Cloudy water after heavier than normal use

[LLigetfa]

With gravel like that, either the seal failed miserably and it is washing into the rock bore, or there is no rock bore at all and it's a mud well. There was probably no value in removing that gravel from the well. On my well the driller deliberately dumped coarse gravel down the well to hold back the mud.

Somewhere there should be a record on file that describes the well and the formation.

 

[Mikeazo]

I checked with the county. They have well logs for some homes in the area, but not a lot. It was drilled in 1960 so their record keeping must have not been great then. Other logs for the area show hitting gravel around 40 feet. The guys here today said the static water level was at 40 feet. Pump was at 80. Well is 190 to the bottom.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Mikeazo]

Wanted to post a few updates. Haven't talked to the well guy about a dole valve yet (been very busy here), but I left a message for him yesterday, so I should hear back today or tomorrow.

So, they cleaned the well on Friday, Feb 28. By the next afternoon, Saturday, Mar 1, the water in the house was very clear. It remained very clear until the next Saturday, Mar 8. It was cloudy all that day. We had been trying to limit water use some by not running the washing machine (still ran the dishwasher, etc). It was all clear again by Sunday the 9th and is still clear today. I don't know if the water softener ran Friday night and that is why we had cloudy water on Saturday (due potentially to high water usage of the softener). Temperatures have been going up around here and I think that Friday night/Saturday was the first time we stayed above freezing. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Another interesting piece of information is that my wife told me that before the well cleaners left they mentioned that we had loads of water in the well ("enough for the entire neighborhood"). They said they were getting 15 gpm when running the pump. I think they ran it for 30 min to an hour.

Also, I filled up a bottle of water the morning after the cleaning and put the lid on it. There were definitely air bubbles in the water, but not enough to make a significant air bubble form at the top of the bottle after a week. I did notice, however, that after a week the water in the bottle had cleared up significantly and there was a very small amount of very fine "sediment" (for lack of a better word) at the bottom of the bottle. When the water clouded up again last Saturday, I took another sample and am watching it closely.

 

[Mikeazo]

With gravel like that, either the seal failed miserably and it is washing into the rock bore, or there is no rock bore at all and it's a mud well. There was probably no value in removing that gravel from the well. On my well the driller deliberately dumped coarse gravel down the well to hold back the mud.

Somewhere there should be a record on file that describes the well and the formation.

I found the well log for our neighbor's well which was drilled only a few years after ours (back in the 60's).

It shows

Formations From To
Clay 0 9
Gravel 9 20
Clay 20 168
Sand 168 174
Clay 174 184
Gravel 184 188


I've kind of gone pessimistic on the dole valve. Haven't had it installed yet, but I'm no longer convinced that the mud issue is from flow. Yesterday our water was pretty cloudy. By the evening it had cleared up. I started the dishwasher and went to bed. In the night I heard the softener running. By morning the water was horribly muddy. All this with a 5 micron filter cartridge.

I plan on talking to the well guy again today. Should I discuss any other options besides drilling a new well? Would it be worth it to run a camera down there or is the water likely so cloudy that we wouldn't be able to see anything?

Some neighbors a few streets over drilled a new well a year ago. Their new well is 200' deep and they have no issues.

 

[Mikeazo]

Just in case anyone is interested. We had a new well drilled. Water is as clear as can be. Have had no problems at all even after very heavy use.