# Bore Hole in Spain



## 1QT (Jul 19, 2013)

Hello. We have purchased a home in Spain. The property sale particulars stated "free water". The lawyers handling the sale & survey informed us that there were 3 wells on the property. 2 Agricultural and 1 drinking water. They also informed us that 1 well was 150 meters deep and should never run dry. We were very happy about this as there is currently no mains water in the area, but there is the possibility of mains water being connected in the future. On moving in, a neighbour informed us that we had 2 wells and 1 borehole (not 3 wells) and that the borehole was illegal. We were very surprised to hear this as having been informed by the lawyers of 3 sources of water and also the surveyor having measured what we now know to be called a "bore hole" and reported it to be 150 meters deep. 

Is what we have illegal? If so, could I have to pay a fine, or have the well filled in? 1 web site mentions that you can register a bore hole for 800 euros, but I don't know how accurate this is. Another site mentions 500,000 illegal bore holes in spain!! If we are offered mains water in the future, perhaps it would be best to accept this, but in the meantime what should we do? Any advice would be most appreciated. This is all new to us.


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

1QT said:


> Hello. We have purchased a home in Spain. The property sale particulars stated "free water". The lawyers handling the sale & survey informed us that there were 3 wells on the property. 2 Agricultural and 1 drinking water. They also informed us that 1 well was 150 meters deep and should never run dry. We were very happy about this as there is currently no mains water in the area, but there is the possibility of mains water being connected in the future. On moving in, a neighbour informed us that we had 2 wells and 1 borehole (not 3 wells) and that the borehole was illegal. We were very surprised to hear this as having been informed by the lawyers of 3 sources of water and also the surveyor having measured what we now know to be called a "bore hole" and reported it to be 150 meters deep.
> 
> Is what we have illegal? If so, could I have to pay a fine, or have the well filled in? 1 web site mentions that you can register a bore hole for 800 euros, but I don't know how accurate this is. Another site mentions 500,000 illegal bore holes in spain!! If we are offered mains water in the future, perhaps it would be best to accept this, but in the meantime what should we do? Any advice would be most appreciated. This is all new to us.


Keep schtum ! (IMO)


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## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

Hola

Around me there are literally thousands of illegal wells / boreholes. It is abstraction of water that is illegal; but most authorities seem to turn the bind eye to it. 

I would wait, keeping the shell like to the ground, until you get the chance of "proper" water. 

Davexf


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Very few people register boreholes. Those I know of are carefully disguised with rustic pottery etc... What makes me really laugh though is the number of people who use water diviners to find water. They pay them a lot of money in order to sink their borehole to illegally extract water, when the reality is, here in Spain anyway, that if you sink a borehole you are almost certain to find water eventually... well, out in the campo anyway...


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

thrax said:


> Very few people register boreholes. Those I know of are carefully disguised with rustic pottery etc... What makes me really laugh though is the number of people who use water diviners to find water. They pay them a lot of money in order to sink their borehole to illegally extract water, when the reality is, here in Spain anyway, that if you sink a borehole you are almost certain to find water eventually... well, out in the campo anyway...


Bit sad in the modern world isn't it - people still believing in such superstition?


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## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

First of all depth of borehole/well is no guide to whether there will be water and if there is whether it will be a constant supply. I know of one that dried up twenty years ago but became productive after that heavy rainfall winter a few years back. The pressure flushed out the aquifer? Geoligical movement? Who knows.

I could _bore_ you with anecdotes from our area. Suffise to say that it is a fallacy to say that you can drill anywhere in the campo and find water. Many of our neighbours have wasted good money having empty holes drilled- some to enormous depths. There is of course a good business case for cost versus return on irrigation of olives IF you hit water.

As for legalising wells/boreholes, we did with ours at the creation stage and it was typically involved but easy enough. I suspect retrospective is not possible or hard. Perhaps keep your head down is the answer as others have said. I also wouldn't rely on "mains water" is coming. Who is going to pay for that? As the campo becomes more depopulated the business case gets worse. Mains water isn't a right here in Spain.

A neighbour has had a well (running off our electric) for 30 years. He went through the due process to have it connected to a meter with the electric co. and at the 11th hour it was turned down because he hadn't the well paperwork. 

Water diviners. When we had our well drilled the first hole was dry (divined by the drilling Co). An army of locals turned up with an array of "tried and tested devices". They chose a second site and even knew to the metre at what depth it was(one fellow assessed it by thumping his boot on the ground) . At that point I was a sceptic. Couldn't and still can't get my head around how it works. However.....They hit water at exactly the concensus depth (nearest other well is 25%) deeper so not based on that). I kept two of the divining rods (actually just bent welding rods ) and have since tested friends and family on a set route. I found I have the "gift". About just over a third that have tried have. They can even find a mains water pipe that crosses the land at a depth of half a metre.


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

olivefarmer said:


> I could _bore_ you with anecdotes from our area. Suffise to say that it is a fallacy to say that you can drill anywhere in the campo and find water. Many of our neighbours have wasted good money having empty holes drilled- some to enormous depths.


Yep. Our next door neighbor drilled to 200m and they found nothing.


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

There was a wonderful experiment carried out in Australia a few years back. They cordoned off a field of around 6 acres which had an underground stream running through it at just a few metres in depth. They invited water diviners to come and find water. 250 turned up and not one of them found the water!!!!


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## JaneyO (Sep 24, 2012)

thrax said:


> There was a wonderful experiment carried out in Australia a few years back. They cordoned off a field of around 6 acres which had an underground stream running through it at just a few metres in depth. They invited water diviners to come and find water. 250 turned up and not one of them found the water!!!!


 Perhaps it doesn't work upside down!


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## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

JaneyO said:


> Perhaps it doesn't work upside down!


Yep that would explain it


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Richard Dawkins and Chris French test Dowsers.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

thrax said:


> Very few people register boreholes. Those I know of are carefully disguised with rustic pottery etc... What makes me really laugh though is the number of people who use water diviners to find water. They pay them a lot of money in order to sink their borehole to illegally extract water, when the reality is, here in Spain anyway, that if you sink a borehole you are almost certain to find water eventually... well, out in the campo anyway...


That's just not true Thrax, especially with today's problems of desertification in the south
PS I have friends who successfully used diviners to find out that there was a water under their house, but don't tell Jimenato; he doesn't like hearing it!


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> That's just not true Thrax, especially with today's problems of desertification in the south
> PS I have friends who successfully used diviners to find out that there was a water under their house, but don't tell Jimenato; he doesn't like hearing it!


On the contrary Pesky - makes me smile.


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