Do you know what you don't know?

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SHOULD you drill a well on your property?  What kind of well should you have?  A drilled well?  An infiltration gallery well?  A hybrid well?  How deep should your well be drilled? 

   Will you get sulfur water?   Will you get ANY water?  What is TDS?  How much is "bad"?  What amount of TDS can you live with?  What will it cost if a well has "too much" TDS?  

    What is an annular space? What is the #1 Well Construction Technique in SW Colorado that makes a well last for generations?  What is the minimum size of annular space needed when well is drilled in shale - or even hard rock?  What is the correct thickness of the perforations  that allows the water into the PVC well casing?  Why is 4" inside diameter well casing not near as good as 4.5" inside diameter well casing?  Why is 5" well casing even better?  Why do many wells go "dry" in our area?

If you are one of the smart educated people in perhaps geology or engineering, who can answer most of the above questions,  then you have probably have already gone to the CDWR website and have researched the Well Construction Reports around the property you want a well drilled at.  I have some questions for you:

   Do you know which drillers generally did a good job going back over 25 years?  Do you know which wells were almost certainly drilled under the influence of alcohol?  (Got stories 😎!)  Do you know when a couple of drillers were in jail and had someone else filling out their Well Construction Reports?  Do you know which drillers were honest and you can "go to the bank" with their information?  Do you know what the different types of perforations in the casing and reported on the Well Construction Report mean to the actual production of the well?  Do you know how to read an older Well Construction Report and deduce the probability of where the water is coming into that well?   

   Knowing a lot of the history of the old and current drillers is vital in understanding and extracting the correct information from the CDWR.  I can help.   

Why have I been able to drill near many of those "dry" wells in my 25 years here, and get the same amount of water at the same well depth that those wells originally produced when drilled?  Why have the wells I've drilled lasted the test of time?  Why did I call our wells we drilled "Legacy Wells?"  Does a new drilled well - any kind of well - need to be pump tested?  Why or why not?  Is it to your advantage for your well driller to "skip-joint" the perforated PVC well casing?  Ok, what does skip-joint mean?  What is the best and right sized gravel for your well in your specific ground?

How did you do?  Do you need help and protection when  spending from $15,000 to $100,000 on your new well? 

Do you think that in our great state of Colorado, The Division of Water Resources (CDWR) is on your side?  Oh my.  They are NOT.  😔  Let me in on a secret:  Archuleta and LaPlata Counties are in "District 7".  How many physical on-site well inspections do you think they attended last year -2024?   Their own records say . . . ONE!   And who do you think they inspected? 🧐  Me! (I was introducing a special kind of drilling, "window casing",  and they wanted to see it in person. Not a problem.)   

   How comfortable would you be if you had a contractor building your house and there were no physical on-site inspections of your nice new house?  What quality of house would you have?  

   The staff at the CDWR and the staff''s State Oversight Board appointed by Colorado's Governor, both say that the legislature won't increase the cost of well permits enough to have Well Inspections performed in our area.  Just nuts!  

All of us drillers in District 7 are REALLY GOOD at scrutinizing the CDWR rules and writing down exactly what the cloistered up in Denver CDWR staff wants to see on our reports!  Do you feel protected by the CDWR?    

Hopefully . . . 

I am very proud of our well drilling industry.   We do amazing things in difficult circumstances to be able to  drill and-or otherwise find water for you. But we responsible drillers are in a continual ethical dilemma over how to function primarily due to the lack of physical well inspections from the CDWR. 

   For years, I've had to juggle with "The Driller's Five Competing Influences." It hasn't been easy and I haven't always gotten it right.  Let me share a picture of what a responsible driller has to consider when trying to drill you a great well: 

A Driller's Five Competing Influences:

