Onoff Posted June 21, 2016 Author Share Posted June 21, 2016 24 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said: Your neighbours must think you've lost the plot 24 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said: Your neighbours must think you've lost the plot Don't really know them tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 20 hours ago, JSHarris said: There is a requirement for the driller to notify the British Geological Survey and provide them with a drilling log, but our driller failed to do this so I sent the BGS the data myself, only recently as I was browsing the BGS borehole map and noted ours wasn't on it yet. I've just checked at it looks like the borehole record I sent them a couple of months ago is now on line as borehole reference SU02NW24 My borehole, which was drilled six years ago, isn't on the database. Where did you send your data to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 6 minutes ago, PeterStarck said: My borehole, which was drilled six years ago, isn't on the database. Where did you send your data to? I used the contact page on the BGS website and they sent me a copy of the form to fill in and send back to them, together with any other data, like the water analysis or the hydrogeological report. When I enquired as to why our borehole wasn't showing on the viewer (the local council wanted the BGS reference to tie their water analysis results to), this is the reply I had back: Quote Dear Jeremy Many thanks for your enquiry regarding your borehole record. Under the terms of the Water Resources Act 1991 (WRA) we should receive records of drilled water boreholes that reach a depth of more than 15 metres. However we do not receive all records drilled under the WRA and unfortunately we have no way of knowing who is drilling and to what depths, therefore we do rely on the well owner or driller to notify us. If we have received your well record then it should be registered and will show on our borehole viewer at http://shop.bgs.ac.uk/georecords/ Please check this and if it is not registered, return as many details as you have, either a copy of the original drillers log or complete to the best of your knowledge the attached WR38 form. We will then get back to you to confirm registration or ask for further details. I look forward to hearing from you and if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me again. Regards Sue Sue Roper Data Acquisition and Ingestion Coordinator National Geoscience Data Centre British Geological Survey Keyworth Nottingham NG12 5GG Tel: 0115 9363127 The email address I received the above from was: ngdc@bgs.ac.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Thanks Jeremy I'll contact them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 I guess that these wells could be quite useful for site water supplies, before there is a mains connection. Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 I'm just stunned thanks to Jeremy's post to find that there's two boreholes within spitting distance of my house that were surveyed but noted unused back in the mid 60's. The scanned documents are fascinating, one around 10 pages long, all type set with the surveyor's hand written notes (& opinions) as to their dealings with the landowners. Gives details of the drilling and the strata at various depths and then the capping details down to size and spacing of the bolts used. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 There's some real history in those borehole records. At the far end of the village to where we're moving, there was a large WWI training camp (around 15,000 or so soldiers). It was all wooden huts and tents, so there is no sign of it at all today, except for all the regimental badges that the soldiers carved into the steep chalk escarpment behind the camp (see here: http://fovantbadges.com/ ). To supply water, the WO drilled several boreholes, some with a staggering capacity. One, at East Farm (this one: http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/sobi_scans/boreholes/398814/images/10728434.html ), has a borehole record that states that it was test pumped for "11 hours, limited by the capacity of the pump, but there is an ample supply, 96,000 gallons per day". The records in that link (in the following pages) show the layout of the old army camp, even down to where the hospital and firing range was located. Those who can recognise old army huts have spotted a few still remaining around the village, as after the war the locals appropriated a few as large garden sheds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 Looking along my valley and there's quite a number of bore holes. I guess old farms and smallholdings. A random thought.....aside from the water extraction possibilities would these be any good for a GSHP use? Seems a waste of good holes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 I don't understand that "borehole view" on that geology map. Can you explain why there are a lot of "boreholes" all along the A9 road, where there are no houses? And the one real borehole that I know of nearby is not on the map. One of the estates in town appears to have about 100 boreholes, yet is on mains water. It doesn't make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 6 minutes ago, ProDave said: I don't understand that "borehole view" on that geology map. Can you explain why there are a lot of "boreholes" all along the A9 road, where there are no houses? And the one real borehole that I know of nearby is not on the map. One of the estates in town appears to have about 100 boreholes, yet is on mains water. It doesn't make sense. Not all the boreholes are for water supplies, many are for ground assessment. Any borehole over 15m deep is supposed to be registered with the BGS, but a fair few water borehole drillers aren't that diligent about registering their findings, whereas the civil engineering companies that do things like build roads, and drill holes to assess the ground underneath, are better at registering them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 I can confirm that the two near me I found on Jeremy's link are in fact (still) there. The shallower one at +/-40m is in fact the old "well" on the farm. The +/-90m one is just in a corner of a field where there is a "structure". All the ones local to me tie up pretty much with old farms or large manor type houses some which are long demolished. It all sort of fits with their use as the primary water source down here before the mains was laid on. All we need now is main drainage and gas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 21 minutes ago, ProDave said: I don't understand that "borehole view" on that geology map. Can you explain why there are a lot of "boreholes" all along the A9 road, where there are no houses? And the one real borehole that I know of nearby is not on the map. One of the estates in town appears to have about 100 boreholes, yet is on mains water. It doesn't make sense. We done a lot of boreholes along routes for roads, pipelines and even electricity cables. They like to know what's there so they don't come across anything like peat or even shallow rock for example. I done a job for a new water main near the length of county Armagh from top to bottom with a hole to 3-4m every 500m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 I mentioned that my road that used to be an "old" water course: & "downriver": Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Been raining has it ..??! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 1 hour ago, PeterW said: Been raining has it ..??! Hasn't stopped! No chance of finding a wet patch on the lawn from leaking water main in this either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 I sent the British Geological Survey my borehole data, such as it is, and they have entered it already, very efficient. It is at TR25NE221. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted October 1, 2019 Author Share Posted October 1, 2019 Ressurecting this and following on from @patp's thread I took a look at the data for the nearest borehole to me last surveyed in the 60's. No idea if these figures are "good" or not and what they'd be like now, 50/60 years on. The next borehole down, I'm literally between the two, showed similar figures. We're at the bottom of a valley and there's a few boreholes, in a line. Can't see that we wouldn't be on this water course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 10,000 gallons per hour is massive, the most you are allowed to extract without needing an abstraction licence is 20,000 litres per day, so that has around 54 times the maximum abstraction capacity of a private borehole with no licence. It's also a big borehole, around three times the normal diameter. A normal domestic borehole would be drilled at around 200mm/8" and then be fitted with a 112mm/4" PVC liner, with a slotted section at the base to allow water in. Our borehole is 53m deep (174 ft), has a standing water level that's about 4.5m below the top, and which dropped to 11m below the top when test pumped at 1,500 litres per hour for 2 days. We use around 400 litres per day, for just the two of us. Our borehole cost (after correcting for the cock-ups) around £9,000, including the cost of the pump, filtration, pressure vessels etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted October 1, 2019 Author Share Posted October 1, 2019 @JSHarris, thanks for that. There's no g'tee I'm assuming of hitting water though is there? Happy to pm you a link to see exactly where we sit in relation to the two boreholes. How did you know you were going to hit water to make it worthwhile drilling? Based on what was around you already? Also on the old surveys there's no analysis of the water. How do you go about that / rough cost? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 15 minutes ago, Onoff said: @JSHarris, thanks for that. There's no g'tee I'm assuming of hitting water though is there? Happy to pm you a link to see exactly where we sit in relation to the two boreholes. How did you know you were going to hit water to make it worthwhile drilling? Based on what was around you already? Also on the old surveys there's no analysis of the water. How do you go about that / rough cost? Cheers I paid for a hydrogeological survey, which gave lots of useful information, and cost £250 plus VAT. The chap I used was Tim Baker, at BA Hydro Solutions http://bahsltd.com/index.htm I'd not hesitate to recommend him, as his report was really helpful. Here's a copy of it so you can see what you get for the money: Passivhaus Mill Lane Hydrogeological Assessment V3.1.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 3 hours ago, Onoff said: @JSHarris, thanks for that. There's no g'tee I'm assuming of hitting water though is there? Happy to pm you a link to see exactly where we sit in relation to the two boreholes. How did you know you were going to hit water to make it worthwhile drilling? Based on what was around you already? Also on the old surveys there's no analysis of the water. How do you go about that / rough cost? Cheers You look at old boreholes like you have done. Sometimes when you strike water its a tiny trickle that takes all day to fill the standpipe. Others it's like you have found old faithful geyser and the water hits 4/5m high and you get a free very cold shower. We hit an artesian well on a job in an underground car park in Belfast and very very nearly flooded the whole floor of the car park, about 8m depth of water. Had to be pumped out quicker than it came in which was a lot of water and then a large steel cap bolted to the floor, borehole filled with powdered bentonite to plug it and welded shut. That was a fun few days!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 5 hours ago, Onoff said: Also on the old surveys there's no analysis of the water. How do you go about that / rough cost? Sorry, @Onoff, missed this bit earlier. There are two ways to get an analysis done. Your local authority environmental health people have a legal obligation to provide a fixed price analysis service for domestic water supplies. The price is set by central government, and currently the charge here is set at £17.05 for a standard water analysis, which is far less than any lab will charge. In our case, because the local authority would lose money on every analysis they are asked to do, they refuse to accept samples provided by anyone other than their own staff, so they can then charge a hefty "sampling fee" of £105 on top, to push the price up to enough to cover their costs (I'm pretty sure that the people who wrote the legislation didn't intend them to do this...). Often it's cheaper to just find a local lab that will undertake water analysis and take your own samples to them. We have a lab a few miles away that accepts private samples, or there are other labs, like the one that the hydrogeologist we used has, that will either send out sample bottles to be filled and returned, or will specify the size and type of sample bottles needed. The bottle used for collecting the bacterial analysis sample has to be sterile, and there's a procedure for cleaning and disinfecting the tap that the sample is taken from as well. The really cheap option is to buy a test kit from one of the many online suppliers and do your own analysis. Not hard to do, and there are test papers available for many common water contaminants. These won't test the total hardness, though, although you can buy electronic meters for doing this (I have a collection of them, happy to lend them out if you need them). You can also buy a bacterial analysis kit online, but it's so challenging to make sure that everything is sterile when using it that I'm not convinced it's much use. A lab test is best, as this will identify specific bugs, if there are any, whereas the kits you buy online will give a positive indication for a wide range of stuff, much of which is harmless. Best of all is if you happen to know someone that can do you a favour at a very well known lab that has comprehensive analysis facilities... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamieled Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Water companies can work out quite cheap for testing due to the volume of samples they work with. I'm not sure if all companies accept samples commercially, but Scottish Water were around £50 a sample for what I needed to test. As noted above, they gave me the prepared bottles and labels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted October 1, 2019 Author Share Posted October 1, 2019 21 minutes ago, JSHarris said: Best of all is if you happen to know someone that can do you a favour at a very well known lab that has comprehensive analysis facilities... I do use a lab for oil sample analysis... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Just now, Onoff said: I do use a lab for oil sample analysis... They might well be able to do it. The testing is pretty standard stuff that any lab should be able to do. There's no requirement for it to be UKAS accredited or whatever for just doing an initial determination, as all you need to know is whether the water is going to be relatively easy to treat and bring within the required drinking water standards. The data from our borehole includes my initial lab analysis (before treatment), plus the official one done later by environmental health. The borehole reference number is SU02NW24 and I think the analysis is on the last page. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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