We are in a new house and the well is just under a year old. It's around 100 feet deep into decomposed granite and old moraine deposits. Our lot is situated at the base of hills that head up into the mountains. The water that's come out of the well has never been clear. At times it's tolerably cloudy (kind of a whitish, milky color), but occasionally it's been very murky. We've noticed the water quality has decreased during heavy rain and during the spring snow melt. My wife and I have lived in our house about 11 months, but we are often away for work and travel a lot, so maybe our well has probably received less than 6 months of use. I haven't talked to anyone else in our neighborhood who's had problems like this, but most wells here are much older. Recently, the water has taken a significant turn for the worse and is now very dirty - borderline muddy. You can see a lot of sediment in the bottom of the toilet bowl. If we run the well for 12 hours or so (through a hose from a spigot at the well), then the water will become much better but only for about a day before it gets worse again. We've ordered a high capacity whole house filter, but I'm afraid that will be a band aid fix to a larger problem and that we'll constantly be replacing filter cartridges. The well was drilled by a guy who has a good reputation and does most of the wells around here. However, he wasn't much help and said he really hadn't run into this problem before. Any idea what is wrong with our well? Could it just be a new well cleaning itself our or is there a more significant problem? I have no idea where to start troubleshooting. I've heard of problems with the well shaft collapsing, with cracks in the casing, etc. but I'm afraid of the cost to have someone to look for a problem they may not find. Thanks for any help you can offer! We're about at the end of our rope.

I have a leach field that is not draining into the soil anymore. Trying to get away from replacing the whole field. Has anyone used those additives like Septic Seep? Or does anyone have any other suggestions? A little history: Field was replaced in the early 80's. Tank is pumped regularly but the last two times there has been run off from the leach field back into the tank of both liquid and black sludge. I have no standing water above ground, but I dug down to the pipes at about the half way point of the field and there is standing water that does not drain and comes back within 2 days of being pumped out. Soil is mostly clay so I know there are drainage issues anyway. Any suggestions would be great!