HELP NEEDED!!! Well Problems after decades of use!

[rutwad]

One day last week I noticed my tub water wasn't clear as usual. It became more noticeable. It has a red color to it, not brown. I have let outdoor faucets run a lot! I hooked city water up so that it entered the line between the pump and the well so that most water was going back into the well. I uncovered the well and noticed about 6 ft. down that on the inside of the casing was red dirt. With a whole lot of water hoses, I sprayed the dirt off using city water. I figured this may make the water worse for a while, but hopefully clear up in the long run. Well it hasn't cleared up.

If you look at my pictures, my well is under the brown dirt and you can see the red dirt at the lower elevation. The distance from the well to the dirt is about 35'. The red dirt was dumped and spread here around the end of last year. It has always been somewhat of a marshy area and the red dirt was to fill it in.

Is it possible that the red dirt has seeped its way back into the well? This is probably the driest it has been around here since the dirt was dumped last year, but I'm not sure how the well water depth has been. Coincidentally, the red dirt inside the well casing was on the same side as the red dirt and not on the other side of the casing. Could it be because of the current water table? Or could it just have taken this long to seep into the well?

I HATE the idea of getting on city water, but I have to figure something out soon! Hopefully someone here knows a lot more about springs, aquifers, hydrology, or something. :confused2::confused3:

HELP!!

 

[dodge man]

I'm confused, do you have a deeper well with a casing? If you do the casing is usually sticking up and down deep enough so surface run off shouldn't get in it.

I have rural water (city water) and people often underestimate the cost of running a well. Plus you have the fact that city water is usually higher quality and safer. Have you ever tested your well?

 

[rutwad]

It's approximately 32" well casing which indeed did stick up above ground almost 2 ft until an unfortunate incident broke it near ground level 8 years back. I mounded up the brown dirt you see and put a cover over the well.

Depth is 20' or so.

Tested? nothing official. However if you have ever seen the Zero water filters, similar to Britta, they come with something like a digital thermometer but it is suppose to measure contaminants in the water. I'm sure there is a lot it doesn't test for, but Zero water filters will make water read .000. A bottle of drinking water usually reads about .010-.012. The city water here reads about .124, and my well water reads .024.

 

[rutwad]

It's approximately 32" well casing which indeed did stick up above ground almost 2 ft until an unfortunate incident broke it near ground level 8 years back. I mounded up the brown dirt you see and put a cover over the well.

Depth is 20' or so.

Tested? nothing official. However if you have ever seen the Zero water filters, similar to Britta, they come with something like a digital thermometer but it is suppose to measure contaminants in the water. I'm sure there is a lot it doesn't test for, but Zero water filters will make water read .000. A bottle of drinking water usually reads about .010-.012. The city water here reads about .124, and my well water reads .024.


The last picture is trying to show the elevation difference. I was standing on the red dirt and you can see it near the bottom of the picture and the mound where the well is directly in front of the tree.

 

[Larry Jones]

I'm having a little trouble grasping here. 32inch wide by 20ft deep? Is this a dug well? What is the casing? well tile? If the only thing that has been changed is the dumping of the red dirt, that would have to be the cause. I would repair the casing that has been broken and seal around the well real good, maybe dig down a couple feet and add some clay or what ever it takes to keep the red dirt out of the well. Then flush the well out good and try getting the mud out of it. Meantime maybe a good sediment filter will clean it up. I'd hate having to bathe in that water.

 

[rutwad]

Yes, it was dug with a backhoe many years ago and concrete well casing is what I've always heard it called. Each has a small lip around the top and you simply stack them.

The dirt entering the well isn't coming in from the top. It's the high point and I built the brown dirt up to it. This was done in 2008.

Just 2 days ago I removed the well cover and about 6' down inside the well I could see red dirt on the casing wall. The water was about 2' below this. Now the red dirt that was dumped in a low area was about 35 ft from the well at it's nearest point. The well is on higher ground than the red dirt. However, I would say the elevation difference is also about 6 ft, which is the same level I noticed the red dirt in the well casing.

The low spot where the red dirt was placed drains in the opposite direction of the well. The red dirt has been there for approximately 9 months, yet we just are now having trouble.

 

[rutwad]

These are Google Earth images. The first one is in 2006 and I marked the well casing that was above ground at that time in blue. The next image shows the same area, but you can see where the low area East of the well. The last picture shows the red dirt in place east of the well, again about 35' away and its elevation about 6 ft lower than the ground level where the well is. Everything drains east. So is it somehow possible the red dirt seeped west into the well?

 

[rutwad]

Mr. Larry, where are you from?

 

[Walkin Horse]

Is there a chance the bladder in your pressure tank has busted. If you have a bladder tank check the pressure in it.

 

[Larry Jones]

Mr. Larry, where are you from?

Im in northern West Virginia.
That marshy area you filled in, is there a spring there? letting the red dirt enter the water table?
Water underground can flow in a different direction than what it does above ground. What you see on the well casing, on one side, seems like it is seeping thru the casing, and leaving the sediment behind.