Residential Water Wells

Residential water systems provide a healthy, environmentally safe, and cost effective means to supply your home with fresh drinking water.  Bergerson Caswell began installing water wells for homes in the 1940’s using cable tool rigs to drive in wells.  Today, we use modern rotary drill rigs that allows us to provide high quality wells in less time and with less mess.  Whether you need a screened or bedrock well, we have the equipment and the experience to construct high quality water wells using today’s most durable products.

Screened Wells

The most common type of well we install, a screened well, is a type of well that is generally set in a sand and gravel aquifer.  The sand and gravel is porous enough to allow water to flow through it, making it an ideal water source for your home.  A typical 4 inch screened well can produce anywhere from ten gallons per minute all the way up to sixty gallons per minute.  When installing screened wells, Bergerson Caswell installs the screen all the way to the bottom of the sand and gravel formation.  This protects your well from fluctuating water levels and maximizes the life span of your well.  Most of these types of wells are constructed using 4″ PVC casing as well as a 4″ PVC screen.

Open Hole Wells

Where sand and gravel aquifers are not available, steel cased open hole wells are installed into bedrock.  This type of well is more costly than a screened well, but offers some advantages.  In general, bedrock aquifers are highly insulated from droughts.  It is less likely that this type of water well will experience critical water level fluctuations that would interrupt the supply of water to your home.  The other primary advantage is that unlike PVC cased wells, steel bedrock wells can be improved in the future.  If your water production ever slowed down or if you needed additional flow in the future, we can simply set a drill rig back up on the well and drill the well deeper.

We construct only the highest quality wells.  In accordance with state regulations and industry best practices, only the highest quality components are installed.  To learn more about Minnesota’s Water Well Code, visit the Minnesota Department of Health website here.  Bergerson Caswell actively works with regulators as well as the rest of the water well industry to ensure that Minnesotans continue to receive safe, sustainable groundwater.

For more information about groundwater and well ownership visit wellowner.org, published by the National Groundwater Association here.

Common Groundwater Questions

Where does ground water come from?  Has it been there for ages? Is there a limited supply?  Should I worry about my well running out of water?  People generally have many questions about groundwater because it is critically important and it is relatively unseen.  Most people don’t take much consideration of where there water comes from as long as when they turn on the tap water flows from it.

Even though groundwater resides below our feet, most groundwater started out as rain.  Over the years, the rain percolated through the soil and collected with other water in aquifers.

Aquafers

There are two primary types of aquifers: unconfined and confined.  Unconfined aquifers are primarily aquifers where porous unconsolidated materials, like sand and gravel, reside on top of impermeable geologic layers like clay or bedrock.  Unconfined aquifers are a little risky in the sense that there is not much material to filter out contaminants before they interact with the aquifer.

Confined aquifers can consist of screened wells in unconsolidated materials or bedrock wells.  Confined aquifers have the benefit of being encased under an semi-impermeable layer of material.  This helps keep contaminants from the surface out of your drinking water.  Even a clay layer as little as eight feet thick can keep organic material out of an aquifer long enough for the material to become inert.  We highly recommend that you have your well installed in a confined aquifer wherever available.

Minnesota is very lucky to have abundant surface and groundwater resources.  But even though these sources are abundant today, if not managed properly, we could see water scarcity in the future.  It takes many years for most aquifers to replenish themselves.  Droughts can have radical effects on wells that were set too shallow.  This is why Bergerson Caswell installs wells to a depth that insulates your water supply from drought effects.

Using Water Responsibly

Even though residential wells pose little risk to aquifer depletion, we still encourage well owners to use the resource responsibly.  Make sure that all of your toilets are operating properly.  Try to purchase only water efficient appliances and don’t let your faucets run unnecessarily.  If you irrigate your lawn, make sure that all of your sprinkler heads are adjusted properly.  Irrigate during times of the day that minimize evaporation,  and don’t over irrigate areas of your lawn.  If your irrigation system needs a tune-up contact our irrigation department here.

In conclusion, residential water wells are an asset that will serve the user well when properly installed, used and maintained.  Bergerson Caswell can help!