need help on my well water

[macey]

last year my well went awol. it gave me clay all summer long. had a well guy come and he said he could fix it. he put gravel in the casing and scrub the casing, after that i had orange water. so i put a iron filter and a sedement filter which i have to change the filter . 8 month later my water is cloudy again with clay in it. what can i do now. i have over 12 grand trying to fix this well. the drill well is 396 ft. deep all casing all the way down in it. i can not afford to do another well at this time. but i cant use the water the way it is right now. i think i am starting to lose my mind with this well. :

 

[Valveman]

Have you tried pumping the well out? After any work is done on a well it needs to be developed. Open enough faucets to get the pressure to stay low, like 20 PSI, and let it pump for several hours.

 

[macey]

did have the well pump out and it was clean water then. the pump was at 189ft. but they put my pump down in the well at 300ft now. my well is 396ft. would this be causing this clay to come up.

 

[Valveman]

You are working from a completely different area of the well now. Why did you lower the pump that much? What size pump is it? Will it even produce from 300'?

 

[macey]

this guy came and look at my well last year said he could fix it. he put the submersible pump down that low. he said at 300ft. i would never run out of water, i never ran out of water at 189ft. i think it is 1/2hp pump. i do get water just not clean

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Need to make sure it's sized properly. Water tables change through time. And in the case of wells, bigger is NOT better. And if you have a 1/2 hp in one brand , it will not perform like a 1/2hp in another. They are geared different and come in different GPM ratings. I would get your water table checked and recheck your recovery rating on the well.

 

[Valveman]

It depends on which model 1/2HP you have. A 7 GPM version will only pump from about 180' and still build to shut off. A 5 GPM version will not build to shut off if the water level drops to more than 250'. I don't know why anyone would set a 1/2HP any deeper than that. It doesn't matter that the pump is set at 300', the pump cannot lift from that deep. But the sand is probably coming in at a lower level, which is why you are having that problem.

 

[speedbump]

Do you know the size of the casing? We don't know if this is a screened well or a rock well, but you did say the casing went all the way down. So does it have a screen? If so, the clay is either coming through the screen or through a hole in the casing. How old is this casing and what kind it it?

If the casing is large enough, you could line it with smaller pipe to close off any holes that may be in the old casing.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Raise the pump and reset it, see it that helps.

 

[macey]

my casing is 23yrs.old
there is a lot of salt in the water
casing size is 6
was told there is no screen at the bottom
so they put gravel inside the casing for the bottom to help filter the dirt
i think you are right there must be a crack in the casing somewhere

 

[speedbump]

Yes, if it has salt, it's very possible unless the casing is plastic. Galvanized or black iron could be all eaten up. You could line it with 4" or 3" and put a sub back in it. You would need some kind of packer on the bottom of the pipe to seal it off, then there is the risk of it not going down all the way. It's a risk no matter what you try.