Pump running

Hi there! My question is basically one of "Do I need to call my dad (or a plumber), or is this something that can wait until my husband gets home?"

I'm fairly useless when it comes to plumbing.

I have a shallow dug well with a pump in my house (not a submersible). I'm afraid I know nothing else about it, other than it is LOUD, and located under the stairs on the bottom level of the house. It is roughly thirty feet from the well, which I've been told is a shallow dug well. It has a cement cap that we can take off and look at all the crickets floating in our well water. Yuck.

The pump has been running for about three hours straight. It has not been short-cycling, it has not turned off. There is no water running in any of the sinks, the toilets are not running, I am not doing laundry, nor dishes.

Is it possible that this is the foot valve, and if so, is there anything I can do to turn off the pump? Or should I turn off the pump? Or should I just bite the bullet and call poor dad?

Call dad and borrow a thousand bucks to have the pump guy seal the well and install a new pump system. Why drink crickets in the 21st century America? You need more help than advice will provide, I think.

While your advice is undoubtedly sound, it unfortunately does not really answer the question, nor help.

I'm sure the fault is mine, in that I don't know enough about my well system, pump, etc. to give enough of a description. Or perhaps I was not clear in the question - that I really just need to know if this is an emergency situation that requires immediate attention, or if the pump can happily run for a few hours.

And we drink bottled water.

Turn it off if it's not already too late. Running dry or without pumping water can build up heat that can destroy a pump.

I would normally say drink the well water, since 90% of it is safe to drink and you don't know where the bottled water came from. But in your case, I will advise you to stay with the bottled water.

Good Luck.