With the prediction that they would lose the operation of a main water well in Salemburg, the town decided to make history and add their first deep well online for water production.

The deep well works with pump four, located at 167 Rich St. According to Public Works Director Scott Owen, in order for the two wells to work together, the pump had to be almost completely reconstructed with only the underground portions kept original.

Well four pumps around 50 gallons per minute. The new deep well, known as pump five, pumps around 235 gallons per minute.

The town’s Public Works Department tested all of its wells and determined that pump four had the best water for the system to work. The two wells — four and five — have been active together and online since Oct. 30.

Normal ground water has about 4.5 percent PH. The new well has a 8.5 percent PH balance, which is high. Tests showed that blending the two wells together would bring the PH balance down to an acceptable range. The state requires a PH balance of between 6 to 8 percent. Salemburg works to keep their PH balance around 7 to 7.5 percent.

The water is treated before it is pumped out to the water tower. It is treated with 12.6 sodium chloride, which is similar to bleach, only stronger. Five gallons of sodium chloride is pumped into a barrel along with 10 gallons of water in order to dilute the treatment. Then, the water is pumped out of a machine. The chlorine pump used to push out the solution cost around $2,000 alone.

The new deep well was drilled down at least 340 feet underground. The well is caged down with screens on the casings. The actual pump for the well is set between the screens at around 260 feet. In order to get the right blend of water, the well pumps out 225 gallons per minute, but can actually pump out more. That is roughly 14,000 gallons an hour.

“This is the first system that Salemburg has ever had that pumps directly into the system,” Owen explained. “Everything else goes back to the water plant before going into the system.”

Owen worked with Clay Knowles, Operator in Responsible Charge (ORC) of the sewer system, on this project. Owen explained that the two were hesitant to use the deep well system because it would pump water in a new direction. They knew that sediments would be sent into the line.

When the system was first fired up, water was run out of hydrants to see how bad the sediments would mix. The water changed color for a couple of minutes, but quickly cleared up. Owen states that the water has been clear ever since.

The town used to treat its water with glandular chlorine, which is called calcium hypochlorite, but the department has strayed away from that. Now, they treat the water with liquid hypochlorite. The calcium compound has dust in it and the liquid compound does not pose the same problem.

At the water plant, water is treated with lime. Pumps one, two and three pump directly to the plant. Since they contain shallow ground water, the PH is low. The lime brings the PH balance up. The town uses bagged lime, which also poses a dust problem, so they are looking into other solutions that may involve liquid lime.

The shallow wells are around 50 feet underground, which is a considerable difference to the new deep well.

The water tower is a 200,000 gallon tower. When the tower reaches a level of about 45,000 gallons, then the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system will turn pumps one through three on and they will pump until the water tower is refilled. The next time, the SCADA system will turn on pumps four and five to refill the system.

“It’s been an experience. This is the first well that the mayor and the commissioners have ever put in,” Owen stated. “It was interesting to see it all develop. We were working with some good folks.”

The engineer who worked on the well was Robert Graham, PE, Principal-in-Charge from George Finch/Boney and Associates, P.A. in Raleigh. Graham has done several jobs for Salemburg before and was brought back on for this project.

The well driller, Jonathan Kamionka, is the president for Bill’s Well Drilling Co. out of Fayetteville.

The Public Works Department is working toward installing a generator for the well house in case of a power outage. The emergency generator is being installed by Horne Brothers Generator Division of Fayetteville.

Owen estimates that the project will come to a final cost between $200,000 and $250,000, all of which will be paid for by the town of Salemburg.

“We didn’t know what to expect, but talking with our engineer and our well driller, that’s what they told us to expect,” Owen stated. “The generator may push us a little over.”

The town foresaw this issue coming into play by maintaining records of how much water the pumps distributed. They could see that the wells were not doing as good a job as they once were, so they elected to set aside revenue in the budget for this type of project. The town has been saving for a couple of years, according to Owen.

The system on Rich Street can supply almost 50 percent of the water required for the town.

“We knew our wells were doing all they could do,” Owen expressed. “We were basically told that our wells could not produce any more and that there was nothing we could do to make them produce more.”

In the summer time, when the water levels drop, people use water more. The town wasn’t running shy on water, but they knew that they would need another water source. Salemburg uses around 100,000 gallons of water in a 24-hour time period on average. The town didn’t want to get to a point where they would run out of water. They wanted to make sure they could always supply water to the people.

The furthest points the town water reaches include Lakewood Country Club and Bearskin Road.

“We wanted a deeper water source because it was more reliable and more dependable,” Owen explained.

There is a long string of expensive tests that the town had to undergo before they could install the deeper well. Rich Street had to be shut down in order for the two wells to be tested for 24 hours straight. They passed the test.

The project has been under way for over a year. Owen stated that they wanted to do their homework and make sure they were doing what was best for the town.

“We wanted to best serve the people in the end,” Owen stated.

The main reasoning for the deep well was to provide the town with good quality water, safe for consumption, Owen said.

There has been talk about installing another deep well around well three to duplicate the system, but there have been no concrete decisions. That was a suggestion by an engineer for the town to consider.

The next step is to replace the water meters in the ground used by the residents. There could be a possibility of upgrading to the new water meters in the next couple of years, but nothing has been set in stone.

“I would like to thank Mayor Joe Warren and the town commissioners for seeing the need and allowing the Public Works Department to move forward with this project,” Owen said.

The new deep well in Salemburg pumps 235 gallons per minute.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_DeepWell1.jpgThe new deep well in Salemburg pumps 235 gallons per minute. Brendaly Vega Davis|Sampson Independent

The deep well in Salemburg blends water with a shallow pump to maintain balance.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_DeepWell2.jpgThe deep well in Salemburg blends water with a shallow pump to maintain balance. Brendaly Vega Davis|Sampson Independent

Public Works Director Scott Owen at the site of the new Salemburg deep well, located at 167 Rich St.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_DeepWell3.jpgPublic Works Director Scott Owen at the site of the new Salemburg deep well, located at 167 Rich St. Brendaly Vega Davis|Sampson Independent
Salemburg starts new era in water production

By Brendaly Vega Davis

[email protected]

Brendaly Vega Davis can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 2588