Wells, water and Drainage

[gazo31]

Hey all,

I've got an old disused Well on my Plot. Unfortunatley with all this rain we've had here in liverpool over the past 2 weeks it looks like the brickwork on the well has collapsed (I can't tell yet 'cos it's still full of water and has gone from being 4ft wide to about 10ft wide. (sighs!) I've been told to fill it in by the site manager but i don't know if that will stop the flooding problem I've been getting or if it will be safe enough for my 3 year old son. I could wait until the water subsides and then try to clear out the well, maybe digging a French drain away from the well to a soakaway point some distance away, but I'm not sure.

The flipside is that the Site Manager has offered me another plot that has just had it's member evicted for lack of work done to it. (Very sad I know.) But I've got reservations about that with all the work I've done on my plot for the last 3 months. It's a bit of a pickle. This new plot is smaller than mine and a bit over grown with weeds and grass. But it has got some paths laid down and some beds partially constructed...so.....

Any thoughts or advice on drainage or my pickling problem would be apreciated.

[pumpy]

You won't be able to drain the water away as the well is in the water table. Filling-in is not an option for the same reason.......... contamination,etc. I reckon some sort of permanent cover would be the answer.

[grahamhobbs]

Most people would love a well on their site, but I guess if it is overflowing and you have had general flooding problems then as Pumpy says that is the water table. You are obviously in a hollow and the water pressure is pumping water to the surface at this point, effectively it is acting as a spring.
I saw this once in France, I looked at a property in summer, looked nice, at the bootm of a hill with a chateau on it. Went back in winter and it was under a foot of water with water overflowing the top of their well.
So, how much of this flooding affects your plot, if it's just a small section and it is likely only to occur in winter then it might not be a problem.
Obviously from a safety point of view, then the well needs to well sealed off from your son.

[gazo31]

Hi all,
Just a quick update on my Well situation, the water level has dropped down a bit now and I've been asking other plot holders around how their drainage is. It's a mixed bag really but the Water table level is about 6ft normally in the winter and around 15ft in the summer. The flooding to the low half of my plot is similar to other peoples, more of an inconveinance than a major problem. (The water soaks away within a day, ground is greasy but firm) This will probably get better when I come to working the ground over. (something I haven't got round to yet).
So it looks like the water thats coming into the well is runoff from the buisness units that are at the rear of the allotment. So a repair of the well may solve the problem. If the debris is cleared out of the well when the water subsides some more I will try to rebuild the well wall and seal it off about 2ft above ground level. It would make a nice feature on the plot but it really is too dangerous for my little boy to have it open. (Maybe having a lockable lid?)

Anyway thanks for the replies so far, keep up the good work.

[Green Aura]

If you've got run-off from business units, you would do well to check what they're doing, and maybe get the water tested.

Sorry to be the harbinger of doom, but even if it's just running across a car park the water could be contaminating the land. Add to that any industrial processes that might be going on.

I hope it isn't a problem for you and everything's clean. I'm just not sure I'd want to grow my veg in ground that's got petro-chemicals washing through it.

The good news is that even if you do find a problem then the Environment Agency, or whoever, should be able to make them clean it up.

Why do councils allow businesses right next to food production?