Well Water Woes

[rynophiliac]

So we have been hauling water for cattle ever since our pasture well stopped pumping last month. It turns out our well casing is so old that it is rusting out and falling to the bottom of the well causing us to bring our pump up higher and higher to get to clean water. Now, we are at the point were there is no more clean water to move the pump to. Has anyone ever had this happen? I'm trying to figure out if it will be easy to just redrill a brand new well or try to clean out the gunk at the bottom of the existing well? Current casing is 8" and perhaps the existing well can be redrilled another 50 feet to clean out all the rust and gunk and then install a new 6" rust resistant casing inside the old casing to prevent the problem from happening again? I figured I would post it on here because I'm sure someone out there has had an old old well with a similar problem and maybe had a good fix for it!

 

[LazyWP]

I am betting you will have to redrill it. I am used to 4 inch casings so I doubt you could get anything in it to clean it out.

 

[littlejoe]

So we have been hauling water for cattle ever since our pasture well stopped pumping last month. It turns out our well casing is so old that it is rusting out and falling to the bottom of the well causing us to bring our pump up higher and higher to get to clean water. Now, we are at the point were there is no more clean water to move the pump to. Has anyone ever had this happen? I'm trying to figure out if it will be easy to just redrill a brand new well or try to clean out the gunk at the bottom of the existing well? Current casing is 8" and perhaps the existing well can be redrilled another 50 feet to clean out all the rust and gunk and then install a new 6" rust resistant casing inside the old casing to prevent the problem from happening again? I figured I would post it on here because I'm sure someone out there has had an old old well with a similar problem and maybe had a good fix for it!

I'd like to know how deep it is, what it would cost to redrill, how much water it was putting out, and if rust is really a problem.

My deepest well has got kinda an alkali taste to it---gotta be pretty thirsty to ride by and take a drink. Cattle will kinda fool around the first time they go to it for a drink, but drink normal after that and lots.

If I change pumps on this well, it'll run rusty for a while then clear up. Some of these wells tend to start producing lower, seems like the perfs maybe kinda rust or get smaller from hard water deposits. 1/2 or complete electric blasting cap works pretty good---don't take much as water is incompressible. they'll pump dirty/ruksty after that for a bit, you do want to make sure they didn't just case the top with steel then go to plastic.

I don't think that big chunks of your casing are falling to the bottem. I'm wondering if it would clean up if would (could?) run it down the coulee for a while. And---again---are you sure it's hurting anything? Iron oxide was typically added to mineral to give it color---seems like it ties up copper---but are you sure you've got a problem? We've all seen cows turn up their noses at water that looked good to us, then stop and drink outa the damndest mudholes.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We just shock chlorinated the well at my sons place. Not pumping for 8 months and the iron seems to seal off the perforations. It's 165ft deep 5 inch casing. we dumps about 4 gallons of Javex followed by 500 gallons of water. Did that twice. It producing much better again.
Could a Vac truck suck out the bottom of your well then run a 5 inc plastic casing inside and fill the space between with pea gravel?

 

[cure]

I would talk to a well driller we have an old well that was not producing very well so my neighbor came over and cleaned the well. When he was done we actually got back 20 ft and got some pretty clean water as well. Cost us a couple hundred dollars so much cheaper than redrilling.

 

[Hayguy]

hauling water get's old pretty quick eh :wink: I would talk to a reputable drilling company,lot's of thing's they can do now that weren't available even just a few years ago.

 

[Larrry]

With an 8 inch casing you sure have some options I really think you could clean it out or even run a bit down there to redrill through the bits and pieces of old casing. If I got a well driller who wanted to drill a new one Id get a second opinion. I really think you could get this well working

 

[leanin' H]

With an 8 inch casing you sure have some options I really think you could clean it out or even run a bit down there to redrill through the bits and pieces of old casing. If I got a well driller who wanted to drill a new one Id get a second opinion. I really think you could get this well working

I agree with Larry. The 8 inch case gives you some options. We have had several wells cleaned out by drillers and they worked great.

 

[Redranch]

Just for kicks if you have access to a well camera send it down and see whats going on. Some well drillers have them.

 

[George]

In this area we get clogged with Iron and Manganese - - - My solution is a 12 Ga. with 2 deer slugs.

Pull the well, let well sit until water is built up ( 1/2 day is normal ) then shoot straight down into the water - - - the water will not compress so it forces itself out of the well and back into the earth breaking the crust as it does so - - - wait about 10 minutes and shoot again.

I have had wells so plugged that no water would even seep in so I dump in water till the level gets at least 30' to 50' of depth then go ahead and shoot it.

When you drop the pump back down run it out on the ground as it will look like black paint but the well will run great for several years again.

Our local Allis Chalmers dealer has to shoot his well about every other year but his is the worst I know of - - - the people who run the most water seem to have the most problems but this is much cheaper than a new well and most of the wells around here with the problem only have to shoot them every 5 to 10 years.

If you have the time to wait the county board of health recommends to pull the pump, pour in 10 gals. of muriatic acid and wait 4 days then reinstall the pump and pump on the ground as it will still look like black paint.

