GREENFIELD — It wasn’t the best of days for Greenfield’s Bruce Kendall’s and dozens of his neighbors after well water systems stopped pumping water from Tuesday into Wednesday.
Kendall, who lives in the 700 block of Wildwood Drive, said he has lived in his home for decades without issue. But, like many others in Wildwood Estates and the surrounding area, he lost well water without any warning earlier this week and couldn’t figure out why.
“I don’t know what happened all of the sudden,” Kendall said. “I’ve been through the drought in 1980 and still live in the same house and we’ve never had any problem with water ever.”
Officials with Ninestar Connect had scheduled a stress test on their wells a couple miles away on a well field just west of Springlake, located off of CR South 300W. Peerless Midwest, a contractor for NineStar Connect, conducted the 24-hour pump test.
David Spencer is the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Ninestar Connect. He said officials from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) did monitor a stress test on their three wells in Springlake. However, officials had no idea the testing would create issues for area residents.
“If we would have known this test was going to take people’s water below pump levels, we would not have done it,” Spencer said.
Spencer noted the testing is a requirement of Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to get wells permitted for future growth in the area. Contrary to rumor and social media postings, the test was done with the full knowledge and approval of IDEM and the DNR.
“It was our stress test performed by our contractors being monitored by the DNR,” Spencer said.
State regulations require this kind of stress test to determine the permitted volume of high-capacity wells. As the 24-hour pump test was being done, NineStar Connect became aware through social media postings that some nearby homeowners were reporting their private wells were not producing water.
“If the DNR says we could do the test because they thought everyone’s pumps were at a certain levels, but it turns out those who lost water were above a certain threshold, and had we known that we would have considered it,” Spencer said.
Since 1986, Spencer noted the DNR started requiring pumps to be set 20 feet lower than the static water level.
“In some of these older homes, we are finding out many are set just two feet below the static water level,” Spencer said. “So, when that water started pumping out, some people ran out of water pretty quickly.”
In a roundabout way, the testing did show dozens of residents that their well systems were not as deep as they may need to be to handle future growth in the area. Kendall paid $725 Tuesday for a company to come out and take his well system deeper and lower his pump to around 100 feet.
“But, the pump is about burned out from trying to pump up water, so I’m sure I’ll need a new one here soon,” Kendall said. “That’s gonna be a big chunk of change.”
Kendall noted his son’s rental property in Philadelphia was also affected by the water loss Tuesday, and his son spent over $2,900 to get the water flowing again.
“That was just a mess,” Kendall said.
After talking with numerous neighbors, Kendall estimated some 100 homes were affected by the stress test, indicating pump levels were not set at state standards. However, Spencer noted they’ve only had one person call Ninestar and ask what caused the issue.
“I would venture to say many people do not know the depth their pumps are set at,” Spencer said.
Spencer noted the goal for Ninestar Connect is to get the well field west of Springlake permitted, so the stress test was conducted to determine how much water can be produced from the aquifer area during a 24-hour period.
“Obviously, when they did the stress test, they pumped out gallons and gallons of water, and the water level did drop and in this case the water went below what people had their pumps set at,” Spencer said. “We do believe the people who had problems did have their pumps set too shallow while people who had their pumps set deeper did not have an issue.”
The water levels went back to normal within a few hours after the stress test was stopped Spencer said.
Janet and Dan Skinner live off CR North 200W in the Wildwood Estates, and they were one of the homes whose water stopped flowing during the stress test. The couple hired a well drilling service crew Tuesday to lower their pump 20 feet. The move got their water flowing again like normal.
“Our water dwindled down to basically nothing in a very short time Tuesday,” Janet said. “We went to our neighbor and his water wasn’t working either, so that’s when we realized something was happening to the ground water and not just our system.”
The couple noted despite spending $943 to get their system working again, they are fearful of future water supply due to so much growth in the area.
“We don’t know what is going to happen in the future,” Janet said.
About the only thing many of the neighbors who lost water noted for certain was the stress test worked.
“It certainly did,” Janet said. “There sure was a lot of stress.”
NineStar Connect would like anyone adversely affected by the pump test to call 317-326-3131 and ask to speak with Manager of Water Operations, Alan Martin.
