Need some help fixing my well.

[City Farmer]

Hi All.
I’m in a bad spot right now. We bought a new house and the well is acting up. I have fine black dirt entering the water. The fines are settling in the pressure tank and when I turn the water on, it comes out black for 5-8 seconds and clears up.

The local well driller has bumped his head. He could be the best well driller in the state but I’m not paying anyone $7500 to drill a 6” hole, 37’ deep, five feet away from the other well and walk away.

The well log says the current well was drilled in 1971, is 37’ deep and has a 6 casing. I’ve run the pump wide open and it will fill a 5gal. bucket in 25seconds. I let the pump run for 6 hrs straight and never ran out of water. It clears up for a day but the problem keeps coming back.

I’ve never dealt with well water before this house. I was thinking about blowing the out the well and relining the 6 pipe with 4-5” pvc. Is that an option? Do I have to do anything with the well point at the bottom of the 6 pipe?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Andy.

 

[fried1765]

Hi All.
I’m in a bad spot right now. We bought a new house and the well is acting up. I have fine black dirt entering the water. The fines are settling in the pressure tank and when I turn the water on, it comes out black for 5-8 seconds and clears up.

The local well driller has bumped his head. He could be the best well driller in the state but I’m not paying anyone $7500 to drill a 6” hole, 37’ deep, five feet away from the other well and walk away.

The well log says the current well was drilled in 1971, is 37’ deep and has a 6 casing. I’ve run the pump wide open and it will fill a 5gal. bucket in 25seconds. I let the pump run for 6 hrs straight and never ran out of water. It clears up for a day but the problem keeps coming back.

I’ve never dealt with well water before this house. I was thinking about blowing the out the well and relining the 6 pipe with 4-5” pvc. Is that an option? Do I have to do anything with the well point at the bottom of the 6 pipe?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Andy.

It would seem that your 6" well screen may have failed.
Since you have good flow, the cheap fix would be to drop a 4" pipe inside the six inch, and use a fine mesh well screen on the bottom of that 4" pipe.
Should be no need to blow out the 6".

 

[Deere Dude]

I have never heard of that shallow of a well. The moist shallow well I have ever hear of is 100 feet with 50 feet of casing at least.
Any screen you put in the hole will just plug up, then what?

You could put screens and whole house filters in the house and that should take care of it. Personally I would not have a well without a couple big filters in series for the crap that may get sucked in. Even though the water looks pure, it more than likely is not.

I had three houses with 100-225 feet wells with 50'+ casings and the water seems clear until I check the filters after 6 months.. You can buy a lot of filters instead of hiring the wishful thinking plumber who wants $7500. He is just trying to rip you.

 

[CobyRupert]

Do you think drawing 4320 gallons from a 37' well opened bigger veins that bring more fines into your well?

Hopefully others chime in with a solution. I thought maybe that raising the well point would get it away from fines in the well, but am confused as what type of system you have. Can't a well point only be about 25 feet deep (32' maximum)?

Or do you have a submersible or a deep well jet pump?

 

[M5farms]

I have a shallow well (24') and a deep well (150') for the shallow well you should be able to just pull the pipe and replace the foot valve.

 

[Firemanbuck82]

Well was drilled in 1971 and is 37 feet deep. Is it still 37 feet deep? Have you measured it with a weighted tape?

Wells can silt in with fines if the screen and filter pack weren't designed right or if it's an open bottom casing. This increases the entrance velocity of the water to the well bore and with increased velocity come increased fines.

a few options -
Have your pump guy come in and bail the fines out of the well to restore it to it to it's former depth, or

Have your pump guy raise the pump intake a few feet to increase the distance from the accumulated sediment.

If you suspect the screen is compromised, have your pump guy run a camera down the well to inspect it.

 

[City Farmer]

Thanks for the input guys.
I called the health department because I thought it was awfully shallow myself. They said a well has to be a minimum of 25’ deep to be legal. I’ve talked to 6 neighbors and everyone is 28’-40’ deep around here.
I guess these well drillers are in high demand.....one guy said he doesn’t work my area and 2 are booked until the spring. I’ll try pulling the pump and measure the depth today. Letting it run for a while clears it up but after a couple days it goes dirty again.

I have a submersible pump inside the 6” pipe.

