Question
We live on the east coast of Florida and have had a severe drought for several months. We live in a subdivision with city water and all have wells for irrigation. Several weeks ago we realized our irrigation system was not working, i.e no water came out.

We have had several companies come out but they can not find anything wrong with our system, and figure our well is dry. The retention pond behind our house is down about 7 feet. Even after several weeks of normal rain the pond is still down 5-6 feet.

One company had a well digging company call us and we were told by them that there is no way for a well to go dry, it must be redug (this is without them coming out to look) at a cost of $950 for a shallow well )including permits, etc) and $2,500 for a deep water well. They say that either the casing has broken or the "screen" is no longer any good. They also said the life of a shallow well is 5- 10 years; ours is 10.

Do you think we need to have a new well dug or that our well will refill after enough time and rain? Or do you have any other suggestions.  

Answer
Don wells do run dry, but the well company would be more familiar with the water table in your area. I would say that if the retention pond has dropped the the level of your well might have also. I would say get in touch with another well company and see if you can get someone to look at it. I don't think that you should just assume that it needs to be redug. The are several other things that might cause the well to not be working. Bad pump, bad pressure swich, tripped breaker, or bad wire/ wire connection or something else. While it is possible the well may need to be redug, they might redig the well and then tell that the pump is also bad and then charge you for that on top of everything else. Get someone out ther to look at it. Jim