Time to let water gush from new well
- Thread starter gsow
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Until it is making clean water.
Thank you. The water looks clear, but no one is there to monitor it, and it is simply running out through a hose. I see nothing that looks like a devise in the line to test it automatically. Is the clarity something that has to be checked periodically by hand?
Fill a bucket. Let it sit. Anything settles to the bottom or cloudy keep pumping. Sometimes turning the pump off for 20-30 minutes will help turn more stuff loose to pump out. Pump out the crud now or deal with it forever.
I suggest sending a sample of your new well water off to a lab to have tested. See what’s in the water.
Some wells will clean up in a couple hours, others take days or weeks. But developing a well like that is as important as the drilling.
So, after a couple of days, the drillers shut off the geyser. Water looked crystal clear. Since then, it sits untouched. The well was dug a few feet from the old one that was going dry (a 50 footer). New one is 80 feet deep. We await the plumber hooking things up ...
In the meantime, the old well is still in use. No one is living in the house, but there is a need to get a few gallons of water for outdoors each day. The old well water was bad, with really high iron. While renovating, we have gotten by with a simple Omni filter, which the outdoor spigot does not go through. Now, the old well water has become seriously nasty, very dark orange. Pitiful, in fact. And drying up fast. Previously, we had to run about 200 gallons full tilt to lose flow, then it would be back for a toilet flush, at least in an hour.
My fear is that the crap water is now flowing into the new well, and we will have to filter that, too, on a more serious, cumbersome level.
The plumber is impossible to get ahold of, and so are we, so this telephone tag through third parties is a royal pain.
What do you think the prognosis is ??
In the meantime, the old well is still in use. No one is living in the house, but there is a need to get a few gallons of water for outdoors each day. The old well water was bad, with really high iron. While renovating, we have gotten by with a simple Omni filter, which the outdoor spigot does not go through. Now, the old well water has become seriously nasty, very dark orange. Pitiful, in fact. And drying up fast. Previously, we had to run about 200 gallons full tilt to lose flow, then it would be back for a toilet flush, at least in an hour.
My fear is that the crap water is now flowing into the new well, and we will have to filter that, too, on a more serious, cumbersome level.
The plumber is impossible to get ahold of, and so are we, so this telephone tag through third parties is a royal pain.
What do you think the prognosis is ??
Test both wells. The orange is usually an iron bacteria. Won't hurt you but clogs everything up. Can be aerated or chlorinated like shock treatments to clean it up. It cakes up on the screens down the well and on the pump, which can make it act like a dry well.
Thank you. The idea is to cap the old well after its lines are connected to the new one. I realize that filtering is possible; we have a system where we live now, but I would really like to avoid that...
Once the new well takes over, we'll have to test before anyone lives there, of course, but my hope was that the clear water of the new one would stay that way, but wondered if the higher veins from the old one were moving in on the new supply now that they have a new vacuum. Sort of like the moles find old tunnels as fast as er can trap the previous owners....
Once the new well takes over, we'll have to test before anyone lives there, of course, but my hope was that the clear water of the new one would stay that way, but wondered if the higher veins from the old one were moving in on the new supply now that they have a new vacuum. Sort of like the moles find old tunnels as fast as er can trap the previous owners....
I would be more worried about using any of the old pipe, wire, pump from the old well as they may contaminate and start the iron bacteria in the new well. The earth makes a pretty good filter. Not much can get through about 3' of soil.
I am worried. The new well is hooked up to the house. We have only ran water to the outside spigot so far. It looks fine, but after sitting, it turns rusty, with a dull film on the surface. How much water do we have to run before testing? I have it hooked up to the lawn sprinkler and have ran it for hours. I don't want to test and get an elaborate system, then test and find out it was all a fool's errand.
Added: It doesn't stink. I am sure it is bacterial iron that needs to be addressed.
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So, did you use any of the old equipment in the new well? I would run it for several days before doing a test.
Aggie83
Well-Known Member
If you had iron in the old well, and the new well is close by, you will have iron in the new well most likely. Filters are the best. Shock treat the well with chlorine bleach, about two gallons. Let it sit for a couple of days and then pump it out.
I have lived on various wells most of my life and iron in the water sucks!
