BURRILLVILLE -- The pump test on the potential new well in Pascoag is going forward as scheduled, but no results are ready yet, according to William J. Guertin, assistant general manager of the Pascoag Utility District.
"I'm definitely hoping by early next week we'll know what the well will yield," Guertin said.
A&W Artesian Well Co. of North Smithfield pumped 40,000 gallons of water over six hours yesterday out of the well location off George Eddy Road, Guertin said.
But that figure doesn't "mean anything" in terms of the capacity of the well to produce water over time, Guertin said. After letting the well "recover over night," the company will do another six hours of pumping today, will do a full 24-hour pump test after that and will then plot all the data to get a sense of how the well would function.
"We're trying to figure out how much we can pump safely during the day without running the well dry," Guertin said.
On the 5-acre parcel of land owned by David Sugarman, the Pascoag Utility District is examining two possible wells.
A&W must complete more drilling before it can test the second site. They've drilled down 240 feet and plan to drill down 600 feet before testing that location, Guertin said.
In other Burrillville water news, the Harrisville Fire District's operating committee voted Tuesday night to award a construction bid to Parkside Utility Construction Corp. of Johnston, according to chairman Donald C. Mehrtens.
For $610,501.50, Parkside will install about 7,200 feet of pipeline to improve water flow to the high school and to allow homeowners along Whipple Avenue to tie into the Harrisville water system.
The Harrisville Fire District has provided water to Pascoag ratepayers since January 2002, five months after Pascoag's water was contaminated with the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE.
Reporter Kate Bramson can be reached by e-mail at kbramson@projo.com
