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  #31  
Old 04-12-2018, 07:50 PM
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Digger1 Digger1 is offline
 
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The descendant of Einstein who we bought our place from, had left the well open for rodents and frogs to jump in and said it had a bacteria problem. Duh. I mixed up a tote tank of chlorine water and dumped it in the well, flooding it over and floating any debris out. Capped it tight and kinda forgot about it for a year or so. We then pumped it a few times a day for a week and had it tested. Zero Ecoli and zero coliform. 2 years later now we still run it thru UV and filters, but it’s good water.
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  #32  
Old 04-12-2018, 08:42 PM
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Flatlandliver Flatlandliver is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dewey Cox View Post
Blow the well out, pump it for a few days, and then shock the sh!t out of it.
That’s what I’d do
X2
Don’t just shock and pump it, you need it blown out.
And buy a cap.
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  #33  
Old 04-12-2018, 08:56 PM
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Flatlandliver Flatlandliver is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundancefisher View Post
Well water can be great and can be a pain.

The water well should be fine even at 15 gallons a minute for yard watering. 50 would be super. Just need to look into pump pressure and draw down rate. You may want to pump into a surface tank depending upon application.
15 gal/min is 900 gal/hr, that’s a lot of water.
A cistern is a good idea when supply is low but then you have to plumb it, add another pump, protect from freezing........
You can run a house with a wife and three daughters with 3 gal/min.
Most farmers can only dream of a 50 gal/min well.
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  #34  
Old 04-12-2018, 09:29 PM
Long Ranger Long Ranger is offline
 
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1/. Get help from Alberta Environment and Parks, Ground water division. Explain the situation and get their advice/guidance.
2/. Do the same with Alberta Health Services, Environmental Health division.

The aquifer may very well be (most likely is(read is))contaminated. Drilling a new well into the aquifer will be a waste of $$$ and time. Shock chlorination may not do the trick. May take several treatments and then it is a crap (no pun intended) shoot. My work is related to issues similar to this involving water wells and ground water. Don't take a chance with out AE&P and AHS help. Believe me!! Don't drill a new well without a permit from AE&P. Without a permit you could have to fill it back in and/or could be charged. Believe me on this too!!!
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  #35  
Old 04-13-2018, 07:43 AM
Stinky Coyote Stinky Coyote is offline
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Used to do this for a living. Waterwell Service.

Blow the well, we'd rent big compressors out that you see running around fall blowing out irrigation lines, drag it out with one truck and use the well service trucks to go down on 1" steel pipe to the bottom and hit it with the air, the whole column of water will shoot out of there, stand back and cover up things you don't want covered in red/black and more. It will go 60-80' in the air sometimes, it's spectacular. You can go down on 1" carlon pipe too but use a 10' length of steel on the bottom so it stays in the hole when you let the air at it.

New water rushes into the well, let it fill up and you do it again and again, you may notice your pipe now going further down the well each time as your lowering the level of solids at the bottom. Blowing it for an hour or three will get all the solids out, mark the intital start point of where you hit bottom with wrap of electrical tape on the pipe. This alone will likely increase production and open some things up, especially if you removed 10' of muck from the bottom but the air is violent and will dislodge lots of stuff down there.

Then you can do an acid job....pellet form acid in the 9 lb tubs i believe, go with 27-36 lbs of acid, it's lighter than water so it's in pellet form to get to the bottom of the well and start working it's way up. Let it do it's job for a few days. Then blow it again, or pump it out but easy to plug pumps...the acid will help open up those perfs to improve the inflow again.

When all said and done you can do a shock chlorination. 5 gal of the industrial sodium hypo (much stronger than javex) and it's heavier than water. We would premix in a tank of 300 gallons of water and dump the whole works down, false head forcing chlorinated water back out into the aquifer. Let sit for 24 hours and then pump out.....hours of pumping out, throttling pumps to match if you get to suction etc.

All of it is messy and will be removing a lot of

Drill a new well nearby and you'll tap into the same aquifer anyway, if it was a proven 50 gpm well at one point and just been left neglected for a long time it may be worth starting there, even if you end up having a driller pull the liner for new or rework the hole how they see fit?

And if you take it that far, make sure it's protected after so no more contaminants can get in from surface.

Hope that helps.

Note: 1 gpm is 1440 gallons a day. You can live on that with a reservoir, even a 300 gallon bolt together fiberglass in the basement. Installed plenty of those type up to 750 gallon when drought of 2000-03 was happening. Lots of wells dropped to below half normal production in that time. We also burried lots of 3500-5000 gallon fiberglass cisterns for bigger operations/ranches also. But a typical house can easily live off a 1 gpm well if you store it. No appliance works off 1 gpm so you have to store it.

Last edited by Stinky Coyote; 04-13-2018 at 07:50 AM.
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  #36  
Old 04-13-2018, 11:18 AM
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Sundancefisher Sundancefisher is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flatlandliver View Post
15 gal/min is 900 gal/hr, that’s a lot of water.
A cistern is a good idea when supply is low but then you have to plumb it, add another pump, protect from freezing........
You can run a house with a wife and three daughters with 3 gal/min.
Most farmers can only dream of a 50 gal/min well.
Agreed.

My only point was from a pressure perspective. Sustained 15 or 50 is great...however there may be times or continued usage that draws it down and requires a rest period.

If you have a well like that a cistern for garden watering can be handy.

It is true...you would need to purge the system in the winter to prevent freezing.
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  #37  
Old 04-13-2018, 07:14 PM
Newview01 Newview01 is offline
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Great info so far. I'll pm as I need to. Thanks.
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  #38  
Old 04-14-2018, 10:11 AM
Big Grey Wolf Big Grey Wolf is offline
 
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When your water well is past its "Best Before Date" it is game over. Drill a new well, your little lady will appreciate it and much safer drinking water.
You cannot make a silk purse out of a pigs ear.
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  #39  
Old 04-15-2018, 10:45 PM
Hairball Hairball is offline
 
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I'm with Stinky Coyote,

Been doing this work for 25 years now.....there's no doubt drilling a new one is a great idea but having the $$ to drill, tie-in, new pump/pipe/wire/brass fittings etc will cost you. Drilling just might get you the same seam of water and now you are dealing with bacteria issues. I would lean towards spending the time to re-hab the old well......
Guess the questions I would have is:
-How old is the well
-What size and thickness is the surface casing & liner (if it's old stove pipe liner, walk away and drill a new one!)
200 CFM to 300 CFM compressor will do the trick with a 1" tag line into the well. Make sure you use 12% sodium hypochlorite not corner store bleach.

Like some others here, would be happy to chat to you directly if you need some direction.

FYI.....If you blow it.....make sure you're up wind lol
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  #40  
Old 04-16-2018, 01:21 PM
TROLLER TROLLER is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CMichaud View Post
I am no expert but based on what you are telling me I would be inclined to try shocking it and see what happens.

From the condition you are describing and based on the age you probably run the risk of destroying whatever crap is built up inside which may be protecting what remains of its integrity

How deep is the well?
X2 Shocked mine a few yrs back and it came back no issues. Had the water tested and it was clean. That being said why not get a driller to come out and service the well? They can give you the best advise, I did and that is why I had my well shocked.
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