OT: any one know anything about water wells?

[robbor]

I just got a property with an unknown water well on it and its filled in with trash and debree. Im looking for tips on cleaning it out. Its a just over 6" id 3/8 or 1/2 thick cased steel well. Im at 16' and still dry. im at a wood clog of debree. Iv go a 2" magnet on a rope with plastic to keep it centered. Im planning on trying a vacume with generator at this point for the wood and also convert a pair of post hole diggers to a grabber on pvc. Im worrried about as i get deeper if i run into brick or large rocks. Once i get it as deep as i can ill contact a well driller once i have a better idea of what im working with and get to my max depth. I should hit water in the next 10-20 feet. and well should be somewhere around 100 but probably less. Ive already hit one void(like 5') under a clog and im hoping for more but not expecting. also thinking of some sort of hollow pipe like 5-5.5" od as a pounder with one way fingers inside of some sort. I really wish i had access to a camera later as i get deeper.

 

[thejamesd]

I've had well drillers blow sand out of wells before. You might save yourself some aggravation and call a driller. Sounds like a foreclosure or an ex-wife!

 

[NickB1075]

I would call a driller. My well is 190 feet deep. Who knows how much material is in yours. Then they can also do a pump service too. How did it get filled with trash?

Nick

 

[spclark]

The deeper you go with makeshift tools the heavier they get. No telling what's down there, find a wellman who's equipped for this kind of troubleshooting, save yourself the headaches.

You might find that casing's damaged or the well wasn't into a productive strata, may have been abandoned & you'd be better off with a new one.

 

[Gary in MD]

Yea,
Somebody could have went to all that trouble of filling it in for a reason. Call a well driller.

 

[DRNewcomb]

A vacuum can only lift water a theoretical maximum of 30'. Practically, only a few feet. You have to go the other way, blowing/flushing the crud out from the bottom. I know the theory of aquifers, well, etc. but not why a particular well would be abandoned and filled with trash. I can tell you that in my state (MS) a large number of wells have been logged (studied) by the state's geological survey. You might just get the location of your well and see if the state has any data on it.

 

[JRS]

Hire a pro to check it out.

 

[Uthink Uknow]

The best tool for cleaning out a well is a telephone. "Hello, cold ass, I need my well cleaned out."

 

[Sniper338]

Yep agree with all the above. Call a well service to come look at it.

Water wells cost a ton of money to drill, a well is one of those things poeple tend to take care of... if it was filled, or abandonded, somethings wrong with it.. imo...

They cost 15k to 30k to drill, not something someone lets stuff fall into...

 

[wedgy]

Typically a 6" case has a 10" bore hole and the 2" remaining space from the bottom up is filled with pea gravel, except the top 20'(depends on local code, ours is now 50') of the 2" space is filled with concrete which seals out surface water contamination so things like horse manure don't make it to the gravel pack then migrate down to the pump. the water migrates to the pea gravel then goes downwards where the 6" casing has perforations to let the water inside the casing to the pump. It would appear the pump has been removed from your well already otherwise you would see a pipe(~3/4" used to pump the water out) with an electric line attached to it. You are going to have to install a pump anyways so might as well call pump service guy out, they typically charge less than the drillers.

 

[Knotwild]

It sounds like you have nothing. A well driller probably won't send his rig down through an unknown steel casing into unknown debris. He won't want his expensive tool stuck in the well with the potential for having to abandon it there. Usually, around here at least, when a well is abandoned, it is permanently capped; sometimes with a few bags of concrete. Steel casings can corrode and sometimes a normal size submersible pump won't go in and out of the well freely, but they do make some undersized pumps that are a good bit more expensive. I think they abandoned using steel for casing many years ago in favor of PVC. Your best bet would be to pour some Sackcrete in the well and permanently cap it to protect the aquifer.

What in the world is the magnet for?

 

[scubohuntr]

The state will probably have records of wells drilled in the last few decades. If it's older than the 80's, it may be hit and miss, but it doesn't cost anything to check. There are some things you can save money on by doing it yourself, but hardly any of them involve wells. Even if you figure less than minimum wage for your own labor, you'll be way ahead by getting a professional to clean it out. A pro may also have a downhole camera to check it out. If you start using hooks and improvised stuff downhole, you could end up damaging the well screen, and then you'd be calling a pro anyway to either plug it properly or drill a new well. I've been working with wells for 25 years, and I wouldn't mess with a well on my own property (if I had any property) beyond disinfection and pump testing.

