Shallow well questions

[Slarti]

We moved into a new house that has a deep well for household water. There is also a shallow, hand dug well that I would like to use for irrigating a small garden. The shallow well is 12 feet deep and has six feet of water in it.

I would like to put a casing into the shallow well to hold a submersible pump then back fill around the casing for safety purposes, so that our kids and pets never fall into the well. Is this feasable?

I have no experience with wells so need as much advice as I can get, please? What size/kind/brand pump, what kind of casing, should I use a screen filter of some kind, what to use for fill are all questions that I have. Also, I have a pressure tank that the previous owner had obtained for this purpose but never got to putting in a pump. Can this be incorporated to use for drip irrigation?

Thanks.

 

[Valveman]

12' deep with 6' of water isn't much. When you start pumping I doubt there will still be 6' of water. I would try to pump it before doing anything to the well. If it won't make enough to pump, you can just fill it in. There is no reason why your deep well cannot supply the irrigation as well as the house. The trick to irrigation, especially drip, with any pump is to keep the pump from cycling on and off while irrigating.