CROTHERSVILLE — The time has come for one of Crothersville’s wells to be cleaned.

Known as Well 4, Utility Director Mason Boicourt said it’s the best-producing well and is pretty much where the town gets all of its water from, as Well 3 isn’t online and Well 2 is in bad shape.

Boicourt received two quotes for well cleaning and presented those to the Crothersville Town Council to consider during a recent meeting.

National Water Services LLC of Paoli was higher because it planned on spending a week doing a deep cleaning and giving the town good data to go off of in the end, while Bastin Logan Water Services Inc. of Franklin was lower because its work would only take two or three days.

The council agreed with Boicourt’s recommendation of going with National Water Services and approved it 4-0. Council President Jason Hillenburg was absent.

That work will include cleaning Well 4 and televising the other two wells.

Jason “Jay” Lynch with National Water Services said the work probably would start within three months, but it could begin sooner if Well 4’s gallons per minute starts to diminish. During the project, Boicourt said the town would receive water from Stucker Fork Water Utility of Scottsburg.

Wells 2 and 3 were drilled in 1973, and Well 4 was drilled in 1995. Lynch said in March 2020, the two oldest wells were cleaned.

During the cleaning process on Well 3, the well screen failed, so material was coming inside. After running a camera in it, there were pieces of metal where the pump fell off, so the cleaning process was stopped.

For the upcoming cleaning, Lynch said he recommends televising both wells to check for structural damage and checking the pumps.

“It could be just to freshen up the pump or it could be a complete replacement, so we won’t really know until those come out,” he said. “Over time, you’re pumping water out of the ground, you’re moving minerals. The faster you move the minerals through the formation of the ground, the minerals fall out of suspension and they collect around the well, and entrance velocities into the screen as well as where the mineral deposit collects would be higher up into the screen.”

In an efficient well, there’s a nice, gradual cone of depression for the water that moves into the screen, and over time, that screen starts to get more dirty, Lynch said.

“Then that mineral deposit, the encrustation on the screen will keep working its way down, so that cone of depression starts dropping off pretty fast, and your entrance velocities become a lot faster,” he said. “Therefore, it starts getting dirtier faster, your pumps will not be into the water, so they start breaking suction. … They need cleaned.”

At a minimum, Lynch said wells should be flow tested every year to ensure they are rated 350 gallons per minute. If the flow rate is off 20 to 25%, then cleaning is recommended, he said.

“Flow testing is good, cheap information that will track the life of these wells and keep them serviceable and producing good water to be an asset instead of a money pit,” he said.

Boicourt said in recent weeks, to keep from losing the water in the filter tank, Water Superintendent Chris Mains had to dial it back, bringing the flow rate from the plant to the high water tower down some.

“This time last year, it would been over 300 gallons a minute. Today, it’s starting out about 280, and it falls off during the pumping cycle down to about 260, 250, so we’re only replenishing the high tower at 250 to 300 gallons per minute,” Boicourt said. “You’ve got 100,000 gallons of reserve, but yet, if you have a catastrophic fire or something, that could be a dangerous thing, so you’re losing that production, that raw water to treat.”

Not having a well that’s close to what it should be pumping isn’t good, either, so Boicourt said Well 4 definitely needs cleaned.

Once that work begins, Lynch said there will be an initial flow test through the town’s equipment to see how it is and what the wells are producing.

“Once we get that information, we take your pump out, we put our own pump in that meets what your pump will do or more and we hook it up to our tank, we seal the head of the well with a packer once we put the water from our cleaning tank in,” he said. “The well should take whatever you’re pumping out of it. We’ve got gauges and watch those as chemicals react, breaking that stuff loose.”

The daily flow test will determine the headway that’s made with cleaning, Lynch said.

Meanwhile, the pump will be rebuilt so it’s ready to be installed when cleaning is complete.

Then wells 2 and 3 can be televised to see what shape they are in.

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