Unique Well

Day 361: Well, that's unique. Several days ago, I went for a hike in Nisqually-Mashel State Park. My intention was to follow an overgrown logging road until I came to a spur trail where I'd noticed some unusual fungi previously. When I turned off the main track onto the old log road, I was surprised to see it cleared of brush and the soil marked by the passage of some kind of machinery. A little further on, I spotted several pieces of Jersey curb surrounding a pipe. "That looks like a wellhead," I said to the surrounding forest, and sure enough, that's what it was: a "unique well," I might add. This state park is only newly formed and is still being developed for public use. I assume that the well was put in to service a future campground or restroom, but I wondered what made it "unique." As it turns out, that is simply the industry jargon for a particular well and its identifying number, from which reports of water quality, depth, date of installation, etc. can be looked up through the Dept. of Ecology. While all that is very interesting, it was rather disappointing to discover that its uniqueness did not imply any special characteristic of the water table as I had initially (and mistakenly) surmised.