 

[teg]

Have you thought about just installing a sand filter where it comes out of the ground? That's what I do and it needs replacing every year (actually, may be more )

 

[Redlands Okie]

Something I have seen done in the past depending on the size of your fines coming up. You could run the water from the pump then into a container such as another pressure tank or barrel and then have the water come out of the top of it and go to the pressure tank. This container would be used as a settling tank. Have a valve in the bottom to drain or flush it every so often. Might save on filters and such. Those with more well experience may have suggestions.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

A big issue with pumping fines from a well continuously is pump wear. I once did a contract for the Navy on a deep well sand pumping problem. They had been replacing the pump every two years due to wear. They finally included a complete inspection by bore camera and analysis of the well and system. Consensus was that over time the pumping had brought fines from further out in the strata that were not revealed in the original drilling and install. The original screen was not fine enough to stop the new source of fines and had some holes worn in it from bouncing around small rocks. Fix: Bail out all the accumulated fines (6' since original, each pump replacement was raised up some) dump 3' of coarse gravel in the bottom, raise the suction intake 3', and install a larger and finer mesh filter. They required a 5 year warranty which finally expired with no call backs. It was a $20K project back in the 90s. It was a 6" pump at 180'. Casing was 10".

Ron

 

[Egon]

Bacterial iron.

 

[Firemanbuck82]

City Farmer,

You don't need a driller, you need someone to service the pump/well. Have them check it out first. Much cheaper.

 

[Gator6x4]

Consider installing a settling tank and a good filtering system. Not one of the two inch filter type either. If you currently have a filtering system. Check the filter. A defective carbon filter will produce the problems you are experiencing.

 

[LouNY]

Have you sent a sample of water and the black sediment out to a water lab for analysis?
Untill it is known what you are dealing with every thing is just a guessing game.
You are in a shallow aquifer it could be many things; dirt, sand, minerals, contamination, bacterial, sludge.

 

[Stimw]

Is it steel casing? could be the casing is failing and you are getting what is coming off of it. ???
I had a 90' 2" steel casing fail and the well started pumping sand from the rotted couplings.

 

[PILOON]

Had a similar problem with fine particles entering my system.
Normal filters would simply clog up weekly and I resorted to using a fine mesh pool filter with appropriate adapters (pool systems use large plumbing).
The end result is I only need to clean/flush the filter 2-3 times a year and now always have nice clear water.
If I recall the pool mesh is 100 and serves me just great.
Have had this in line for some 20 years now with no regrets.

Heck I even rigged it such that I could 'back flush' the pool filter. (if I remember, LOL) but to remove and wash out is a minimal chore.

 

[Redneck in training]

I would focus on the pipe from the well to the house and the pressure tank. What material iare they made from. If it is galvanized steel my guess is the inside galvanizing is gone and the water gets black when sitting in the pipe.

 

[City Farmer]

Thanks for all the ideas and help guys. I got a guy over there with a scope last night and the steel casing is failing. I’m heading down to get a well permit today and should have the new well installed by Monday. I do all the digging, hook up the electric and supply lines for $2500. I think that’s a reasonable price.

Andy

 

[Valveman]

45 years is not bad for steel casing. I prefer PVC casing and perf when possible. Here we use .035 perf and pack around it with very small (almost sand) type gravel. Makes for and excellent media filter. Some areas just use a finer screen and no gravel.

 

[Cord]

I've been here before. Can you double check to make sure you have silt? Draw off the sampling faucet into a clear glass. Does the black stuff look oily and does it smear on the side of the glass? Does it stink? If so, then you have iron bacteria. Sounds nasty, but it really isn't. Actually poses no health risks and given some time the water will clear up. Throwing a couple pool chlorine tables down the casing will help. Just don't put too much down or you'll kill the softener. Honestly, there is no permanent fix but an iron filter will help deliver good household water. I attached some pics of our well water when we first bought the house. It's been 4 years now and the water is much clearer.

Now if the water in the glass settles out to a grit, then you have a silt problem. Aagain, there is no permanent fix as the problem is between either the gravel pack or the well screen. Unfortunately, neither is repairable; the solution is to drill a new well. As a work around, you can add a whole house sediment filter. I actually run two 20" blue filters in parallel because we pump a ton of silt. That said, I've never had to change the filter and it's going on two years now. You'll want to install the filter before the softeners to protect them.

I know what you mean about having to replace a good productive well, but that's what you're looking at for a permanent fix. That said, I've been able to filter and condition my water to a point where the end product is actually crystal clear and quite tasty. Way better option than punching a new hole in.