We have an artesian well that faile dit's water test for coliform bacteria (we've been drinking it and no problems )
The well has been there for 30+ years so no idea how deep it is.
The cap seems to be bolted on - can I just undo the cap or will pressure force some of the water out? There is a pump attached to it that I assume pumps up the water to the house.
I need to measure the depth with a string and fishing weight so I can throw some chlorine in - any ideas on how to proceed?
Tere are 2 abandoned wells within about 50ft of the well so am hoping they are not contaminating it. The water has also smelt of sulfur for a long time but that seems to be a common problem in the area so I don't think it's sulfur bacteria.

 

You can do all of what you laid out . . . . and still get bacteria. I'm a Real Estate Broker and have participated or conducted a few hundred water tests to get mortgages approved. Coliform (and not E.coli) is present almost everywhere, and most potable water tests fail not because of the water SOURCE; but because of the distribution systems . . . . most often dirty sink strainers or the swivels on kitchen sinks which are virtually impossible to sanitize. So remove the strainer and sanitize the threads for the faucet you choose, and don't use the kitchen sink or a shower faucet . . . . use a nice plain clean spout as your source.

Remember that chlorine in concentration is POISONOUS, so after using it, no one can use your water for drinking until it has been cleared from the system. Also, most reputable laboratories or testing services will either refuse to accept, or automatically FAIL a water sample with even a trace of chlorine still present in the sample.

And also, after sanitizing your water system with chlorine, and flushing it out, you have to recognize that it is going to reside in your septic system where it will have killed off some or all of the colony of beneficial bacteria that you need to exist there . . . . so they need to be promptly re-populated again, after the chlorine has been vacated; otherwise you can anticipate unnecessary problems in that area.

Good luck.

P.S: And don't go overboard with the chlorine bleach . . . . a pint to a quart will usually be plenty, unless you have a very deep well with a high static level. I once had a Seller dump a whole Swimming Pool Shock Treatment into his well, and it took over a week to get it to run free of bleach.

 

Hi
We took off the strainer for the test - the lab said it wasn't related to that.
However, how do I test the depth of the well?
I am worried that if I drop a string with a weight, I will hit parts of the pump along the way and get stuck.

Is the cap under pressure? how do I stop that before opening it?

 

Pressure is maintained only inside the water line itself. The Cast Iron Cap is usually bolted down (sometimes padlocked) onto a neoprene gasket, just to keep people from tampering with it or unwanted critters from entering. Even with tight well head covers, I've still found some visitors residing inside the casing.

I'm not sure of what purpose dropping a string down the casing will serve; there will be water both above and below where the pump was positioned,

If you're at that stage, when you pour chlorine into the casing, try to slosh it around so that you sanitize the inside walls as it goes down. After I introduce the bleach to the well, I go inside the dwelling and run the water at each spigot until my nose detects the scent of chlorine. Then I shut all water systems down and let it sit for 12 to 24 hours. So it's important to advise the occupants to NOT drink any of the water during that time period, and to minimize their other uses as well . . . . that's easy on a vacant house, harder with a brood of children.

The next day, I run the water to flush the system of chlorine, and when it runs free of any chlorine odor whatsoever, I collect my sample. I wait 3 or 4 days to introduce replacement bacteria into the septic system with a product like Rid-X. Not an issue if you're on a municipal waste water treatment system.

Regarding the depth of the well, most States now have a registry of drilled wells, where the statistics are available for the depth, casing length, pump size, overburden, static water level, production capacity in terms of Gallons per Minute, re-charge rates, Date of installation, Installer . . . . stuff like that.

 

The string was to find the well depth to know how much chlorine to put in (depth x diameter). But if there's a pump in the way then I could just throw in a "reasonable " amount of bleach.
There's no registry for this well as it was built a long time ago
So I can just open the cap? Turn pump off first...

 

Yes; the pump doesn't know if the cap is on or not.

But like I said, there's water both below the pump and above the pump (or should be) so droping a string and weight down to the pump won't measure what the volume is below the pump's position.

If it's a drilled well, it's young enough to be registered somewhere. Often, there's an aluminum tag attached to the well head, or right inside, identifying the Installer, and rendering a Well #, and a few basic stats. If you find that, you might find that they're still in business, and you could give them a ring; but the issue estimating the amount of water in the reserve, and the appropriate dosage will remain the same.

How deep was the well drilled, in total ?

 

There is one outside tap that I cannot flush as it would run into a stream/small river.
Also, to fill the hot water tank with chlorine do I just run a tap on hot until I smell chlorine? Do all hot and child taps need to be run to fill and disinfect the piping?

 

I wouldn't worry about the hot water system. . . . any bacteria that gets is there, E.coli, coliform, or otherwise, is probably rendered harmless by the heating of the hot water. Do you or any of your family members ingest the hot water? Besides, you're not going to be taking a water sample from the hot water tap.

What was the original purpuse of the water test that didn't pass for coliform ?