Very fine sand shallow well

[irrigator]

This is my 3rd attempt at a shallow well at home. My location is coastal south NJ where the soil is very fine beach-like sand. There are some other irrigation wells around at similar depths to mine with geologic reports of medium or coarse sand at final depth. I jetted a casing down 27ft which "should" be deep enough as the water table is extremely high here. Normally hit water at less than 2 feet digging. I flushed the casing for a good long while with a stick of PEX but when I drop the screened well pipe the casing just keeps filling with fine sand. An 80 mesh screen seems to be filtering the sand, as the water supply is clear but runs dry after a few gallons. I am thinking either I'm clogging the outside of the well screen or the casing area is in fact running dry. I have tried the well screen at varying depths up to 27 feet and no change.

I have read you must "develop" a well by pumping hard for a long time, but when the well is dry I literally can't. My jet pump sounds like it's gonna explode once the water supply stops, and I literally cannot acuate a pitcher pump. Like it's clogged.

I don't know enough about the geology here to know whether or not it's worth sending the casing any deeper to see if I'll ever get past the seemingly never ending supply of fines.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm determined to get this to work as I know of other permitted wells in the area at similar depth.

 

[Valveman]

80 mesh is pretty fine. Probably clogging up. I would use something in the 0.010" or 0.020" size that would not clog as easily. Then you pump the well hard. This draws out the fines and starts accumulating larger than 0.010 particles outside the screen that works as a sand media filter. Once the fines have been drawn through and the larger grains make up a gravel pack, you should get more flow with less and less sand.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[irrigator]

80 mesh is pretty fine. Probably clogging up. I would use something in the 0.010" or 0.020" size that would not clog as easily. Then you pump the well hard. This draws out the fines and starts accumulating larger than 0.010 particles outside the screen that works as a sand media filter. Once the fines have been drawn through and the larger grains make up a gravel pack, you should get more flow with less and less sand.

Is there a type of pump recommended that won't get damaged from this process?

 

[Reach4]

1. How deep is your hole? ( less than 27 ft I guess)
2. How far down does your casing go? (27 ft)
3. How does water get into your casing?
4. What diameter is your casing?

 

[irrigator]

The casing goes to 27 ft. Water at 3 ft static depth. Have tried the well pipe at 27 ft up to 10ft and same result