Whatever you do, DON'T TRY TO POUR CONCRETE DOWN THE WELL without cleaning it out. Decades ago, I worked with a county program plugging abandoned wells. I went out to look at an old well on a guy's new property. He took the plywood off, and there was a hand-dug well filled to the top with old pesticide cans. I mean arsenic grasshopper bait old. I put the plywood back and said, "I never saw this. Call someone TODAY and get this cleaned out and properly abandoned." It was a voluntary program so I had no enforcement authority. The program was, however, funded by the EPA so I couldn't help him out without exposing him to potential liability. Had I been with the state water quality agency or EPA it would have been a huge problem. The thing is, if there is something nasty down the well and it is traced back there, you could be liable. Regulatory agencies will almost always work with you and cut you a break if you are trying to do it right. They don't want to write you a violation, they want the water protected. They really, really get annoyed when they find out later that you have tried to hide a problem. If you have plugged the well yourself without cleaning it out first, it becomes destruction of evidence. When a professional plugs a well, it is first disinfected, then filled from the bottom up with bentonite pellets to the water line. Depending upon the state, it can either be filled with clean native fill or cement from there up; the casing is cut off 3-4 feet below grade, and it is regraded. If you just dump bags of stuff down from the top you can get all sorts of bridging problems and leave voids, which can collapse later or allow contamination to travel between aquifers.

Call your county water conservation district or the local NRCS office, they have programs that may be able to help you out.

 

[joshb]

As alluded to in several posts, your bigger concern is contamination of the well and the aquifer it draws from. Most wells are drilled down thru bedrock, which acts as a protective layer for the aquifer below from surface water contamination. The steel pipe casing is sealed into the bedrock. You could use your old well for irrigation but from what you are describing, you need a new well far away from the one you have. Who knows what is down there. Not something I'd want my kids and grand kids drinking from. Good luck. Josh

 

[spclark]

There may also be a disclosure issue on the part of the seller: were they aware of the presence of the well casing on the property prior to the sale? Might they have had something to do with what was dropped into the casing after a pump + electric was pulled, whether the debris you've discovered or potentially anything hazardous?

I'm also wondering if this might possibly have been a water well at all, maybe somekind of test hole for existence of contamination?

This property more rural in nature (seeing as how you mention a generator to run vacuum) or something that's been left to return to nature closer to an urban area?

 

[joshb]

Another thought just occurred to me after I read your post again. From my experience, there are usually 2 or3 companies that service any given area. You might check the yellow pages. Sometimes you get lucky and find the "old guy" that informs you: "Yup! I drilled that well in '66. Fine water 'til the tire plant moved in. Water got bad, PCBs, I think. The owner got cancer and moved back to the city." Just do some research. That's all I'm sayin.

 

[robbor]

thanks all. But i going to clean it out as deep as i can first. Was probably plugged by kids as it is an old well and not on record. I have a newer well next door that is all enclosed. There were bottles and tin cans and probably everything else in the world from an old homestead dropped down the well. My magnet pulled up canning jar lids, tin cans and lots of rust particles.
The well doesnt look bad and i have no problem having the water tested and i will be capping the well. It would only be used for irrigation or pond. Like i said once i get down as far as i can ill call a driller and give him the scoop and maybe see about deepening. There are two pipes here. One is not worth investigating as it is probably 1900's thin wall riveted, 30 or so feet away is the better well. Ive already called the well company and state for records. we only have two in our area and they are very picky and expensive. most wont call you back, even if you stop in. they pick and choose the work they want.

 

[DHuffman]

I would be pretty picky about who I worked for and what I did as well in this case. Depending on depth to water it may be more economical to drill a new well rather than risking getting hung up or tearing up tools trying to clean that one out.

I doubt you'd be happy either in the end if you were handed a bill for getting that old well going again when a new well would have cost the same or less.

"Old tin cans" some of the old tin cans had a seam that was soldered. Lead?

 

[DRNewcomb]

I would be pretty picky about who I worked for and what I did as well in this case. Depending on depth to water it may be more economical to drill a new well rather than risking getting hung up or tearing up tools trying to clean that one out....

But a business should at least do the customer the courtesy of returning the call. That they don't says a lot about their attitude.

It would be nice if @robbor had some general information about the aquifer in the area. For instance, if the water table has been dropping over time the various well casings may represent the need for ever deeper wells as time progressed. The oldest being the shallowest, etc. I doubt a riveted casing is more than 50' deep. At Pioneer Village I recall seeing a cylindrical metal box that was lowered down a well to keep food cool in the days before refrigeration.

 

[Uthink Uknow]

Is that the well I was hiding my gold down in?
Was there a green clad copper wire running down into the casing?

 

[drover]

I can't speak for your area but no well drillers in this area will put a bit down an well not knowing what is in it. If there is an old pump or some other scrap metal they risk destroying a bit, and bits are expensive.
There is probably a good reason why the well was filled with junk since most folks will not destroy a good well even if it isn't being used.
It seems to me that you are on a fruitless quest.

drover