How do you hydro fracture a water well?

Answer 1

Hydrofracturing is a technique first applied to oil and gas wells. Water wells which are drilled into rock can be treated with this to increase their water yield, or renew a low yielding well.

In a well, water flows from fissures into larger and larger fissures. A well is a collection point for water to flow from the cracks in the rock, collect, and be pumped out. The production rate of a well depends upon how many water bearing fissures connect to the well.

Over time, these cracks can become blocked, with silt, bacterial growth in the rock that creates crusts, oxidations, and precipitations of minerals.

* In hydrofracturing, a device is lowered into a well and a collar is pumped up. Then, high pressure water is used to fill the well and pressurize it to up to 3-4000 PSI. This essentially backflushes the well, by forcing water into the cracks, opening them up, and flushing out the contaminants. It also may establish new fractures through which water can connect and flow into the well. Sometimes, chemicals are added to enhance the process. The contents of the well are then pumped out.

Hydrofracturing can cause impressive gains to well flows. It typically costs about half as much as drilling a new well...which, itself has only a 50% chance of working better than the well replaced, since it is often drilled into the same formation, and the same things which happened to cause the first well to fail may cause the second to fail, or pump no better, than the first. Proponents of the technique believe that the pressure affects a 100 foot circle of rock around the treated well.

In some localities the technique has been banned because of belief that it will adversely affect other people's wells. In most cases, it does nothing, but some people whose wells are near a hydroshocked well have reported it improves their flow.