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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2022)
18 Wednesday, February 9, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon WELL: New wells and wells gone dry have kept well-drillers busy providers required to put in a new well have been busy of late due to a number of wells in the area needing to be made deeper, or new ones drilled. Continued from page 1 Holly said that when drill a foot deeper and lower the drillers say it will cost the new pump to the bottom $40,000 to drill a new well, of the well. The result: water that just gets the hole drilled. for 12 more years 4 until this He shared the total cost past summer when the well of his new well: $40,000, really did go dry. hole drilled; $2,500-$3,000, An entirely new well had plumber; $4,500, electrician; to be drilled, going down 764 $10,000, excavation of three- feet. At 660 feet, they found foot deep trench from well to water that provided about four tank (rock had to be chipped gallons/minute, so they went out); and $10,000, concrete to deeper until it ran at eight gal- fill voids. lons/minute, which Holly said Holly said that after six is adequate for a single person. truckloads of concrete didn9t The new well is a pitless fill the voids, the driller system, which means that the brought in a combination drill/ waterline running 30 feet from casing rig to finish the job. the well to the well house runs If that rig had been in place three feet underground to help from the start, the concrete keep the pipe from freezing. wouldn9t have been necessary. The pump discharge pipe is The cost of the well neces- installed below the surface sitated a mortgage through using a pitless adaptor, which NeighborImpact on Holly9s ensures that a sanitary and property that will be payable frost-proof seal is maintained. when he leaves the property. Holly elected to install the Holly had a reminder for pitless system because other well owners: If the well head used to your well runs freeze. dry, be sure For people who rs to turn off Well-drillers te is S to have moved and all the your water ropolitan other service heater. Country from met The Nugget Newspaper Crossword By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service — Last Week’s Puzzle Solved — ey needed to areas, where all th er was turn on do to get their wat derstanding a faucet, a basic un Oregon here your Central w of Those liv- been the is water comes from ing within the inten- city limits of tion to important. Sisters still just turn on the faucet to access the municipal water sup- ply, which comes from four wells and a reservoir owned and operated by the City. Residents pay the City a monthly charge for their water. If something goes wrong with one of the wells, or a water main breaks or leaks, it9s up to the City to address the problem. Residents living outside the city rely either on a water company that serves a par- ticular area or have their own private well, like Braxton Holly (see story, page 1). Water companies, like Sun Mountain Water System or Squaw Creek Canyon Water Co., are established to pro- vide water to subdivisions or developed areas. The com- pany owns and maintains the wells and waterlines to indi- vidual lots. Because the State of Oregon owns all the water in the state, the compa- nies must secure a permit to pump water out of the ground to provide to their customers. They are limited on the amount of water they can pump. During the sum- mer, there is greater demand for water when sprinklers are running. The water is intended to supply custom- ers with domestic water (for homes) and small lawns and gardens. It has never provide irri- gation water for large properties or agriculture. Sun Mountain reports that of the 300 homes on their system, during the summer, 75 homes never exceed 10,000 gallons/ month. Eighty-five percent of customers use less than 70,000 gallons/month in the summer. Only a hand- ful of the 300 homes on the system use more than 4,000 gallons/month during the winter (November-March). However, two properties used more than 250,000 gallons/month for multiple months. Starting January 1, 2022, new water rates were estab- lished for Sun Mountain cus- tomers, 85 percent of whom won9t be affected by the rate increase. It will only affect those customers with high water usage during the sum- mer for irrigation. Property owners outside the city who are not cus- tomers of a water company need their own well, which they must maintain. As seen in Holly9s example, new wells can be an expensive proposition. Regardless of the source of your water, water conser- vation is going to be a more and more important prac- tice everywhere in Central Oregon. 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