The city began drilling in May, and the new well is already 800 feet deep.
The goal is to reach 2,000 feet below the surface. That’s deeper than the town’s current well at 1,900 feet and far deeper than residential wells, usually just 100 feet deep.
Oakley City Planning Commissioner Doug Evans said the well needs to be deep enough to reach the Weber Formation of sandstone and quartzite. The rock formation carries the same groundwater that occasionally inundated mineshafts during Park City’s silver-mining days.
“What was a problem for Park City is a blessing for us,” Evans said.
The new well will be 14 inches wide, almost double the previous one’s 8-inch diameter.
The new well is on the east side of Oakley near the mouth of Pinon Canyon. Evans said the contractor is using an electric drill to minimize the noise.
The city has issued a $4.3 million bond to pay for the well. That covers everything from drilling to pipes connecting the well to the city’s water system.
The initial lender is Zions Bank; the city plans to refinance and pay back the long-term loan to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Evans says the new well could more than double the city’s water supply, hopefully ending the moratorium on new water hookups since 2021. At the time, the moratorium was expected to last six months.
To Oakley’s north, the town of Henefer faces a similar problem, where no new water connections have been allowed for five years. Both cities use a culinary water system for everything from tap water to irrigation.
To free up more water for eating and drinking, Henefer is building an untreated secondary water system. Oakley’s new well will provide culinary water using the city’s current system.
The moratorium will not delay the reopening of the Oakley Diner because it is already hooked into the city’s water. Woolstenhulme said the diner could open by the end of July.
That’s similar to the new well’s timetable. Woolstenhulme and Evans said they hope it will reach 2,000 feet by Sept. 1.
