mud pump for 100 feet dug wells pricelist

Typically, well pumps can be broken down into two categories: jet pumps and submersible pumps. Each design is built to fit the needs of various well sizes and conditions.

Most shallow well pumps are found in wells that are less than 25 feet deep and in areas with a high water table. These pumps have few running parts and require little maintenance.

This type of pump is located above the ground, typically just inside the well house, and generates high pressure to pull the water from the well and into the home using an inlet pipe. A tank or well booster pump is recommended to accompany this type of well pump to increase water pressure to the home.

Unlike its shallow counterpart, a deep well jet pump is located within the well, though its motor stays in the well house. This pump uses two pipes: one for drawing water out of the well and another for directing the water to the home. Deep well jet pumps are typically used in wells that are 110 feet deep.

A deep well submersible pump sits at the bottom of the well directly in the water. Using its motor, the pump draws water from the bottom and pushes it out of the well into your home’s water lines. These pumps can be used in wells up to 300 feet deep. The pumps work similar to sump pumps, which draw water and pump it out.

Although professional well pump replacement comes with high pump installation costs, you may have no choice but to call a professional depending on the well pump you have. Certain pumps, like deep well submersible pumps, require special equipment to get them out without damaging components or wiring. In addition to the fragility of the well’s components, removing a well pump can be very labor intensive, with some pumps weighing more than 100 pounds.

Even if you’re considering replacing your well pump on your own, call a plumber to confirm that the well pump is the issue with your system before removing it. This will prevent any unneeded work or unintentional damage to your well system.

Use the tool below to find a well service contractor who can diagnose your well pump problem and help you determine whether or not you can replace it yourself:

Well casing is essential in supporting the walls of the well and preventing debris and dirt from getting into the water. The cost of 25 feet of casing for an average well is$250 to $2,500, depending on the conditions of the soil.

A well storage tank, water tank, or pressure tank, stores well water in a pressured environment before delivering it around your home. A pressure tank provides you with an instant supply of water and reduces how often the pump switches on and off.

The average well water storage tank cost is$100 to $700. The cost of a well storage tank largely depends on the size of the tank. While a small 2-gallon tank may cost less than $100, a large 44-gallon tank may cost $800 or more.

The average cost per foot to drill a well, for the drilling only, is $12 to $25. This cost depends on the type of well and the prices offered in your location. The overall cost per foot, including the cost of the well system itself, is $25 to $65.

The cost to drill a residential well is $25 to $65 per foot. This equals a total cost of $3,500-$15,000, depending on the size, depth, and location of the well. This cost covers every expense, including drilling, and all the well components, including casing, a pump, initial water quality testing, a permit, and wiring.

Shallow wells cost $15 to $60 per foot, or between $1,800 and 3,000 for the complete well. Shallow wells are usually between 3 and 10 feet in diameter and 25 to 50 feet deep.

While shallow wells are cheaper than deep wells, they become easily contaminated and produce a varying yield, so they’re not the most sustainable investment.

The cost to drill a geothermal well is $10 to $40 per foot. Ageothermal wellis typically 100 to 500 feet deep and between 4 and 8 inches wide. The overall cost for a geothermal well, including the drilling and the components, is $3,500 to $5,000.

The cost of a vertical geothermal heat pump is $20,000 to $35,000 on average. This cost includes the material cost, the cost of transporting the equipment to the drilling site, and the cost to drill the well.

Drilling a sand point well costs between $500 and $3,000 on average. Sand point wells are about 20 feet deep and 1 to 2 inches in diameter. These wells draw water from water-bearing sand, with hand pump and jet pump options.

If you hope to install your own well, a sand point well is the safest and easiest well that can be DIY installed. However, sand point wells don’t typically provide consistent water access or last long, and they only work with a shallow water table (average depth below 25 feet).

An irrigation or agricultural well costs between $25 and $50 per foot for just the drilling. A complete installation, including the components, is $85 to $110 per foot.

On average, a residential irrigation well costs $10,000 to $15,000 to dig. A commercial agricultural well with a high yield costs between $50,000 and $75,000 to drill, including the water pump.

Artesian wells cost between $30 and $85 per foot. The total cost for this type of well is $5,000 to $15,000, including drilling to an average depth of 150-450 feet to find an aquifer, and the cost of casing.

Artesian wells are cheaper and lower maintenance to operate than other types of wells. Aquifers are highly pressurized environments, so water flows naturally into the well system without the need for electricity or a water pump.

If your well is more than 200 feet deep, speak to your local well contractor about hydrofracturing, which involves using highly pressurized water to break up rock at the bottom of the well, creating new pathways for water to enter the aquifer. This can be used to increase water flow and costs $1,250 to $3,000 on average.

The depth of the well is one of the most significant factors affecting the cost of drilling. The deeper the well, the more work that is required to drill the well, the more materials that are needed for the well, and the more structural support is required to keep the well stable.

The average well is between 100 and 500 feet deep. Shallow water wells are only about 25 to 50 feet deep, which is why they’re much cheaper to drill than deep wells. However, shallow wells are known to dry out during droughts and are more prone to E.coli or coliform contamination, while deep wells are far less likely to become contaminated and provide a consistent yield of water, regardless of the season.

