On Mar 1, 9:02*am, John Gilmer wrote:
On 2/28/2012 2:58 PM, dadiOH wrote:

Frank wrote:

In my case I think it is an artesian well as it is dug through strata
to reach the aquifer.

If you have to use a pump, you don't have an artesian well. *"Artesian"
means that the water rises to the surface by hydrostatic pressure; i.e.,
there is a "head". *A free flowing spring is an example.

In some/many places the term also is used to describe any underground
water "formation" that's "pressurized."

As an example, our home is within a few hundred feet of literal
tidewater. * We are less than 100' above sea level. * Our well is about
240' deep and I was told my the guy who replace the old pump (which was
30 years old, BTW) that the pump was about 200' in the ground.

But the "well guy" also said that the static water level was only about
80' down. * IOW: *the water formation has enough pressure not only to
keep out the tidal salt water but also to fill our well casing to "sea
level."

Many of the folks who were born and raised in the Virginia Norther Neck
would say we had an "artesian" well despite the fact that the pressure
isn't sufficient to bring the water to the surface.

I'm inclined to agree with them. * My thinking is that were I to have a
"true" artesian well with the water flowing to the surface with the aide
of a pump and the pressure dropped just to the point where the water
stopped flowing out of the casing but still rose to the ground surface,
the well is essentially the same but the pressure dropped by less than 1
psi. * If it was an artesian well before the 1 psi drop, it's an
artesian well after the drop.





Yes, the term is used that way and you can find it in dictionaries as
such but never as the first meaning. I think it is one of those
meanings that has come to be accepted because of icommonly being used
incorrectly.

Harry K