It’s time again – I’ve posted every once in a while about an idea I had for an artist colony on some land I’ve bought outside of Sedona. Well, I know that I haven’t posted for a LONG while, mostly because there wasn’t really anything to say. We’ve been stalled getting permission to change the zoning in order to accommodate the “commercial” use of the property, since we’ll be holding open studio events there and perhaps other gatherings.
So, here’s an update. The metal tube sticking out of the ground just behind the pickup truck in the photo to the left is a well. Yes, I know, not very impressive, is it? Still, it’s not just any well, it’s my well. There is a shared well agreement for this particular well, so other people do have some rights (and obligations) to my well, even though it is situated on my property. Since I’m starting the process of building my own home and studio out there, it was time to check out what the water situation was.
The architects working on the project, Design Group, recently added another member to our team of professionals, named Morgan Stine. His specialty is green energy, although he also does quite a bit of work related to all of the systems that support a home – water supply, waste-water treatment, and drainage, in addition to solar energy supply and energy management. He recommended Ray, the geo-physicist who is there is the picture, getting the video camera ready to head down into my well so that we could check out both the basic water quality and the well itself.
The rig consists of a winch system that allows the camera to descend at a measured rate of speed while we watch the video feed on a computer monitor that Ray sets up on the dash of his pickup. Morgan and I got to watch from the front seats of the pickup, while Ray ran the camera and winch controls from the back seat and watched over our shoulders. It was very interesting to see the inside of the well, to see the places where it had cracks far above the waterline (no problem, I’m told that it happens often), to see how and where it had been perforated below the waterline to allow water to run back into the well as the pump takes it out, to see all of the bees and ants that had fallen into the well and drowned (didn’t expect that one) despite the cap on the top of the well, and all of the marks in the PVC well lining from the installation process.
The water looked very clear – until the camera started backing back up the well and stirred up the debris in the bottom of the well – and the well itself shows no signs of anything beyond the ordinary. The only possible problem is that the perforations in the wall of the PVC liner were made by a rotary saw simply slicing a cut into the wall of the pipe in a few places. There don’t seem to be enough cuts, the cuts aren’t long enough, and in many places the slices had pinched together quite a bit, all of which will restrict the flow rate of water back into the well. So, the next step will be the flow test of the well to see what the capacity of the aquifer and the water flow rates are. Then we can start developing the well and start pumping water for the pond. Exciting stuff!