Marc
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We bought a house a little while ago and aren't 100% sure where our well is.
In our front yard is an old well. It's got a giant old grinding stone (presumably from some turn of the century mill) covering it with a rock covering up the hole in the middle of the grinding stone. A very unsanitary situation since the first time I lifted that stone... a snake jumped into the water! I've since sealed it up a bit better.
We had assumed that was the active well when we looked at the house and taken that into the vast list of "cons" but decided the "pros" still outweighted them. But... after an offer was made the owner told us it was not the active well. He said he thought one was dug about 7 years ago in the corner of the lot. Of course, there's no visible well head, and the entire area is overgrown with brush now. We're skeptical about his claim since he didn't know where the well was and couldn't provide any documentation on it and he wasn't even living there at the time of the supposed new well.
So... into the basement we go!
Coming into the basement are 3 old pipes that, presumably, once went to various wells around the property. They're cut off / sealed/ whatever. They go off in different directions and come into the basement in different locations. One of them looks like it heads towards this old-well.
Then there is our well pump. I believe it's called a jet pump? This has 2 pipes coming out of it. These two pipes don't point directly at the old-well, but they're pretty close so they could easily be going there.
From what I can gather... 2 pipes coming out of the pump like that means it's a "deep-well", whereas a single pipe might be a "shallow-well".
So... how can I first determine if the old well in the front of the yard is the active one, and if not, try to figure out where the new one is?
Is there some kind of dye I could dump into the well to see if it comes out of a tap in the house? If so, would that hurt my softener... how about water heater... under counter RO filter? Would this dye bleed over into nearby wells, completely invalidating the test?
Perhaps measuring the old well's depth with a weight and piece of string would provide me a clue to whether it's a shallow/deep well and help me to rule it out?
Would the owners (or the well-drilling people) have had to somehow register with some government agency?
Could I somehow use a metal detector to find this supposed new well?
In our front yard is an old well. It's got a giant old grinding stone (presumably from some turn of the century mill) covering it with a rock covering up the hole in the middle of the grinding stone. A very unsanitary situation since the first time I lifted that stone... a snake jumped into the water! I've since sealed it up a bit better.
We had assumed that was the active well when we looked at the house and taken that into the vast list of "cons" but decided the "pros" still outweighted them. But... after an offer was made the owner told us it was not the active well. He said he thought one was dug about 7 years ago in the corner of the lot. Of course, there's no visible well head, and the entire area is overgrown with brush now. We're skeptical about his claim since he didn't know where the well was and couldn't provide any documentation on it and he wasn't even living there at the time of the supposed new well.
So... into the basement we go!
Coming into the basement are 3 old pipes that, presumably, once went to various wells around the property. They're cut off / sealed/ whatever. They go off in different directions and come into the basement in different locations. One of them looks like it heads towards this old-well.
Then there is our well pump. I believe it's called a jet pump? This has 2 pipes coming out of it. These two pipes don't point directly at the old-well, but they're pretty close so they could easily be going there.
From what I can gather... 2 pipes coming out of the pump like that means it's a "deep-well", whereas a single pipe might be a "shallow-well".
So... how can I first determine if the old well in the front of the yard is the active one, and if not, try to figure out where the new one is?
Is there some kind of dye I could dump into the well to see if it comes out of a tap in the house? If so, would that hurt my softener... how about water heater... under counter RO filter? Would this dye bleed over into nearby wells, completely invalidating the test?
Perhaps measuring the old well's depth with a weight and piece of string would provide me a clue to whether it's a shallow/deep well and help me to rule it out?
Would the owners (or the well-drilling people) have had to somehow register with some government agency?
Could I somehow use a metal detector to find this supposed new well?