VIDALIA — The new Vidalia water well should be operational in approximately a month.

In November, workers from Griner Drilling Service of Columbia started drilling the new well on the Vidalia riverfront, and Vidalia Utilities Manager Mark Morace said that the drilling portion of the project has been completed.

The pump for the new well has been ordered, and when it arrives Griner workers will finish out the contract by installing the pump, Morace said.

“Pretty much all we will have to do is get the power to it when it’s tied in,” Morace said.

No disruption in service is expected when the new well is brought online.

The new well had to be drilled after an existing well began to bring up sand in 2007, indicating that there was a hole in the well’s casing.

Normally, the city’s water system operates on a month-by-month three-well rotation.

Since the third well failed, the city has operated on the remaining two wells.

The city could operate on only one well if it had to, but the wells are kept in rotation because they will fill with sand if they are not used.

At the time the well failed, utilities officials lowered a camera down the well to see if anything could be done to patch it, but the hole was too extensive to do so.

The new well is located next to the one it is replacing, and is approximately 300-feet deep.

Bids for the project were opened in September, and the contract for the new well was awarded to Griner in October.

The total cost of the project is $339,100.