1. We should be willing to “throw-out-the-book in our minds and figure out - design - the BEST well or water system for THAT individual client. WE have the experience in our own areas, WE have the knowledge of differing ways, techniques, and tooling, to be able to do things. WE have some idea of how our client behaves and their needs, and WE should be using our Talent that God has given us to design and build the BEST water system for our client. And we do try!
2. THEN as we’re driving back to our office to put a contract together for our client, we have the Competing Objective of thinking about trying to drill that well, or build that water system . . . within the regulations of our state. Hoo boy. Sometimes, If we need to satisfy objective #1, do we go through the effort, time, and cost to ask for a state approved Variance, or do we simply drill the well and fill out the Well Construction Report with “approved” data that the state wants to see? 
3. We also have the little g god of Safety. Whatever work we do needs to not only actually be safe - aggressively so - but then we should be conforming to yet another agency, OSHA. Also in the safety department is the Department of Transportation. (DOT). The Bible talks about the "Fear of God."  Let me tell you, we drillers have the "Fear of DOT."  We need to try and obey the trucking safety rules as we move
4. Then we need to make sure that we can make enough money. This isn’t a “big bad company owner ripping the people off thing,” this is the stark reality of having to make and set enough money aside for teensy little things like replacing million dollar + drill rigs and all of our other equipment as it wears out. What’s the cost of replacing 1000 feet of drill stem these days? It starts at $50,000.  Oh my! Even IF we have the skills to replace parts and rebuild our rigs, THEN we had better have the $$$ set aside for payroll and the increasingly elusive rebuild parts. Along with all of that we NEED to pay ourselves and our employees a “Living Wage.”
5. We need to take care of our earth. God has directed us to do that. We need to seal wells off from surface water in better ways than specific regulations require. We need to use our common sense to protect the gift of our Ground Water.

So . . . I’ve had the struggle with trying to figure out WHICH of these Competing Objectives I need to Dance with - and which one to prioritize at the right time . . . 

So, let's say that the driller you hire has only one "Not-Competing Influence."   Making $$$!  How do you make sure and NOT hire that driller?  Once the well is drilled, everything is buried, the well has not been physically inspected, the Well Construction Report is dreamed up and sent to the state and . . . what do you have?

My wife looked worried when I told her that this is how I wanted to help potential Well Owners in my "Life Pivot" - NOT retirement!  She said I was going to need a security detail to accompany me to well drilling sites if I was going to become a WOA - Well Owner's Advocate.  She told me that drillers in our area would HATE me!  

   IF you hire a driller who is cheating the system, not attempting to follow the CDWR rules since he KNOWS there will not be anyone inspecting the work he does, who is charging you vastly less than other drillers because his cheating allows him to get his drilling done faster, then . . . yes.  That driller will hate me.  

But responsible drillers should want a level playing field.  They will grow to "love" me.  And here's why: 

1. When - or if - your  driller is drilling your well and he needs to drill deeper to get more water or simply more storage, you have no idea if that is true or not.  Allow me to be you WOA - Well Owner Advocate and guide you in your decision making.  I've kinda been around the block. 
2. When - or if - there become stability problems in the bore hole as he is drilling, is his assessment of how to deal with that - and the cost of it - correct - and in your best interest?  If it is, then your WOA - Well Owner Advocate would be able to give you peace of mind. I would go to bat for the driller wanting to move forward and complete your well properly and explain to you why he needs to do more costly drilling.
3. When - not if - something happens in the drilling of the well that doesn't conform to CDWR rules,  you need a WOA - Well Owner Advocate.  I will explain to you what happened, why, what the CDWR rules state, and then give you my opinion about how to proceed.  I am on YOUR SIDE.   I will NOT EVER turn in any information to the CDWR - no matter what happens.  I will only report to you, and IF you want, to your driller. If the CDWR doesn't provide on-site well inspectors, that is their problem.  My interest is trying to make sure you have all of the data, good bad or ugly, explain it, and then you can do whatever you want with it.  Often,  I'll end up agreeing with the responsible driller. Then I'll be able to explain the "why" to you..  ALL of the time, I will be on your side - providing common sense and logic, powered by 36 years of experience in the Ground Water Industry.       

Let me Connect you with the name of where to gamble: Ute Indian Casino in Ignacio. 😬  When you want to minimize your future gambling when you need to have a well drilled, please call me!  WOA!  I want to help you and be your Well Owner Advocate.  AND I charge a whole lot less than an attorney, hydrologist or engineer, AND have vastly more real on-the-ground experience.  😎