Pipelines

    Many companies will give landowners the option of taking over buried pipelines when a production field is abandoned and reclaimed. Selecting one highly productive well as a water well and then tying into existing buried pipelines is one of the best ways to create a reliable and efficient stock water system. There are several things to consider when taking over buried lines. Some companies have great records of where all of their lines go, which ones are water and which are gas and can isolate lines when wells are taken out of production that can be easily converted to stock water lines. Other times the records and flow of these lines are not as clear. It is important to know as much as you can about where these lines are running, how large they are and what they are attached to at the other end. It may be worthwhile to consider asking the production company to dig in risers at endpoints on abandoned sections of pipeline. That will require the landowner to dig up and reconnect the ends of the pipeline, but it can be a very good way to truly know where all of these lines are running before you start pumping water into a pipeline that may go to some unknown location on the other end. Having several short but identifiable runs of buried pipe that need to be connected is still a great start to a stock water system.

Pros    

• Using existing pipelines are much cheaper than trenching and burying all new lines
• Materials used are often high quality
• most lines have enough capacity to ensure adequate flow

Cons

• Records of pipeline systems can be hard to come by
• If you are unsure of the path of the pipelines you can be pumping water to an unknown location
• Some of the methane discharge lines are large enough that you may never be able to build enough pressure in the line to adequately move water with a stock well that has limited output