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>I hope some of you can offer some advice - I think I >may be in over my head. I live in central Louisiana. >My neighbor and I went together and bought a portable >well drilling rig which uses a 6 hp engine and 5' >joints of 1" steel pipe along with a centrifical pump >to drill wells at our homes. I have heard from some >neighbors that the "good water" is deep - 200+ feet. >So we embarked upon our project on a Thursday morning >a couple of weeks ago with everything we needed to >drill a 200' well. I have 200' of 4" casing and 10' >of 4" PVC well screen. I drilled a 3" pilot hole with >plans to ream it out to 6". The first day I drilled >my pilot hole to 170' with relatively no problems. I >found 15' of red dirt, and then fine, yellow sand >until I hit 110'. Then I hit bluish gray clay. >Friday I had all kinds of trouble with the mud pump, >the deeper I got into the clay, the less circulation I >had. Finally in the afternoon I rented a stronger >pump. End of Friday, 210' still in the clay. On >Saturday morning, I started drilling again having to >go very slow to keep circulation and occasionally >having to thin the drilling mud by wasting some and >adding water. I would see a small amount of sand >occasionally but still more clay. I ran out of pipe, >determination, daylight and energy at 245' and still >in the clay. I pulled all the pipe out of the hole, >cleaned up, plugged the hole, and have been scratching >my head ever since. I talked to a commercial well >driller in my area who suggested I make a well in the >sand that I found down to 110'. I am considering >doing this, but I didn't notice anything that would >suggest there was water in this sand. Of course I was >mixing drilling mud into my water so maybe I sealed >the walls? I would love to just stop at 100' but I'm >not sure there is water there. Has anyone of you had >a similar problem that can shed a bit of light on >this? By the way, I found 2 wells within 5 miles of >my house that are 300' deep (of course I find this out >after). I don't think my small rig will go much >deeper than 245'. The drill string is very heavy. >Thanks for any advice you can give.

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