So, while the cost of a deep well is more expensive than the cost of shallow water wells, deep wells tend to be worth the extra investment due to their safety and water yield benefits.

Easily get"s dry and contaminated with chloroform or E.coliDoesn"t easily get dry, has more yield, and can remain uncontaminated if installed according to regulations

Idaho, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Nebraska have some of the cheapest average costs for drilling a well, with prices starting at $25 or $26 per foot. The most expensive states to drill a well are Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, with prices starting at $30 or more per foot.

The closer your well is installed to your property, the fewer materials will be needed to transport water from the well to your property’s plumbing system. The average cost of a main water line is $30-$60 per foot. If you need to install a solar-powered pump, this costs around $2,000, and a power line costs about $1,500.

To legally install a well deeper than 2 feet on your property, you’ll most likely need a well permit. The cost of a well permit depends on your region. In general, expect to pay $300 to $700 for a permit.

Well permits are essential to ensure that your well has been constructed in compliance with your local regulations. You should secure a permit before you begin drilling your well. Your local authority should provide information on how to apply for a well permit, and how much a permit costs in your area.

Testing your well water is one of the essential annual maintenance costs in owning a well. As a private well owner, you’re responsible for ensuring that your water is safe to drink. To do this, you need to test your water to find out what it contains, then treat your water as necessary (more on the cost of water treatment later).

The National Ground Water Association and Environmental Protection Agency recommend that you test your well water at least once a year for total dissolved solids, nitrates, total coliform bacteria, andpH levels. You can test your water in one of two ways:

With a DIY water test, costing $20-$100 per year.DIY tests are quick and convenient, but we don’t recommend them for well water as they’re not thorough or 100% accurate.

To ensure your well water system is in good working order, you should get your well inspected once a year by a local contractor. Your contractor will inspect the well for cleanliness and mechanical problems, and advise you on any steps you may need to take following the inspection.

The typical price range for repairing a well is $927 – $2,503. The exact cost of well maintenance or repairs depends on which component you need to work on. A well pump system is one of the most expensive items to repair or replace.

The initial investment in a well system is high. However, once you’ve paid for the new system installation, you’ll only need to pay for yearly maintenance and water testing, which, for a new, properly constructed well, should cost less than $350. You’ll also need to pay the electricity cost of operating the electric pump, which should be low if you have a decent water tank.

In comparison, a household that uses around 12,000 gallons of water per month can expect to pay about $850 per year for their water bill. So, a private well can help you to save at least $500 per year.

Keep in mind that old wells and septic systems incur expensive maintenance, repair, and replacement costs. Every 20 or 30 years, you’ll need to replace the water tank, pump, screen, and casing, which will set you back around $10,000.

Installing a well yourself has the potential to be cheaper than hiring a professional. However, the cost estimates for DIY installation of a deep well aren’t too different from the costs of a professional installation.

As well as paying $100-$150 per foot for pipes, tubing, and casing, you’ll also need to pay between $600 and $800 per day to rent a drill rig. Plus, you’ll need to pay for surveys, permits, and everything else required to legally drill your well.

However, despite their benefits, wells aren’t for everyone.The upfront cost to drill a well is simply too high for some people. Many homeowners choose to drill a well only after paying off their other, more important, investments, such as mortgages and student loans. Make sure you’re in the financial position to pay up to $10,000 – or perhaps even more – on well drilling before you agree to anything.

If you’re interested in drilling a well, contact several well drilling companies in your area. Ask one or two contractors to survey your potential drill site and draw up a quote for the complete drilling job (including the cost of the pressure tank, the pump, and the casing). You’re not obliged to commit to a service after receiving a quote, so this is a good way to find out the cost to drill a well on your property without the pressure of following through.

You should budget at least $5,300 to $9,200 for drilling a deep well, or $1,800 to $3,000 to drill a shallow well. Some wells cost up to $15,000. Factors affecting the cost of a well include your geographical location, the well’s depth, the well’s distance to your property, and the cost of permits.

Yes, you can drill your own shallow well. However, you shouldn’t attempt to drill a deep well for drinking water without professional support. There are tens of safety hazards involved in digging a deep hole, and a poorly constructed well could crack or collapse. For safety and peace of mind, leave deep well drilling to the experts.

Drilling a well costs a lot of money because you’re paying for expensive well components, several days of labor, and all the processes and parts required to make the well system operational.

There isn’t a set labor cost for drilling a well. Contractors may charge an hourly fee of $50-$150 and add this separately to the list of expenses, or the labor cost may be factored into the overall cost.

A water well is any type of excavation created to remove water from an underground aquifer (a geologic formation or series of formations that contain enough water to supply wells and springs). Wells created using traditional digging methods (pick and shovel or backhoe) are typically wide holes only 10"-30" deep. Driven wells are created by driving a small diameter pipe into soft earth (gravel or sand) and are generally 30"-50" deep. The most common method of well construction in the United States today is drilling, which requires a fairly complicated and expensive drill rig, usually mounted on a large truck. Drilled wells are typically 100"-400" deep but can be 1,000" or more. The U.S. Geological Survey provides an overview of types of wells[1] and the Environmental Protections Agency provides a glossary[2] of well-related terms.

