THE WELL
by
Jim McGregor

The neighbor across from our church approached us at a work bee one day and expressed concern that her back yard was getting increasingly wet since we had raised and paved our parking lot adjacent to her property.

After some investigation, a couple of trips to Municipal hall and of course at least two Committee meetings, it was obvious we had found an old artesian well. These types of free flowing wells mark the Fraser Valley area in many locations, many being diverted or capped as the landscape changed from farms to subdivisions.

A small excavator arrived with some shovel wielding parishioners and a well expert, a plan to stop the flow was put in place. It seems that this well had been originally dug in 1920 and redeveloped in the forties. One hundred and twenty feet deep, the pipe had pierced the subterranean channel and provided a flow that filled this four inch pipe for all these years, no pump required. But now the construction activity had disturbed some long dormant water lines causing the flow onto the neighbor’s land.

After exposing the pipe, the well was decommissioned by pouring down heavy salt, clay pellets and sand until the pipe was filled the flow stopped and the water returned to its original deep underground river.

In less than an hour we had stopped a flow that had existed for nearly eighty years. I couldn’t help but think of the day that well originally came in, the excitement shared by the driller and the farmer as the clear cold sparkling water spewed out of the ground. What would this have meant for his family, the fields, the livestock? I could see neighboring farmers stopping by; this would have been an event for sure!

But now, as per Provincial regulations, we had put the water back in the ground, no longer to flood the fields or fill the storm sewers unnecessarily. This crystal clear source was gone and we could return to buying our water in plastic bottles or drinking the chlorinated water piped through rusty pipes into our kitchens.

I’m not sure if this is progress or not, it seems we actually had ‘paved paradise and put up a parking lot!’