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Hi,

We are thinking of getting a borehole drilled on our land.

A local farmer suggested that it would only need to be very shallow.

I've checked the UK water borehole database and nearby boreholes are almost all marked as "under 10 metres".

I have seen that boreholes cost "around ?10,000" so this will be a non-starter ... UNLESS ... that price is for boreholes driven through rock to a drinking water aquifer.

We simply need the (much less clean) shallow groundwater for irrigation, not drinking.

Does anyone have any idea what the cost for a shallow non-drinking water borehole might be?

Thanks.

You would need an Abstraction License from your Water Authority first. Don't know what the costs are though. Sorry, Vortex.

A ten metre hole would be much much cheaper. I know someone who paid ?3000 but that went much deeper.

A local farmer told us that 6 feet would be deep enough.

Today I made a probe hole using a long steel spike with a sledge, and then expanding it with a hollow tube.

The farmer was right ... the water table (for ground water) is about 5 feet down!

I suspect a 10 foot well or deep pond (with safety fence!) could be effective ... certainly worth a try with a JCB!

A 3000 liter rainwater tank will take you quite some distance. This IS the UK, right? Rain is not completely unknown?

Vortex wrote: the water table (for ground water) is about 5 feet down!

This time of year is when the water table wil be at it's highest. Get a quote from your local borehole drilling outfit before you get the spades out. You may be surprised at how affordable it is.

I got really interested in the whole local water issue a while back.

For the best information locally I would recommend that you contact the environment agency; they will be able to send you all sorts of information regarding the depth and location of local aquifiers (if in fact there are any), geology etc.

They can also advise on the facts re abstraction licences, meterage blar blar and the changes in regulation that may apply.

Vortex,

I have in my back garden exactly what you want. I read a good book on digging water wells by hand first, which I think you can get on DODGY TAX AVOIDERS. I have a shallow well/ spring box. I dug it by hand to around 5.5 ft deep, 1.2m diameter and lined it with concrete rings that are normally used for sewer manholes. I used a telescopic handler to get these in place. This took me 12 months over two seasons to complete, on and off.

I wouldn't recommend a digger for this as it will make quite a mess. the hole it makes will be much larger than it needs to be and will disturb the surrounding rock/ soil formation.

I checked the price of a borehole. I was quoted something like ?2500 for minimum 100ft of hole, excluding pumps etc.

If you're using concrete rings to five foot depth you could use a mini digger to get the worst out from the middle of the ring and hand dig around the edge to let the ring fall under its own weight. No overdig that way.