What are the types of wells? How deep can a well be? What kind of yuckies can be found in contaminated well water? Why does the well have a house? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural With Alley. I'm Alley. This is episode number 42, Wells Part One. Stick around to the end of the episode to find out what could possibly go wrong. Now, let's get into this. Wells are defined as manmade holes in the ground that reach underground water sources so that people can access water for drinking. The water can also be used for irrigation, watering livestock, and, in modern times, industrial uses. For example, many turkey farms in this area use them for watering animals, cleaning purposes, and running the machinery that requires water. The first records of wells date back about 8000 years to Israel, China and India.
There are four types of wells:dug, drilled, driven and jetted. Dug wells are sometimes called open wells. There are two types of dug wells; hand dug wells and wells dug by machinery like a backhoe. Hand dug wells! Hand dug wells were the only type until the early 1800 when boring machines were invented. They can be as shallow as 15 or 20ft, and the deepest hand dug well in history was 1285ft deep. It is located in and please forgive me if I mispronounce this, Brighton, East Sussex, England. There can be many different kinds of hand dug wells. Many are reinforced. Some are reinforced with wood, although this is not common in modern times. When wood starts to rot, and it will, there is a risk that it could contaminate the well with mold or fungus. Others were reinforced with rocks. Many of the ancient wells that survive until today are this kind. Another type is called step wells, originating out of India. These are wells that are larger and lined with stone and had extra stones placed around the lining to make steps down so that people could go down into the well. I'm not sure if every place did this, but in my area of the world, these are used for placing milk jugs in to keep them cool, like a refrigerator would. Although, it would have to be shallow enough not to submerge the jugs. Usually a section further back would be dug to a deeper depth so that there is no fear that the well will go dry between rains. I can't tell if they dig a deeper section all over the world or not. Spring fed wells might not need to worry about going dry. If you do not know what spring fed means, think of it like an underground water source that feeds water up to the well, or sometimes a stream starts as a spring when the groundwater comes above ground, acting like a tiny river with flowing water. There is a full episode on Townsend where they hand dig a well to show you how it's done in pioneer times. I will leave a link in the show notes on my website. Drilled wells are made by bringing in a portable drilling machine and boring a hole down into the required depth for the geological area. I have seen these from 20ft depths to 1000ft depths. Most drilled wells are between 100 and 800ft. The hole will be reinforced with casting to keep the shaft from collapsing. While most have an electric pump on the well, they can be wide enough to use a well bucket if there is no electricity. Drilled wells are the most common type of well in the United States today. Driven wells are made when a small diameter pipe is drilled into soft ground, such as sand or gravel. I have never seen one of these because soft ground does not describe any type of ground in my part of Tornado Alley or maybe Tornado Alley at all. Not 100% sure, but it would not be common. A screen is attached to the bottom to filter out particles and a pump will be needed to use to get the water out. These are between 30 and 50ft deep. Jettered wells are made with high pressure water pumped down to bore out a well. This can only be done in places where rock is unlikely to be found. As far as I can see, it's not a widely done technique. It definitely doesn't happen in my area of the world. The deepest I see in my research is 90ft. That is considered a shallow well in most places around the world. Depending on where your character is, shallow wells are between 50 to 100ft deep. Anything more than that is considered a deep well. Most wells that are not in deserts have some kind of well covering. Modern well covers are called a well house. They cover not only the well, but also the electrical components from the pump that are down inside of the well. Plus they are insulated and at least in my area of the world we have well house heaters to keep the pipes from freezing in the winter. In history they were usually a rock wall built around the hole first so that no one falls in and drowns. Second, it is used to help secure the covering. This could be boards that kept anything, including leaves, from falling in. There could be coverings that looked like a roof. They would need to go out far enough on all sides to keep the leaves and things like that out. Another thing they could do was to cover everything with a hand pump to bring the water to them. Sometimes called a piston pump. These were invented in the 1400s. Since the water goes back down into the well after pumping, it's unlikely to freeze the pump. Although I suppose that could be an issue in far northern places. The reason for these is because you do not want the well poisoned. Some of the historical diseases are chloria, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis b, typhoid and polio. Leave sticks and other things of this nature fall down into the well and eventually rot in the water. If there is mold or fungus, it will be in the water. People used to poison other people's wells by throwing metals in the well. It is most likely done if people were having their homestead taken over hostily. Other things to worry about poisoning the well are dead things. We have all heard of dead bodies poisoning a well. This is most likely because somebody fell into the well and drowned. However, if an animal falls in, it could poison the well. I know people who have stopped using wells because a snake or mouse fell in and they dug themselves a new one.
Creepy fact:according to the CDC, the most common modern well water contaminants are radon, arsenic, nitrates, radionuclides such as radiation and uranium, fluoride, volatile organic compounds, aka industrial chemicals, synthetic organic chemicals, aka pesticides, microbial contaminants such as E. Coli and additional contaminants. These could be things such as lead or copper from old pipes. Now, for everyone's favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you!
Likely to go wrong:your character spends weeks digging a well by hand.
Also likely to go wrong:your character has to pay a large amount to have a well drilled.
Possible to go wrong:your character tries to drive a well pipe and encounters a rock. This could break the pipe.
Also possible to go wrong:an animal such as a possum falls into the well and drowns. This would contaminate the well.
Unlikely to go wrong:your character has a drilled well and the casting collapses because it is not the right kind to withstand the pressure of the ground placed on it.
Also unlikely to go wrong:your character was trying to get rid of a dead body, so they tossed it down a well. This is one that has been done for as long as there have been wells, but people never threw it down their own well, always someone else's. Improbable, but still technically in the realm of
possibilities:Someone tries to kill your character by throwing them down the well, but your character isn't going out without a fight. They claw their way out of the well with great effort. Improbable, but still technically in the realm of your character's, child, family member or neighbor is walking in a field or yard and falls into an abandoned well that they didn't know was there. If there is water in the well, they could drown. If it is a dry well, they will need someone to save them before they die of thirst. It's an odd way to die inside something made for water. You can find this episode's, show notes and helpful links to learn more on my website alleyhart.com. That's Alleyhart.com. Thanks for watching. Subscribe and Follow for more episodes, connect on my YouTube videos by dropping me a comment. A new episode comes out every Monday! Until then, Happy wordsmithing.