C-111 Project wells are now operational!*

Initiated early this month and finished last week, the monitoring wells component of the C-111 project is now online!

Drilling

Earlier this month, the entire Water Resource Engineering team (with special guests Kiah and Robert) installed 4 wells in agricultural areas along the C-111 canal. Well construction in a shallow water table, as we learned in the field, is a rather messy and labor intensive process.

The first step involved making a 4 inch borehole into which a 2 inch well casing was inserted.

The annular space around the well screen was filled with coarse sand up to a depth of 5 feet. The annular space above the coarse sand was filled with fine sand and cement, each to 7 feet.

To prevent vandalism, the top portions of the wells were protected using water proof 12 inch cast iron manholes.

Surveying

In order to obtain precise data on water table elevation, it is necessary to accurately determine the elevation of the wells above sea level.

The elevations of the wells were obtained using differential surveying based on a benchmark located at S-177 along C-111. The surveying was done using a laser level.

Leveloggers

The final step in the process involved the programming and deploying of Solinst leveloggers. The leveloggers were installed at an elevation of -2 meters below sea level (NGVD 29) and were programmed to log water table levels every 15 minutes. A barologger was installed in one of the wells in order to provide for atmospheric corrections. The leveloggers are currently in a testing period.

Soil Water Monitoring

In the coming weeks, we will install EnviroScan probes near the well locations to monitor soil water in the different soil types (i.e., Krome, Chekika and Marl) of the agricultural areas along the C-111 canal. Stay tuned!

* Isaya Kisekka contributed to this blog post.