Prices for drilling a water well are typically quoted by the foot, and vary significantly depending on the type and difficulty of the material being drilled through (sand, solid rock, clay, etc.).

Drilling the well hole, installing the casing (a tubular lining that prevents the well hole from collapsing) and adding a well cap (a tight-fitting, vermin-proof top seal) typically costs $15-$30per foot, or $1,500-$3,000for a 100" deep well, and $6,000-$12,000for a 400" well. (However, if the geological conditions are especially difficult or access is extremely limited, drilling can cost $30-$50a foot or more.) For example, the sustainable Arizona homesteaders at ByExample.com[3] report paying $6,750to have well drilled 280" deep, or about $24/foot.

A complete water system is typically designed (and a total price quoted) after the well is successfully drilled and the well"s depth and water yield is known. A well pump to bring the water to the surface, a pressurized storage tank or tanks (if the well"s yield is not enough to meet peak demand), underground piping to take the water to the house, electrical wiring to power the system, a control panel and other items can add $2,000-$8,000or more to the total cost, depending on the size of pump and the distance to the house. This brings the typical total for drilling a well and setting up a private water delivery system to $3,500-$20,000or more, but an especially deep and difficult well with a complex water system can cost $20,000-$50,000or more, depending on depth, water yield and system complexity. A great deal depends on local geological conditions. For example, Cushing & Sons Well Drilling[4] in New Hampshire estimates an average cost of $5,000for a complete water well system in that area, while a Colorado landowner[5] reports costs of $14,000to drill a 600" well (about $23-$24/foot) and another $7,000-$8,000for a constant pressure pump system with a 70" water line to the house, or $21,000-$22,000total.

The Kansas Geological Society explains how to evaluate[6] the potential for a water well and a video by the American Groundwater Turst provides an overview of well water systems, including drilling methods.

Search for local water well contractors through the National Ground Water Association[9] . The association also provides a state-by-state list of well-water-related resources, including licensing agencies for geologists, engineers, and contractors; regulatory agencies; groundwater-use summaries; and groundwater-quality reports.

The well driller should provide a written contract listing the work to be done and the specific costs, including potential fees for drilling deeper or drilling a second well if the first must be abandoned. Foster Water Well Drilling in California explains how to hire a water well contractor[10] .

End of the year budgets are tight for everyone, especially in this economy.It"s especially hard for the millions of Americans who depend on government programs like food stamps to help make ends meet.|| Posted November 11 2013

Drill bit sheared off. Contractor said he"d comeback and start over after he finished next job. Kept putting me off. A year later just now getting to State arbitration hearing. I"m getting screwed over by his bond company too. I"ll end up needing to hire an attorney (7k!) and going to court... lots of stress, 2 yrs of my life. I"m disabled, & live alone in remote area of desert because that"s all I can afford. Chambers" business is booming. He wouldn"t have lost a penny by doing the right thing.

Drilled 105" pump at 100" 15gpm. 1 1/2" waterline to house. 6.9ph, 12ppm clear water iron. Tds 15ppm. Typical for Mercer Pa. I did the 258" of 60" deep trench, pvc pipe, 30 gal. Pressure tank, wiring in conduits, Trace sw4024 inverter, solar panels, 1640 ah telco 24vdc battery bank. As of 11/19/18 still going strong! PS: I have a reusable screen pre filter, greensand iron filter, sears 880 water softener and reverse osmosis filter in the kitchen but it is really not needed.

drilled 3000 feet just to find bedrock. found at 3000. water pump at 240 feet, pumps 300 gal per minute. static water 215 feet. pH 6.8, no iron, 6 inch well with 12 inch casing. submerged pump. recovery time about 5 min. TSS a little high, no other issues..clear water

My original well IS 130 feet but the casing has a leak. I didn"t know about a dry well. The drilling company charged $10.00 a foot but was nice enough to settle for the money I had put down. Now, I am looking for another company to repair my existing well as this company I used does not do repairs anymore. I can"t afford another dry well. Do you know some company that is reputable to do repairs?

I just got the price of $1350 to make this existing well work with a submersible 1/2 HP pump. No power, so will leave as a generator hook up. I actually just emailed him back and said it was too much since he gave me a lower hourly maintenance fee for this task when we first met at the site. I wanted a price for two other wells on the property with underground storage and solar set up, but no proposals given for that work.

Does anyone have any numbers that relate to the areas outside North bend up Mettman Creek? Looking at land there. Have no idea what to expect. Contacted the local authorities but have not heard back, yet. I"ve read about water being around 100" down. Don"t know if this is true. ANYONE?

We bought some property with an existing well, so the $7100 is the quote I got for the pump, install, certified flow rate testing and water sample testing. We need this in order to get a building permit.

I have not started yet but I expect to be looking for a well on my property in the Spring. Everybody who commented had useful information. However there was no one commenting who are in the area where I have land. providing a map of areas in question would help even if its not exact. This would be an even greater help for potential buyers of this type of service. I appreciate you are here

The cost of well drilling far exceeded my expectations. Total cost for the well drilling and casing came just under $11000. The pump, pressure tank, etc added up to another $4000. I wish I knew before buying the land it would be so costly. At the very least, the estimates I received prior to drilling were accurate.

