# Water well to fill Pond?



## Barry Ireland (Feb 18, 2005)

Have any of you or is it feasible to use a well to fill a small swim by or tech pond. We bought a new house with just a few acres and there is area to build a small pond. The well on the property has just been redone but is well over 50 years old. It produces about 60 gallons a minute. Would a person stand a chance of filling a shallow pond or just forget it. Not enough drainage area to fill run in.
Thanks


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## Wayne Nissen (Dec 31, 2009)

Depends on your acquifer (sp) talk to your neighbors about their well before draining your water source.


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## bjoiner (Feb 25, 2008)

I do with mine with no problem.


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## Chad Baker (Feb 5, 2003)

60 gallons a minute is a lot of water just run a hose and fill slow and you shouldn't have any problem for a small pond.


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## Barry Ireland (Feb 18, 2005)

Thanks for the responses! We are going to give it a try.


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## robertnla (Oct 16, 2008)

Barry Ireland said:


> Have any of you or is it feasible to use a well to fill a small swim by or tech pond. We bought a new house with just a few acres and there is area to build a small pond. The well on the property has just been redone but is well over 50 years old. It produces about 60 gallons a minute. Would a person stand a chance of filling a shallow pond or just forget it. Not enough drainage area to fill run in.
> Thanks


IS the well a submergible type or is motor above ground ?


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## Barry Ireland (Feb 18, 2005)

Submergible


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## luvmylabs23139 (Jun 4, 2005)

The age of a well is not the issue. Find out what the replenish rate or what're they call it is. My house in VA I could run a hose wide open 24 hours a day. Here in NC they tell me my well is in the 95th percentile, but I can only run a hose wide open for 1 hr 45 minutes.
gallons per minute has more to do with the strength of the pump than water reserves. The real question is how long can you pump that volume.


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## Terry Marshall (Jan 12, 2011)

Barry Ireland said:


> Have any of you or is it feasible to use a well to fill a small swim by or tech pond. We bought a new house with just a few acres and there is area to build a small pond. The well on the property has just been redone but is well over 50 years old. It produces about 60 gallons a minute. Would a person stand a chance of filling a shallow pond or just forget it. Not enough drainage area to fill run in.
> Thanks


Have no idea where you are but I think you're peeing up a tree.
I have a well system that fills all 9 of my ponds...Its a 4" well drilled into an aquifer that has continuous water.... cost is about $30 per day to pump water, that means $1,000 per month... you have evaporation at a rate in Texas that might shock you...60 gallons PM sounds good...that's 3600 gph which I doubt you can produce.
A small tank on small acreage is just usually a snake pond in the south.
Do what you may but I would caution against it.;-)


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## luvmylabs23139 (Jun 4, 2005)

Terry Marshall said:


> Have no idea where you are but I think you're peeing up a tree.
> I have a well system that fills all 9 of my ponds...Its a 4" well drilled into an aquifer that has continuous water.... cost is about $30 per day to pump water, that means $1,000 per month... you have evaporation at a rate in Texas that might shock you...60 gallons PM sounds good...that's 3600 gph which I doubt you can produce.
> A small tank on small acreage is just usually a snake pond in the south.
> Do what you may but I would caution against it.;-)


I have to agree. My wide wide open hose comments are for topping up an inground pool. I would not even think about trying to build and fill a pond using my well. You can't compare any general house usage to pumping water nonstop out of a well. Even doing multiple loads of laundry thru the washer is not the same.


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## Marvin S (Nov 29, 2006)

I have a pond of about 1 acre for basic varying depths but average about 1 1/2 ft = 64,240 cubic ft or around 481,800 gallons to fill. 
It's filled by runoff from a drainage basin of 300+ acres mostly forested & has a clay bottom from a mud flow off Mt Rainier. Average 
daily household use of water in our area is 150 GPD so to fill your pond you would be using the water for 32,000 household days or 
roughly what 100 households use in a year. Quickly replenishing aquifers are also quickly depleting aquifers during a dry spell. You 
know your situation, but if it were me, I would be talking to a well driller to get an idea of the extent of the aquifer & possibly to 
someone more knowledgeable about your areas needs of potable water. I have been in a situation on another property where my 
neighbors ran out of water & we were still with water. The only thing that saved our bacon was the fact that we had gone deeper to 
another aquifer with our well to serve our boarding kennel, the attorneys had circled but backed off because of that.


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## Trevor Toberny (Sep 11, 2004)

Does the property have a drainage pattern? Meaning will this pond fill up on its own at times during rain from run off on the property above it? Is it worth digging a pond and "wasting" water for a pond just for swim by? If it is then go for it. 
Do you know soul content to see if it will hold water? My father in law dug a small horse tank. Ponds on properties all around him and his wouldn't hold water so he had to bring in a liner then spread clay on top of tarp then placed whatever that white rock is that holds water. Once you are committed and find it won't hold water it can get expensive quick for small pond. Hard to build much of tech water on a couple acres and be able to do distance in marks because you won't have much dry ground to back up to run from. Not trying to scare you because I have 75 acres. Have a 50 yard by 50 yard square pond. Has a spring that flows into it. Still can't use it because it's Nothing but trees all over the whole property and I can afford to pay to clear it out and remove stumps etc etc. plus it's retirement land in east Texas.


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## PHRGold (Sep 23, 2013)

We have a terrific swim by pond we fill with a well that pumps 60 - 70 gallons per minute. We put a liner down first though, to avoid water loss due to seepage. I'm in central NE. During June, July and August we're losing 4-6 inches per day due to evaporation. I make that up in a couple hours running the pump, but that's only if there's no rain in the forecast. Working great here.


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## Barry Ireland (Feb 18, 2005)

What did you use for a liner?



PHRGold said:


> We have a terrific swim by pond we fill with a well that pumps 60 - 70 gallons per minute. We put a liner down first though, to avoid water loss due to seepage. I'm in central NE. During June, July and August we're losing 4-6 inches per day due to evaporation. I make that up in a couple hours running the pump, but that's only if there's no rain in the forecast. Working great here.


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