In areas like Buncombe County, people are drilling wells to have a backup water source in the event of future weather-related crises.

by Will Atwater, North Carolina Health News
October 21, 2024

By Will Atwater

Since the remnants of Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina’s mountains, flooding rivers and damaging water systems, the demand for drinking water wells has soared in Buncombe County. 

Shaken, homeowners, businesses, schools and care facilities want to guard against water disruption in the event of future weather events.

Last week, the Asheville Watchdog reported that more than 100 well-drilling permit applications were filed in Buncombe County between Oct. 1 and Oct. 14. What’s more, on Oct. 10, Maggie Fehrman, superintendent of Asheville City Schools, announced that the school system had begun installing back wells.

“Yesterday, we did drill a well at Hall Fletcher Elementary School, and we were able to hit groundwater,” Fehrman said. 

“We’re estimating a range of two to three weeks before we can take that water from the well to be used in our schools,” she said. “We plan on continuing drilling wells at each campus, so that regardless of what happens with our water system, we will always have a backup for our Asheville City Schools.”

For well driller and Buncombe County resident Jamison Gibson, owner of A 1st Choice Well Service and Appalachian Well Drilling, the increased demand to find sources of water that won’t be vulnerable to flooding has resulted in about a nine-month customer waiting list and 18-hour days, he said.

While having a well might provide residents with peace of mind — and as Gibson and other drillers scramble to keep up with demand — he said it’s important for people to understand that establishing a well is a multi-step operation that involves expensive equipment and skill.

The process

After contacting a well-drilling contractor, Gibson said the next thing a homeowner, business or school district that wants to add a well must do is contact the county environmental health department to secure a permit.

“The inspectors come out and look at [the customer’s] site and determine if they have room to put a well,” he said. The inspectors determine whether there’s enough room on the property to operate, in Gibson’s case, a 70,000-pound rig.

“It’s a semi-truck […] Here in the mountains, it’s difficult to get a truck like that around,” he added.

Once the truck is on site and the well location has been determined, it’s time to drill.

Gibson said the drilling process involves creating a hole with a drill bit that pumps high-pressured air into the ground. “We’re drilling through dirt, rock, loose rock […] down until we hit bedrock.”

Once bedrock is reached, Gibson said he drills a minimum of five feet into the rock. This is done to establish room for casing, the material that will line the well and protect debris from getting into the water. Gibson said that the type of casing — either steel or polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC — is determined by the soil type. 

“Up here […] I’m going to say that 80 to 85 percent of the well casing is PVC.”

Once the casing is installed, Gibson said another drill bit is used to dig farther into the bedrock to find water. 

“[When] we have air blowing the rock and cuttings and water up,” Gibson said, “we can see the increase of water and know when we’ve hit something.”

In western North Carolina, Gibson said, depending on location a well depth could require going as deep as 1,400 feet. However, the average well he digs is about 400 feet deep.

After the well has been dug, casing installed and water found, the next the well-water flow rate must be tested. To determine the flow rate, air is forced into the well at 350 pounds of pressure per square inch, Gibson said.

“You’re just allowing air to blow [and] push the water up, so we can measure it [and] give an accurate reading of how many gallons per minute the well is producing.”

Buckets ranging from one to five gallons are used to collect the water, and that’s how the well’s flow rate in gallons per minute is determined.

Next, the well is temporarily covered until the pump crew comes and submerges a pump into the well at a depth of between 20 and 40 feet, Gibson said. That pump will feed the water into the house. At this point, the water has to be tested for contaminants and to see if it needs to be treated before it is deemed a safe potable water source. Also, the pump requires an electrical inspection. 

‘It takes a lot of money to get water’

In a best-case scenario, Gibson said the entire process — from permitting to final inspection —  could be completed in a week. However, given the demand and the damage caused by the hurricane, it’s taking a lot longer in nonemergency cases. 

“At this time, it generally takes almost a month to get the water panel tested through the state,” Gibson said. He added, “Since this hurricane, I heard they were doing mobile testing here in Buncombe County, so hopefully that can expedite the water process.” 

Gibson also mentioned that private labs are helping with testing to work through the county’s backlog. 

Gibson said the average cost for a 300-foot well is about $18,000. The price for a 600-foot-deep well could be as much as $28,000, he said. 

“One thing I believe that has been missed over the years is [how much] the equipment costs to do this. People don’t understand. They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a ridiculous amount of money,’” Gibson said.

“A new drill rig right now is about $1.2 million, and then you have a water truck on top of that. So, a lot of times you’re bringing in a million to a million half dollars worth of equipment to just drill a well […] It takes a lot of money to get water.”

Securing wells for schools

During Buncombe County’s  Oct. 10 media briefing, Asheville City Schools’ Fehrman said the system’s goal is to install eight to 10 wells. The highest estimate was $100,000, reflecting the maximum cost if the contractor had to add “lots of different filters and water treatment, as well as having to drill significantly deep wells.”

Schools would need a larger well with greater flow to accommodate multiple bathrooms, drinking water and kitchen needs.

However, Fehrman said the more typical estimates the district has received range between $12,000 and $15,000 per well.

Then, at the Oct. 18 media briefing, Fehrman said the school district’s priorities had shifted somewhat.

“We’re pausing on the wells until we can get our students back in school and be up and running again at full speed,” she said. “And then we are going to be very strategic and systematic as we look at continuing to drill wells at each campus, just so we have a backup if something happens to the city water.

“Once or twice a year, we do have water outages for whatever reason, and if water goes out for a certain amount of time, we do have to send students home,” Fehrman said. “Our goal is to have wells on each campus so that regardless of what happens, we do have backup water.”

Buncombe County is taking a different approach, said Ken Ulmer, Buncombe County Schools public information officer. 

“With the size of our school system, our facilities team determined wells were not a viable option to quickly reopen our schools without water,” he said. “Two of our small elementary schools in remote areas of the county do have wells (Barnardsville Elementary and Leicester Elementary).” 

Buncombe County Schools are scheduled to reopen on Oct. 25 and Asheville City Schools on Oct. 28, according to school officials. 

Gibson said as the region continues to recover, wells will be in high demand.

“All these municipalities and stuff are down right now, and who are they turning [to for water]? It’s the drillers.”

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