Spring Water Development Corporation specializes in the design and construction of commercial grade horizontal water wells. Mountain born and bred from a family business that specializes in fractured bedrock / fault gouge type drilling, SWDC has taken air hammer and casing advance drilling techniques and turned them sideways, scaling up the depth and diameter of what can be constructed routinely. To date, horizontal water wells have been thought more of as an exotic novelty, used more for bottled Spring Water, dewatering applications, or other specialized off grid usages; they have not been seen as a reliable source of domestic public or agricultural water. Our goal is to push the limits of this technique in an attempt to find otherwise inaccessible water. Using casing to protect the well screen during the installation process, we have been successful in inserting slotted PVC (and HDPE) through difficult drilling typically associated with water. Our current record is a 5” borehole over 1200’ in depth. Developing new tools and techniques along with re-purposing old ones has been the corner stone of our approach to accessing more clean, free and renewable water.
Horizontal wells do not use electricity to produce water. They are quintessentially artesian in nature, using the natural formation pressure to drive the flow of water. Besides the obvious monetary advantages of being pump-less, these wells work well in remote locations where power is a problem. In an ideal scenario where the wells are drilled above the storage, a pressurized water system can be setup that truly does not use electricity at all. The theory page has an illustration and more discussion on the energy demands of water usage.
The biggest drawback to this technique is finding a suitable location. An overall change in elevation is what makes the system work, so mountains, canyons, foothills, etc. are necessary. Typically, drill targets are in fractured bedrock formations where structural geology, geohydrology and watershed topography complicate the ground water profile. Finding water in a chaotic fractured aquifer has its own set of challenges (including blind luck) but for locations that have favorable conditions, Horizontal Water Wells are very attractive option for renewable, zero carbon emission water.
