clearing a well

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upstateny

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Need some advice on clearing a well. Here is my situation, have a well which was drilled in the late 90's but never consistantly used. Previous owner wanted to save $$$ and installed a pump that is not optimum for this well (late 90's). The well is 550 ft. deep, 200 feet to rock, static water level is 157 ft. Pump is 220 v 2 wire 3/4 HP set about 350ft. down. There is no power at this site so I'm using a generator to run the pump. Driller reported a recharge rate of 2.5 GPM IN 1998, When I had that tested a few weeks ago it was recharging at 3.5 to 4 GPM. When the well is pumped it comes out clear for a bit then gets very gray (colloidal clay I am told). From previous posts I guess the advice is to pump pump pump the well and see if it clears. When I run the pump slow (2 GPM) it just randomly dies on me. I had it going for 2.5 hours once but that's the longest. Sometimes it cuts out in 10 - 15 min. When I run it full blast it seems to work OK (20 minutes is the longest I've tried.) I'm going to put an ammeter on it tonight to see if I can get more information on the pump. In any case, I've been told by a few well drillers in this area that it is better to NOT run the pump at all then to run it for short periods at full blast. That doesn't make any sense to me. Would'nt it be better to run some water out of the well instead of none at all? My plan is to run about 1500 gallons a weekend out by going 20 min full bore and then letting it recharge for about 30 min. I plan on putting a new pump in when I build and get good power to the site but I wanted to get a jump start on the clearing process. Any chance of me 'hurting' the well? Looking for any comments or ideas. Thanks!
 

Speedbump

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I'm not sure what is the best method to clear the well up, but pumping in one fashion or another is what needs to be done. I doubt the driller spent the time necessary to do so since the well is such a low producer.

bob...
 

upstateny

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Thanks Bob.

I spent a few days pumping the well this weekend and got about 1000 gallons out. The first 250 gallons came out somewhat 'clear' then it went back to being gray. I'll keep at it and see what happens. The pump was pulling about 8 amps, every once in a while it would go up to 10 and I'd back off for a while. Just hoping I'm not hurting the well by pumping it fast . . . .

Bo
 

sunnyknik

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I have a lot of silt in my new well. I have found the hard way that it is better to let the silt settle than to pump pump pump. I had the well bailed once, but it didn't do any good. Supposedly, according to the well driller, it should settle down in a year or so.

[video=youtube;lD5dL0wp3zQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD5dL0wp3zQ[/video]
 
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