We got estimate before work was done. Old well was 180 ft. Based upon a neighbor"s 10 yr old well at 350 ft, we were told our well would be 350 ft, best case. We were advised if it wasn"t 350 ft, it would likely be 500 ft. Very happy with Freese Well Drilling and Brown"s Well and Pump service.

This is a typical quote for a domestic water well right now in the central valley of California, May of 2016. What"s included? Well, 6" PVC casing and pipe, permit ($800.00), 3 Hp pump and installation. Plumbed into existing well electric and bladder pressure tank system and 30 to 50ft of trenching. No problem finding water, on top of the largest aquifer in the state. Soil conditions, sandy loam, no rocks (carrots grown here).

And after dug, they pumped for over one week, still muddy water is coming out. Now they took out pump used other sources to pulled the water out but still muddy.

Finding the right well pump is a challenge that many well owners know and understand. With that in mind, Legacy found an incredible hand pump that addresses many of the problems with existing hand well pumps. This fantastic pump has a very simple and effective design, which means less moving parts and a much lower likelihood of breaking.

Since it is not made of hard PVC pipes, it is easy to remove from your well and can even be used in streams and lakes if you are camping or out in the woods.  The innovative design requires no holes drilled into your well cover and allows you to store this pump inside your well so that no handle is sticking out for people to see, kids to play with or trip over and break. Our pump is so easy to use that even kids can pump and get water to flow. The smart design allows any one with some basic handyman skills to adjust the length of the pipe so that your pipe depth hits the ideal and optimum level for your well.

Lightweight- Our pump unit weighs less than 15 lbs complete. It also weighs less when pumping water since a smaller diameter hose means you are pushing a lighter column of water.

1-Piece Design- Simple construction means it is less likely to break at connection points like PVC section pumps. Also, it is less affected by cold weather.

Easy, Hidden Storage- Store your pump inside the well housing and take it out when you need it, or roll it up and store it in your garage. No holes are drilled in your pump cover and there is not a pump handle sticking out of the top of your well, waiting to be broken by kids or weather. Innovative design for storage helps to keep your well safe from contamination.

Dependable- We utilize a one moving part design using brass and stainless steel pump parts and a metal handle. The only thing that would ever need replacement are a couple of o-rings and it would take thousands of pumps before that would be required. If replacement becomes necessary, it requires unscrewing one fitting and replacing an o-ring that can be found at most hardware stores and performed by almost anyone.

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If you live in a rural area, the odds are that the water system to your home is served by a well. It’s the nature of living where we do, and having been on a well for a large chunk of my life, I like not being dependent on my locality to keep things flowing to my family and me. But, that also means arranging my own maintenance for the well system, and having the best well pump helps to ensure consistent water supply and rare upkeep.

I remember when my much-younger self first saw the inner workings of a home well system. The gauge at the well head wasn’t deep enough in the ground and froze during a particularly bad winter. Everything came out of the ground as we inspected the whole system to make sure nothing else was damaged. Hundreds of feet of tubing were attached to the tow ball of a pickup truck as we hauled it out of the ground, taking a look at the well pump at the end.

Though the weather didn’t impact the pump that far below ground, it had some damage from banging into the walls of the well itself, and we had to add a guard to keep the pump working for a few more years.

Most experts will tell you that a submersible well pump, like what most rural homeowners and farmers have, will last about 10 to 15 years — hopefully more toward the higher side of that. Replacing these units aren’t cheap, and if you pay for the labor, too, the bill can really increase.

Not everyone knows all the ins and outs of their well system, unless they’ve had to do some work to it. If you buy a home, it’s unlikely that you’re given much documentation on the history of the well. In most circumstances, your well is at least 100 feet deep, and some wells can be upwards of 500 feet down! Of course, a lot of that depends on exactly where you live. Having the pump submerged into at least 25- to 30-feet of water is ideal.

I have two wells on my farm — one is 183 feet and the other is 294 feet (the deeper one produces better-quality water). In recent years, we’ve had to have pumps on both wells replaced, and both required different horse powers to effectively get the water the full length and into my home, as well as get a sufficient number of gallons per minute into my pressure tank.

Having gone through that process, I learned a thing or two about well systems and trying to pick the best well pumps. After going through many options with experts, here are my Top 5 best well pumps. While we’re largely only highlighting one model from each of these well pump lines, know that there are often also similar 0.5-, 0.75, 1-, and 1.5-HP models for a lot of these available — at significantly different prices:

This is one of the best-selling well pumps you can find. It’s made for supplying water to rural homes, farms, and cabins that have 4-inch-or-greater diameter drilled wells to depths of about 250 feet. This pump is powered by a three-wire motor (a control box is included with all three-wire pumps) and has a built-in check valve that prevents backflow and ensures system pressure. It also has a stainless steel shell and thermoplastic discharge and motor bracket. It is is 230 volts.

The Flotec FP3332 4-inch Submersible Well Pump is for use with wells 4 inches or larger. The Flotec well pump is energy efficient and ideal for pumps with average yields. A floating stack design that’s patented ensures that the Flotec FP3332  pump will be resistant to sand locking, and a stainless steel pump ensures that it will be resistant to corrosion. A built-in check valve and easy service control box make installing and servicing the Flotec well pump easy. It’s a three-wire, 230-volt pump.

