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Drilling around the clock began Wednesday, Feb. 15, on the Menlo Park Municipal Water District’s first emergency well, according to Pam Lowe, senior civil engineer for the city of Menlo Park.
The first well will be located in the Menlo Park Corporation Yard at 333 Burgess Drive.
The first part of the 24/7 drilling phase was expected to last for 48 hours, and some onsite work is expected on Friday, Feb. 17, through Monday, Feb. 20. After that, there is expected to be another four to five days of 24/7 drilling to reach a depth of about 400 feet, said Ms. Lowe.
The city has plans to build three or four wells to create an emergency water supply for customers in case a natural disaster cuts off the current water supply from the Hetch Hetchy Regional System.
After that, well construction work is expected to be limited to business hours Monday through Friday between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., said city public works officials.
It is expected to take 60 days to complete the underground work for the well, officials said. Above-ground work is set to occur during the summer, officials said at a community meeting held Jan. 19.
Sound walls are expected to reduce the noise, but people nearby can expect to hear the noise of pickup trucks, a small tractor, the drill rig and hauling trucks, officials said. Added traffic from trucks carrying soil and water may also occur, they said.
Go to the city’s web page on the project for more information.
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If Menlo Park is doing it maybe it’s time to re-drill that old well in the back yard from 1948 and put it to good use. I expect with the drought over there is zero chance water prices will go back to pre-drought levels so the well may be a good answer for watering the plants.
I would agree. Our extremely high water rates won’t go down so better to dust off that old well. I wonder where the water table might be in Menlo Park?
Note that the city plans to go to 400 ft in order to get usable water.
Water from shallower wells is unlikely to be potable and is probably too alkaline to be usable for irrigation of most plants.
“Water from shallower wells is unlikely to be potable and is probably too alkaline to be usable for irrigation of most plants.”
Peter: I’ve installed reverse osmosis systems on shallower wells to make the water usable for irrigation (150′). It isn’t cheap, but it’s doable. Requires a holding tank so water can be treated and put into a tank to allow sufficient flow for irrigation.