to be had before I worried about the legality of it. The city planner's office should have water table charts, soil composition and ground pollution information on record. After all, if there's cap rock 5 feet down and no water for miles, there's no point in alerting people to what you're up to. Not to mention that you'd have to contact them anyhow just to ensure you're not punching a pipe through an old sewer main or gasline.

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

Hey Codger, fellow MNer here. I've driven a sand-point before, but it was on some property up north. You can get the point and casings at Fleet Farm. This was a few years ago, but at that time, they gave you a registration sheet with the point to send in to the Dept of Health. They said all they can do is give us the info, but they can't force you to send it in. I sent it in, and they send back a "well registration & number ID plate" to go on the well and also a little container to fill with water to send back so they can test it.

Depending on the soil type, it can be a real ball-buster of a job.

I'm looking at buying a house in the city that still has well water. The city seems to be rather non-chalant about it. They said they don't really know who still has well water. They usually find out when they're enforcing watering regs who's using well or city water, and make a note of it.

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

I'd like to drive a sandpoint out by my garden. Any idea of how to find the info (in MN) about how far down the water is?

Re: Driven-point or Sand-point wells?
 

Probably not far...

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/groundwater/watertable.html

*edit* My experience was as follows... I tried driving one up around the cabin area, went about 22 feet without hitting any real water supply. The pump was only rated for something like 20 ft or less. I went down to the lake and hit water around 13 feet. When you hit a good source, the water should come up the casing some. Use a nut tied to the end of a piece of twine. Drop it down the casing, and listen for the nut splash when it hits the water. Drop the nut to the bottom of the casing, then check how much depth water you have by the length of wet string.

HTH some.