If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I have recently written about methods to develop well screens or at least the formations that surround them. I thought I had about covered every popular method ever used, at least in my neck of the woods, and I intended to start a series of columns on pressure tanks with this chapter. However, I recently got a call from a retired well drilling contractor who is my best friend in our industry. He, like me, ran a one-man operation drilling primarily 4-inch wells, with some smaller diameter wells and pump work mixed in. He had a great reputation as a professional in his neck of the woods, which is across the state from where I operate.
Now, this fellow and I have kept in touch over a period of about 50 years just talking about our industry and our own lives. One valued service he provides me is to carefully read each and every column that I write in National Driller and point out any errors or omissions that I have made—for this I thank him. He knows who he is, but I will not use his name here as a matter of privacy. Well, my friend called me recently and said he had read my most recent article and I had missed an important screen and aquifer development method that he and other drillers in his area had used for years. He was right. So, here goes the description of one more way to develop a water well drilled in sand and gravel.