Showcasing a Franklin Electric, this pump combines a long and powerful reputation in both brand name and manufacturer. The Little Giant is available with a thermoplastic discharge and motor bracket, or a stainless steel discharge and motor bracket, and it has a ceramic bearing sleeve for durability. Behind 230 volts, it also has a hex rubber bearing with an extra large surface to assure shaft stability and multiple flow channels to keep small particles away from bearing surfaces.

The Grundfos 10SQ07-200 96160141 Submersible Well Pump offers a wide performance range. The 4-inch SQ is a compact multistage centrifugal pump that can be installed in a borehole no larger than the pump itself. With their built-in electronics, SQ pumps are very easy to install and operate. Equipped with permanent magnet motors, these flexible and compact pumps offer excellent efficiency levels and will supply pump heads up to 200 meters.

The BURCAM 101131H 230-volt, 2-wire + ground deep well submersible pump is recommended for homes, cottages, and farms for installation in water wells that are 4-inch in diameter or larger. Made of non-corrosive 316 stainless steel with a NEMA standard interchangeable head that includes 12 stages of precision machined stainless steel impellers and diffusers and a hexagonal stainless steel drive shaft, this pump features a continuous duty motor for durability. It pumps up to 900 U.S. GPH and has a maximum head of 275 feet. Best efficiency is between 114 and 198 feet (with a 20/40 PSI pressure switch) or 91 to 175 feet (with a 30/50 pressure switch).

Many wells that we’ve encountered are at least 100 feet deep, and some wells can even be drilled as deep as 500 feet. It depends exactly on where you live and how close your drilling technician can get to a good vein of water within the earth. Having a well pump submerged into at least 25- to 30-feet of water is ideal, and in many instances, they’ll last you 10 to 15 years.

Certainly a lot will depend on your location, and prices fluctuate along with the economy, but it’s likely you’ll end up paying $15 to $30 a foot (so $1,500 to $3,000 for a 100-foot well). And be aware that if the drilling doesn’t strike viable water, you still have to pay for that work. Usually a technician will charge you the low end of their price range for an unsuccessful attempt. Then you pay for the next attempt at drilling. Also note that there may be permitting regulations in your area, which can add to the cost.

Wells have been going dry across the countryside, and the village’s one remaining well yields just enough to run the communal taps for an hour or two a day. In front of the spigots, people leave their empty water jugs and buckets arranged in rows, and they crowd around to collect what they can while the taps are running. The water could stop flowing at any time.

For farmers here, finding sources of water underground is becoming exceedingly difficult. They’ve been drilling wells deep beneath the tilled soil into the volcanic rock – 700 feet, 800 feet, even 900 feet down. The few who strike water usually plant sugarcane, a thirsty crop that fetches fixed prices subsidized by the government. Lately, though, many farmers drill wells and find nothing at all.

Falling water tables and crushing burdens of debt have contributed to a growing sense of desperation in the western state of Maharashtra, where farmers have been committing suicide in large numbers. Some families have turned to chopping down trees on their land to sell off the wood. Many young people have given up farming and moved away to cities to look for work.

In large portions of India, from the plains that spread out below the Himalayas to the country’s southern plateau, water is being quickly drained from the ground and aquifers are rapidly declining. In some areas, government data show groundwater levels have dropped by an average of more than 30 feet since 2005.

Farmers with the deepest wells keep pumping, but those with failing wells are struggling. And some towns have been left on the brink of running out of water. It’s a growing crisis that threatens the future of irrigated agriculture in some of India’s prime farming areas, and it’s also putting at risk the main drinking water sources used by hundreds of millions of people.

The major declines in India’s aquifers are part of an alarming trend across much of the world. Water is being pumped out much faster than it can naturally be replenished in parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

In most places where aquifers are overstressed, similar trends are colliding: heavy pumping for farming, growing demands on limited water supplies, and a failure to adequately manage or regulate the groundwater that’s left. Droughts have added to the pressures on groundwater, and climate change is projected to intensify droughts in many of the same regions where aquifers are in decline.

Already in parts of India, people say water has become their biggest worry. The shortages have become so acute in some places that families have had to spend half the day or more searching for drinking water, walking for miles at a time.

India relies heavily on groundwater, with an estimated 25 million to 35 million wells in operation, many of them on small farms. Wells have enabled increasing water use in places where rivers and canals are too far away or are already tapped out or polluted.

As wells have proliferated over the past half century, the country has become the world’s largest and fastest growing user of groundwater. Scientists estimate that about 250 cubic kilometers of water is sucked from India’s aquifers each year – more than half the volume of Lake Erie, and more than the combined annual groundwater usage of the United States and China.

India’s groundwater boom has come as the population has swelled to more than 1.2 billion people. But it’s also the country’s laws and farming policies that have long encouraged a free-for-all of drilling wells and pumping.

As the law stands, landowners have the right to draw as much as they see fit from their wells. A system of government-set prices encourages farmers to plant water-intensive crops such as sugarcane and rice. And state governments provide electricity to farms at no charge or at heavily subsidized flat rates, making the water completely free to pump in many areas.

