Water Well Drilling

Gopher Utility Company, a well drilling company located it the Charlotte, NC area has a proud heritage of water well drillers going back generations of drilling contractors providing water well drilling services to the North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Additionally, Gopher Utility Services has the experience and licenses to provide entire water systems and wastewater systems for home water well service to industrial/municipal contracted services, to include our own Brand of SCADA instrumentation, KANTROL.

The State of North Carolina, effective May 1, 2008, requires a certified well drilling contractor to be present during all phases of water well drilling. A well contractor activity is defined as the construction, installation, repair, alteration, or abandonment of any well. Well contractor activities include breaking the well seal to gain access to the well, disinfection, extending the well casing, well abandonment, hydrofracturing, well repair and construction. There are 4 levels of certification based on well drilling work performed and successful completion of the North Carolina well contractors certification exam for the appropriate Level. North Carolina also has a continuing education requirement for all well drilling contractors to maintain superior education on current rules/regulations and technological advances that may affect the well drilling industry. Gopher Utility Systems holds a Class A license which certifies all aspects of well construction.

Drilled wells are constructed by either cable tool (percussion) or rotary-drilling machines.A drilled well consists of a hole bored into the ground, with the upper part being lined with casing. Wells drilling into loose(unconsolidated) material require installation of casing and a screen to prevent extraneous materials,debrix and side wall collapse. The annual space surrounding the water well casing (see diagram A) must be sealed with grouting material of either cement based (neat cement) or bentonite clay to prevent contamination by water draining from the surface downward around the outside of the casing. A drilled well consists of a hole bored into the ground, with the upper part being lined with casing. The casing prevents the collapse of the drilled walls and (with a drive shoe or grout seal) prevents surface water or subsurface water contaminants from entering the water well. The casing also provides a housing for a pumping mechanism and for the pipe that moves water from the pump to the surface. We use portable water well drilling rigs manufactured by Chicago Pneumatic (see photo). These well drilling rigs easily provide the muscle to drill through solid rock or what type of geologic formations that are encountered. Our normal well depth for the North Carolina Piedmont area is 250 - 300 feet deep with the deepest well being 1560 feet for a commercial application.