Most of the time a well can be put back into service but not always.

 

[rynophiliac]

I believe the well is around 350-400 feet, the pump is set at 302 feet. It stopped pumping about a month ago so we had a local well driller come out and look at it. He pulled the pump and tested it and ground level with a generator and said the pump was faulty. So we took the pump back to the place we bought it just 2 years ago. They worked on it for about 30 minutes and got it pumping again. They said that the pump had gotten clogged up with tiny rust particles and he gave me a little dixie cup with a bunch of fine rust colored powder that he pulled out of the pump. We gave the pump back to the local well driller and he went to reinstall but said it still wouldn't pump water. He told us he thought the metal casing was so old and rusted that pieces of it were falling to the bottom of the well and plugging the pump. I have talked to a few other local rancher who have been in the area for a long time and they told me that they think they remember the previous owner of the ranch had to raise the pump level on the well periodically to get the pump out of all the gunk and rust. But now the pump cannot go any higher, if it does it will be out of the water level.

 

[Mike]

I've seen people "wash" a well out.

They simply ran a pipe deep into the well and flushed the well with a big pump and lots of water.

Much of the silt and other sediment was flushed up and out the well opening.

Many times a well is deeper than the casing and the uncased side dirt "sloughs off" down into the bottom.

Does your well have a screen? Or does the water in the well flow into it from the well bottom?

 

[rynophiliac]

I've seen people "wash" a well out.

They simply ran a pipe deep into the well and flushed the well with a big pump and lots of water.

Much of the silt and other sediment was flushed up and out the well opening.

Many times a well is deeper than the casing and the uncased side dirt "sloughs off" down into the bottom.

Does your well have a screen? Or does the water in the well flow into it from the well bottom?

I'm not sure if it has a screen or not, is there anyway I could find out?

 

[Mike]

I've seen people "wash" a well out.

They simply ran a pipe deep into the well and flushed the well with a big pump and lots of water.

Much of the silt and other sediment was flushed up and out the well opening.

Many times a well is deeper than the casing and the uncased side dirt "sloughs off" down into the bottom.

Does your well have a screen? Or does the water in the well flow into it from the well bottom?

I'm not sure if it has a screen or not, is there anyway I could find out?

Not that I know of besides dropping a camera in.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I've seen people "wash" a well out.

They simply ran a pipe deep into the well and flushed the well with a big pump and lots of water.

Much of the silt and other sediment was flushed up and out the well opening.

Many times a well is deeper than the casing and the uncased side dirt "sloughs off" down into the bottom.

Does your well have a screen? Or does the water in the well flow into it from the well bottom?

I'm not sure if it has a screen or not, is there anyway I could find out?

Is the well registered? They usually have a report on how it was cased and production.

Not always as the well on my sons had no record. :shock:

 

[JDBalerman]

Chances are the 8 inch casing is only a surface casing. It probably is much smaller at the bottom. We redeepened one well by 20 feet with a giant air pump (maybe 400 cubic ft per min.) You should have seen the crud and rocks and sand come out. Only took about an hour. Worked perfectly ever since.
Good luck!

 

[3 M L & C]

Chances are the 8 inch casing is only a surface casing. It probably is much smaller at the bottom!

I dissagree. What would the purpose of that be? The only reason to have 8 inch at the top is to have 8 inch at the bottom.

 

[3 M L & C]

How old is this well? You mentioned that someone else put the well in before you aquired this ground. You will never be able to tell what has all went on with this well. I would probably drill a new well. With the new stuff they put in the wells drilled now a new one would last a lifetime and never have to worry if its pumping good water or not. Or have to haul water. How much is all that piece of mind worth? I know it's worth more to some than others. Just my two cents.

 

[littlejoe]

Chances are the 8 inch casing is only a surface casing. It probably is much smaller at the bottom!

I dissagree. What would the purpose of that be? The only reason to have 8 inch at the top is to have 8 inch at the bottom.

Surface pipe is what it says: Surface pipe. Quite common to go with metal, then smaller plastic on water wells around here.

On an oilwell, you actually often start out with 'conductor pipe', to kinda seal off the surface gravels, etc, till you get some hole made. Then typically set 2-300 (or more) feet of surface. Every time you gotta set another string---like overthrust drilling, you go back in with smaller pipe, then go inside that with smaller bit. I've been on overthrust holes that started with 24" 'conductor pipe' and ended up @ 12,000' with a 6 1/4 bit inside of 7" casing

Air drilling with reverse circ rig outa green river or moab, we'd commonly set 20' of temporary surface, pull it when done---best if you could finish an 900-1000' hole in one day down there (hole integrity) easy diggin', too soft to even run a hammer. An Ingersoll rand t3w---had 1100 cu' @ 350 psi air pump

 

[DB Cooper]

Chances are the 8 inch casing is only a surface casing. It probably is much smaller at the bottom!

I dissagree. What would the purpose of that be? The only reason to have 8 inch at the top is to have 8 inch at the bottom.

Water wells in our area typically have a 6" surface casing for the first 20 feet with 2 feet of that extending above the ground level to prevent surface water intrusion. The remainder of the casing is 4" plastic.