State and national government officials have for years acknowledged the problem of falling water tables, but their responses have so far been meager. The state of Maharashtra, for instance, in 1993 passed one groundwater management act, which turned out to be ineffective, and is starting to put in place another groundwater law approved in 2009.

The Suryawanshi family owns a 7 ½-acre farm where they till the soil using an ox-driven plow. Four generations share this land, a total of 22 people living in a collection of hardscrabble homes – some made of concrete and others of mud bricks and thatched roofs.

On the edge of their field sits a large pit, with rugged rock walls that plunge straight down 55 feet to the muddy bottom. There, at the end of a thick black hose that dangles into the pit, only a puddle of water remains.

Open-pit wells like this one have been used for centuries in India. And until about five years ago, the well had ample water for their household needs, enough that the Suryawanshis could share with neighbors.

Now, unable to pump out any more, they’ve been driving an ox cart each morning to the well of an absentee sugarcane farmer, where they fill up a 500-liter water tank. The water comes from 850 feet underground, so deep that it absorbs the Earth’s geothermal heat. When the water gushes from the hose, it’s warm to the touch.

Two years ago, in the midst of drought, the Suryawanshis decided to search for a source of water on their land and hired a well driller. On the first attempt, the drill bored down 900 feet, but it came up dry. Two weeks later, they tried again. This time, they hit water and immediately began pumping it onto their field.

The family led a procession to the Hindu temple, carrying a jug of the water with them as an offering. The water flowed from the ground for two hours. Then, it suddenly stopped.

Standing with his arms crossed, he explained that the family borrowed 200,000 rupees, or about $3,000, to drill the two boreholes. They also spent 135,000 rupees, or $2,000, to deepen their two open-pit wells. They blasted with dynamite and used a crane to lift out loads of rock and mud. But the water in those wells also quickly disappeared.

Two of the young men in the family – Usha’s 22-year-old son Shankar and her 26-year-old nephew Bankat – left years ago and moved to the city of Pune. Shankar now works for a natural gas company. Bankat has a job as an audiovisual specialist at a software company.

A few years ago, he saved some money and helped his parents fix up their home, which at the time was a hut. They covered the mud-brick walls with plaster and painted them yellow. Over the doorway, on the occasion of Bankat’s wedding, they painted a single word – “Desire” – because the family’s hopes for their home had finally been fulfilled, in spite of their troubles.

Since 2002, two NASA satellites have been orbiting the Earth in a joint U.S.-German mission, recording detailed measurements of the planet’s gravity field and tracking changes in the total amounts of water, both aboveground and belowground. The wealth of data produced by the GRACE mission, which stands for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, has allowed scientists for the first time to map large-scale changes in the world’s aquifers.

Using the data, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and NASA have found that more than half of the world’s largest 37 aquifers are declining.

The Indus Basin of northern India and Pakistan is among the hotspots where groundwater is being depleted most rapidly. Others include the aquifers of the Arabian Peninsula, the Murzuk-Djado Basin and the Nubian Aquifer System of northern Africa, the Canning Basin mining region of northwestern Australia, and the North China Plain, among others. In the United States, groundwater levels are dropping especially quickly in California’s Central Valley and the southern High Plains, and also declining along portions of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

In some areas, the water that’s being pumped to the surface seeped underground when glaciers melted at the end of the last ice age, or from rains and snowmelt that accumulated over tens of thousands of years. As those ancient water sources are pumped and drained, they’re lost for good.

A USA TODAY/Desert Sun analysis of data published online by India’s Central Ground Water Board found that between 2005 and 2013, average groundwater levels dropped by 25 feet in parts of Haryana state and by 32-36 feet in parts of Rajasthan and Punjab states. This rapid depletion threatens major farming regions and if unchecked will lead to more wells going dry.

Even in areas such as southern India where the satellites have detected increases in water supplies since 2002, heavy pumping from aquifers has led to major drops in water levels.

As water levels decline, costs are going up for farmers to deepen and drill wells, and to buy more powerful pumps. Spending by state governments on electricity subsidies is also ballooning.

But that emphasis on exploiting groundwater, together with free electricity for farmers, has left a system that encourages farmers to waste water rather than save it, he said. And it’s a system politicians have been reluctant to change, especially because influential agribusiness groups want to keep electricity free and could mobilize voting blocs to oust any leaders who cut the subsidies.

In the northern state of Punjab, for instance, farmers have been growing vast amounts of rice and wheat ever since those crops were promoted during the Green Revolution. Farmers choose to keep planting those crops – wheat in winter, rice in summer – because they fetch guaranteed “minimum support prices” and are easily sold through a government-run grain purchasing system.

But Lall said the amounts of water needed for those two crops dwarf the annual rainfall in Punjab, even in a wet year. He said wheat fields need approximately 1 meter of water to be applied over a season, and rice fields require 1.8 meters per harvest – together translating into 2.8 meters of water demand in a region where average rainfall, depending on the location, varies from about 40 centimeters to 1 meter per year.

The plains of Punjab stretch out to a hazy horizon, the furrowed fields interrupted only by rows of trees and brick pump-houses where water gushes from pipes into open tanks. Every summer, the alluvial plains are transformed into a sea of rice paddies.

