Sand overflowing in drilled well

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etoilejr

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Hi and thank you in advance.
We have a 9 year old drilled well, I believe 120-130 feet deep. Sand has invaded our well and whatever we do, it does not cure the problem. We had to clean all the pipes in the house. We have heated floors so we still don't know the extent of damage yet.
We have put clear rocks in the bottom of the well. It seemed like it was cured until we tried to pump the water. The water pump in the well of course had blocked and burned the motor. We changed the pump as the water seemed clear. We tried the water, it was grey. We waited 24 hours and tried it again, the water is still full of sand. When I say full of sand, we have to scoop the sand from the sink....that's how bad it is so obviously, the pipes are still blocked or will have to be unblocked again before we continue.
They say a vein burst and sand is coming up. How do we cure this problem?
We were told that cleaning the well would not help as it would make a hole in the bottom and make it worst. A well driller told us to put some clear rocks at the bottom and it should cure it. Obviously, it's not cured yet.
By the way, we have hard water, rusted water. There is lots of clay on our land but the well was drilled just above the clay, about 6 inches or so.
Please help if anyone knows what to do.
Thank you

etoilejr
 
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LLigetfa

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I had a similar problem. Jammed up the pump impeller twice and damaged the pump. I had the driller come back and dump a couple thousand gallons down the well to push back the mud. Then he dumped some stone in. As long as I didn't pump it too fast, the mud stayed down but I needed a new pump and more GPM.

I used the old pump to develop the well by over-pumping it for days until it ran clear. Doing that, I managed to increase the recovery rate so that the new pump would not bring up mud.

What size casing do you have and how many GPM is your pump? What size pressure tank? What GPM does the well produce?

What happens is that as you draw down the well, the pressure differential at the bottom of the casing increases. Your options are to pump more slowly or to develop the well to produce more. Often a well can be developed to open up the aquifer to a degree that it becomes stable. A good driller can use different methods to develop the well.

If you cannot develop the well to produce more and be stable, you need to pump slower into a large unpressurized storage tank and second pump.

Traditional pumps and large pressure tanks can be problematic. It is a feast or famine... all or nothing situation. The pump runs flat out to fill the large tank, drawing down the well and increasing the pressure differential. If you went with a Cycle Stop Valve, the CSV would throttle the pump to match the GPM of usage and only allow a small amount to fill the pressure tank.

If the casing is large enough, you could put a Lakos sand separator on the pump. You could also put a Lakos separator above ground. You have several options but we need to know more before we can narrow them down.
 

Valveman

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A sandy well will always be a problem. The well should have been constructed with a proper screen to prevent the sand from entering the well. There isn't much of a way to fix an old well that is making sand. We guarentee sand free wells in this area. If the well makes sand we drill another to get the screen right. The Lakos in the well won't work unless you have a lot of hole below the pump to let fill up with sand. A Lakos on top will filter the sand, but won't save your pump from having to pump the sand. If it has large casing like 8", you can run a 6" liner with a pproper screen. If it is 6" or smaller casing a liner doesn't work very well.
 

LLigetfa

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If you pump the well slow enough, the sand shouldn't come up so there are always options. The micronizer for the iron filter acts as a flow restrictor preventing the pump from producing enough GPM to stir up the well.

I also managed to develop the well much further than the driller did so that I can draw twice as many GPM without stirring up the well. Of course YMMV since it depends on whether or not there can be a gradient filter developed.
 
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