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.

 

You should have the ones who drilled it come back and make it right.
Just because he has not seen anything like it before, doesn't mean he shouldn't try and fix it.
You should have some kind of warranty on the well. As to whats in the water like iron or other minerals, things like that are out of his control, but the sediment or the cloudiness caused by mud or other drilling process (are) within his control.
Since it has never been clear,and less than a year old,that could mean something went wrong in the developing of the well.

To say what (is) wrong is very hard to say. It could be any number of things.

 

Thanks very much waterwelldude. I do think another call to the well driller is in order. He has a good reputation around here and has dug many of the wells in our small town...I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt but it does seem like something's wrong.

How would he go about troubleshooting the problem? It seems like there's so many thing it could be. I don't think he has one of the cameras you drop down the well, but would it be helpful to hire someone who does to take a look? Would a camera help in this situation?

I'm get the impression you think the driller screwed up. Before I push him harder to do something about this, is there a chance this could be natural problem with a new well or beyond his control?

Thanks again for the help!

 

A camera might help in seeing if something happened that he could not control, ie, a cave in or casing collapse.

Do I think the driller messed up?... I cant say that. I can only speak from my own experience.
I don't know the type of ground you have or how the well was drilled.
If we drilled a well, and the water was not clear due to mud or sand(thats the kind of ground we have here) we would do what it takes to fix what was wrong.
If that meant a new well, thats what we did.
No one likes to re-drill a well, but if thats what it took, thats what we did.

Could it be a natural problem?
It very well could be. The ground may have shifted and caused the cloudy water.
If the driller has a good reputation, he should know the ground and whats underneath it, and have some idea what may have happened and how to fix it.

...I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt.
You should. You hired him to do the job because you trusted him. You apparently asked around, or you would not have known he had a good reputation.

Do I think he is responsible for making it right?
Being the well is less than a year old and never really been clear. Yes I do.

 

Thanks so much for your help, really appreciated. I'll contact him again tomorrow and see what I can get him to do.

 

Thanks so much for the help folks.

I've taken a closer look at it, and when the water settles in a bowl for a while, an extremely fine yellowish-white sediment collects on the bottom. It definitely concentrates at the bottom, but still seems slightly suspended in the water. When I pour out the water and attempt to keep the partially settled sediment in the bowl, it has a slightly slimy feel. I have noticed some small grains of sand on other occasions, especially in the toilet bowl.

Also, I talked to the driller today. He is a good guy does want to make it right, he just seems at a loss as far as what the problem is. Here are a few more details:

-The well is 108 feet deep in entirely decomposed granite. It is steel cased full depth with perforations the last 18 feet or so. He hit water at about 90 feet.
-We have a 3/4hp submersible pump with a flowrate of 15gpm.
-He said he put in "literally a ton" of bentonite grout and felt he did a better than average job of sealing it. He was quite confident the well was not leaking down the casing.
-He also said he thought it unlikely the casing was cracked ("never had that happen") although I'm sure every driller feels that way.
-He suspects the fine sediment is decomposed granite flour, as he hasn't run into too much clay around here.

We've run the pump for about 12 hours on two separate occasions. Both times the water became much better (but still a slightly cloudy, whitish, milky color), but only for about a day before it returned to being very cloudy/very dirty.

The driller is suggesting running the well through the frost-free spigot at the casing for 24 or more hours, making sure we're not running the pump dry. It hasn't run dry after 12 hours. He's out of town now, and if this doesn't clear it up then he'll come take a look. He said he could drop a more powerful pump down and run it hard for a while - this would be fairly quick and easy. He said he could also surge the well, but this would require removing the pitless adaptor, which would mean digging a 7 foot hole. As a last resort he could sink the well 10-20 feet deeper.

Does this shed any more light on the situation? Does his approach seem reasonable?

 

It seems he is trying to do the right thing.
Putting a bigger pump to move more water is not the best way to clean a well in my opinion. To me its a waste of electricity, time and puts undo ware on the pump, and will not fully clean the well.

Surging a well with air is the best way to move the largest amount of water out of a well. It will clean the well of anything that is small enough to go through the screen.

 

From what I'm learning, surging definitely sounds the most effective but we'll need an excavator to dig up the pitless adaptor, which definitely won't happen until next spring (winter's almost here). It's also not clear who's going to pay for what yet, but I'm guessing we're going to be covering some of it and surging sounds spendy. Perhaps the overpumping would be worth a try - it will be his pump, not ours, and less expensive?

 

If he is supplying the bigger pump, and does not use the pump you plan on keeping, it could be worth a try. I wouldn't do it that way, but thats my opinion.

From what you have said, I am guessing you have a jet pump and not a submersible.

I hope it works out for you.
Keep us posted on how things go.

 

No, we actually have a submersible.

The problem with surging right now is that we live in one of the coldest towns in the county (getting into the single digits at night now) and even if the ground is not too frozen to dig, we'll have to be very careful not to freeze the water line and pitless adaptor once exposed. But perhaps these could be drained? I am still waiting to hear back from the well driller on this issue.

So I was thinking we could at least try overpumping this fall if we can surge. A whole house filter just arrived so maybe that will be a bandaid fix for a while.

Thanks again for the help.