SetterGuy:
Your 1/4 inch a day losses are most likely due to nothing but evaporation, with the high water temp compared to the dewpoints, and the sunny, windy days we are having. My losses are now from 1/16 to 1/4 inch per day depending on temp, sunshine, wind, and humidity.
TGW1:
After researching the subject:
There are not any water well companies nearby that do tests that I can find. There has been a huge proliferation of rural water lines around here in the past 25 years, making well usage limited to the most remote areas.
It would cost me minimum $500 to even run a test, with the cost of a pump, pipe, and wiring. It's about 200 ft from the house to the well. Most wells historically used around here only produced about 5 gallons/minute or so, some much more, and some much less, it varies widely. Many wells had very high iron and sulfur content, which gets worse with extensive pumping. There aren't any cheap used pumps even on CL. I guess it's not worth the risk to me at this point. If I knew the well would produce over 10 gallons/minute of decent water long term, I would do it. To only have a few hundred gallons of water a day into the pond wouldn't help a whole lot, and sulfur water could be toxic. If the creek would start up again, I can get about 3,500 gallons/hr of pre-aerated water into the pond.
