A Ranney Collector is a type of radial

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

used to extract water from an

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

with direct connection to a surface water source like a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

. The amount of water available from the collector is typically related more to the surface water source than to the piezometric surface of the aquifer.

Description

A caisson is constructed of reinforced concrete and installed into

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

below the surface level of an adjacent river or lake. Screened conduits (also referred to as laterals or lateral well screens) are extended horizontally from ports in the caisson about 60 meters (200 feet) into surrounding water-bearing

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

. The radial arrangement of screens forms a large infiltration gallery with a single central withdrawal point. A single collector may produce as much as 25 million gallons per day. Bank filtration of water through aquifer soils may reduce

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, ...

requirements.

History

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

petroleum engineer Leo Ranney drilled horizontally for oil in the early 1920s. The first Ranney collector for water was installed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1933. Hundreds of Ranney collectors have been built since.

References

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External links

*Henry Hunt, From Oil to Water: The story of Leo Ranney, http://www.collectorwellsint.com/pdf/LeoRanney.pdf. This article was published by Water Well Journal in October 2003 (Volume 57 Number 10). *Ranney Collector Wells company web site, http://www.layne.com/en/solutions/construction/ranney-collector-wells.aspx?mid=464. This company is currently constructing Ranney Collector Wells. Water wells Water technology Water filters