The sowing begins in small “nursery” paddies, where workers hoe the soil into muddy channels and ridges as the water flows in. Then the rice plants are moved to about 7 million acres of flooded fields, covering more than half the state.

Standing beside the inundated field, Sanghera said he’s well aware the rice is depleting the groundwater and he’s concerned that will leave less water for the next generation. But he said it’s the government system of buying rice and paying a fixed “minimum support price” that makes rice so dominant.

As water gushed from his well into an open tank, he stooped down and took a drink at the pipe. Then he walked along a flowing canal to check on a field of peppermint, which was soon to be replaced by rice. Picking a fragrant stem, he explained that the mint oil is sold for export.

Every year, Sanghera deepens his three wells and lowers his pumps deeper. The water level has fallen about 30 feet in a decade. This year, Sanghera spent 67,000 rupees, or about $1,000, on a new diesel engine to make sure he can pump enough water during the rice season.

Because the free electricity is sporadic and unreliable, most farmers leave their pumps on and wait, running them constantly when there is power. Sanghera runs his pumps for eight or nine hours a day during rice season, burning diesel part of the time.

Then one of the barefoot men climbed a ladder and rode atop a weighted platform as the pipe was pounded into the ground. As the well grew deeper, a cylinder was lowered into the hole, and it came up with a load of sandy soil, dumping it in a wet heap.

The state government has begun trying to promote corn as a less water-intensive alternative to rice. The state also adopted a 2009 law that bars farmers from transplanting rice before June 15, effectively shortening the season and somewhat reducing the amounts of water used. When it promoted those changes, the government touted the slogan “Save Water, Save Punjab.”

When the water is turned on in the village of Dapegaon, women wearing brightly colored saris line up at the taps alongside men and children. With barely enough for each family, there are sometimes squabbles or fights.

Carrying away a jug on her shoulders, Marisha Kawale said the six containers she filled wouldn’t be enough for her family of eight. “I have to go searching for more water.”

Others said when they don’t get enough water from the spigots, they walk to farms with working wells to ask for water. Sometimes the farmers refuse to share and turn them away. People here have grown used to constantly searching.

“You just have to deal with these hardships,” said Shobha Pandule, a housewife wearing a yellow sari. After carrying home the last of her orange plastic jugs, she said the family had enough for the day.

During 2012 and 2013, Dapegaon’s main public well dried up. For nearly half a year, the village had no water, forcing people to walk more than 2 miles each day along the roads to other farms and villages to search for water.

In 2013, the village drilled two wells, and the second time hit water at 700 feet – much deeper than in many other parts of India, where water can often be found less than 100 feet underground. That well now provides the limited amounts that are pumped up into a water tower. Each morning, a man opens the valves and the water flows to cisterns, where it runs from the taps.

In a field next to the town’s rows of concrete and brick homes, water gushes into a lush field of sugarcane. This crop, which is grown for export, has been contributing to falling groundwater levels during the drought.

In the countryside of Maharashtra, where the air is filled with the smells of dry grass, cow dung and cooking fires, many villages rely on hand-pump wells where people bring their jugs and draw out drinking water for the day. But some of those public wells are dry. Others barely reach water.Water researchers in India often describe groundwater as the country’s “lifeline.” Nearly 70 percent of irrigated agriculture in the country depends on groundwater, and nearly 90 percent of the drinking water for rural areas comes from groundwater.

“It’s really hard to pump and our hands hurt,” said Anita Kale, who was collecting water in jugs with other women and girls at a roadside pump. “We don’t have any other sources of water in our village, so we have to get it here.”

The state government in Mumbai is starting to step in, trying to prevent groundwater levels from falling further. This year, the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority announced a ban on digging new wells deeper than 200 feet. Other states may be forced to take similar measures as aquifers continue to drop.

That chaos is affecting daily life in areas where tanker trucks make daily rounds delivering water, and where overpumping by farmers has left neighbors without water.

In the village of Gadakwadi, for instance, the water table has dropped as more wells have been drilled. Mangesh Gadage, a young man whose family runs a 15-acre vegetable farm, craned his neck to peer into the family’s open-pit well, where just a shallow puddle was left at the bottom. The family has relied on the well for decades, but the water suddenly vanished this year after neighbors drilled two deep wells.

“The government is very much concerned about groundwater, is very much aware also. It’s been trying to solve this issue,” said Sushil Gupta, former chairman of the Central Ground Water Board. He said studying aquifers will be crucial to managing them, in the same way that people need to know the balance of a bank account when managing money.

Groundwater levels are dropping in 9 or 10 of India’s 29 states, he said. “I perceive it as a very serious problem, very, very serious, because despite all the efforts, there’s no containment.”

Some drinking water sources are tainted with severe pollution in parts of India, as well as with hazardous natural contaminants such as arsenic and fluoride that have leached into groundwater from layers of rock. The concentrations of those contaminants can increase as water is drawn from deeper underground, and state-led efforts to test water supplies have been spotty.

State governments in India hold responsibility for setting water policies, but the Central Ground Water Board has been prodding states to pass bills focused on groundwater.

“Every state government should have their own act and regulation of groundwater,” K.B. Biswas, chairman of Central Ground Water Board, said in an interview at his office in New Delhi. He said what India faces is “a problem in sectors,” stemming from growing demands for water and supplies that vary widely from one place to another.

