Need help developing a new well point

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AlexHolman

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Hi all,
I just washed in a new well point for irrigation, and I need help getting water out. Right now I've got a trickle, and I'm really frustrated trying to figure out if I should keep banging on it, or abandon the whole project.

I'm on the East Coast, located in a city, but in a generally low-lying area. I'm about 200 yrds from a stream/brook, and 7 inches above its 100-year flood line. There's known to be an underground waterway under the neighborhood, so there is water down there to collect.

I washed in a 1 1/4 well point (Brady #bbp125-5 1-1/4x5' Well Point) using a 2" pvc casing.
First try, I washed down 17 feet. Added 0.5 cu ft play sand, and only got a trickle. I was worried I was still in clay so the next weekend I pulled and re-drilled.

Second try I washed down to 27 feet. 6 through approximately 15 or 20 were hard pack clay (my wife, who was assisting, made a pot from the tailings while I was working). 20 through 27 felt like something different, maybe fine sand, it was hard to tell. I dropped the point and pulled out the 2" drill string. I then poured 2 cu ft of play sand down the hole around the well pipe because I was worried about the clay filling in around drill pipe.

Standing water depth is sitting at about 7 feet in the pipe and in the hole surrounding the drill pipe (which I haven't yet sealed).

I have hooked up a 3/4hp jet pump and a check valve to the the top. All connections are either solvent-welded pvc or pipe-doped threads, so I'm pretty sure I don't have significant air leaks. The top of the well is a T with one branch leading to the pump and one with a female garden hose fitting and a valve. I primed the pump and primed the well by connecting a garden hose and running it till the well pipe filled and water was flowing through the pump. I then closed the garden hose valve and started the pump.

Running the pump (after pumping out the initial priming water) I get a trickle coming out of the pump output. Initially full of clay silt then after running for an hour or so, clear. I've measured the output, and it takes approximately 15 min to pull 1 gal of water. This is a steady rate, and I've kept it up for 3 or 4 hours of pumping (just very little water). The flow, is a spurt of water, pause, then another spurt of water.

I started trying to develop the well by pumping house water down. First try I forced water down for 15 min and then 5 min, and it eventually started bubbling up the bore hole bringing fine clay silt with it. I then ran the pump for an hour or so to clear the water I sent down, and measured my flow rate at 11 minutes for a gallon.

Next day I had a free 45 minutes, so I sent down hose water and compressed air (6 cfm compressor, set to 30psi) for 15 minutes. I expected water and air to start escaping out the top of the bore hole again but it looks like the silt that came up last time may have sealed the top of the bore hole.
I pumped back out for about 15 minutes till the flow rate dropped off, and measured at 8 min per gallon.

At this point I'm super-frustrated and the wife is starting to question how much more city water we're going to have to use before we start getting my "free" well water.

1. Should I keep bashing at this well point, is it likely to work? Its hard reading the forum posts of people complaining about 3-4gpm flow rates when I'm still having to measure in terms of minutes-per-gallon.

2. Did I screw up by adding the play sand? I wanted to exclude the clay silt that I encountered during the drilling, and provide a water path between potentially different layers of water across the 27 feet. But I didn't want to add pea-gravel because I wasn't sure I could remove pea-gravel if I needed to remove and re-drill. But, now I'm worried that its not allowing enough flow.

3. Should I keep at trying to develop with compressed air? Is it bad to pump a large quantity of compressed air 22 feet underground that never seems to return to the surface?

4. Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
-Alex-
 
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