Himanshu Kulkarni, a hydrogeologist and executive director of the think tank Advanced Center for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM), agrees the situation is serious.

Sitting at his computer, Kulkarni showed a photograph of a well in a forest, with an unusual ramp leading down to the water. That ramp, he said, was built to provide water for tigers at a reserve in central India. The reason: the regular watering holes the tigers depend on have been going dry during part of the year.

Flipping to a chart, Kulkarni pointed to a rising line on a graph representing the increasing demand for groundwater. In order to achieve sustainability, he said, that demand needs to be regulated and managed.

While pushing for groundwater legislation, he said, his organization is also working with communities to help them study their aquifers and share them as common-pool resources.

Some communities in India have had successes in recharging depleted aquifers. They’ve built small dams and ponds to catch the monsoon rains, and have dug into dry streambeds to create basins that capture more water and allow it to seep down into aquifers.

In the arid western state of Rajasthan, Rajendra Singh has helped villages restore their groundwater by promoting the building of small earthen dams called “johads” that collect rains and allow it to soak into the ground. Singh was awarded the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize for his successes in “improving water security in rural India.”

Some Indian researchers say parts of the country can benefit from incorporating traditional knowledge left behind in the johads and stone-lined open-pit wells built generations ago. For centuries, many communities were built around their underground water supplies, including wells with stairs leading down to water.

In the village of Ausa, near the hard-hit farming areas of Maharashtra, a centuries-old fortress built by the Mughal Empire stands above a dry moat. Inside the stone ramparts are open wells, some of which are dry and filled with trees and vines. In the middle of the fortress, one of the deepest wells still has a shallow pool at the bottom, apparently because in this low-lying area, some groundwater is still seeping in.

In other areas of Maharashtra, where water levels in wells are falling, some people have decided to work together to avert disaster. The village of Javulke, for example, has begun a three-year project with the support of ACWADAM to study its groundwater and come up with a management plan.

Minakshi Karale, a woman who runs a public day care center and feeding program, is helping to lead the effort. She said the worsening water situation has left farmers unable to grow as many crops, and some have started migrating elsewhere for part of the year to look for work.

She and a group of villagers walked together to a farmer’s stone-lined well, which was built in the 1930s. The stone stairs circle down to a level where there used to be water. Now the stairs are high and dry, about 20 feet above the pool of water that remains in the bottom of the well.

If India is to prevent more of its aquifers from running out, real changes may start with the sort of simple decision that Karale and her village have made: to act before it’s too late.

Your well pump is an essential component to ensuring your home has a steady source of fresh, clean water. With proper well maintenance, your well pump can last, on average of 8 to 15 years, though many homeowners report their pumps lasting far longer, often between 20 and 30 years!

However, owning a home with a well means that you"ll likely have to replace your well pump at some point, but how will you know when it"s time? To help you, we"re sharing the 5 signs you need a new well pump, and what those signs could mean instead!

If there is no water at all when you turn on a faucet or flush a toilet, that is a definite sign there is something wrong. Troubleshoot the issues below, and if those aren"t the problem, you may need to have your well pump repaired or replaced.

When you turn on your water, if there is a noticeable decrease in your typical water pressure, that is a sign that your pump is not able to draw as much water up because it"s beginning to fail. It could also mean your well pump is too small, perhaps caused by adding a new bathroom, installing a dishwasher, or adding a larger water heater.

If you turn on the faucet and it seems like there are air bubbles coming through the pipes and the water is not consistently flowing, the pump may be unable to pull water up and is pulling in air. Like a decrease in water pressure, this is a sign that the pump is not functioning efficiently and may be about to fail altogether.

A metallic smell or taste, or an egg smell coming from your water is generally a sign of harmless minerals in your well. However, if the water is actually coming out with dirt, sand, or sediment, it"s absolutely essential to get it fixed immediately. Most likely, this is an issue directly related to the pump itself.

The pump may be too large for your well, and it"s pulling silt and dirt up from the bottom, and it needs to be replaced. A repair may be necessary instead, if it"s placed too far down in the well and needs to be relocated, or the pump"s filter screen has gotten torn or damaged somehow. This is a fixable problem by a well pump repair specialist.

No matter what the issue might be, from harmless minerals to a broken well pump, don"t drink cloudy, muddy, or dirty water until the problem is solved and you have well water testing performed.

If your well pump is running continuously, it is probably a sign that it needs to be replaced or, at the very least, repaired. If you have an above-ground jet pump system, the intake pipe needs to be primed, usually caused by a leak in the suction line. This means it needs to have water in the jet system in order to generate the suction needed to pull water up and into the water line.  Otherwise, the pressure control switch is faulty, the pipe has a leak, or the pump may be wearing out and is unable to generate enough water pressure to trigger the cut-off.

Having a reliable source of clean water is an absolute necessity for your Raleigh home. If you are experiencing issues, from a sudden decrease in water quality to no water at all, reach out A & T Well and Pump immediately. We offer comprehensive well pump repair services, including replacement, testing, and maintenance and will work with you to get your water well up and running fast! Call us today at (919)-291-4063 or fill out our contact form to get started!