Help water cloudy after 3 weeks when neighbors fracked their well.

[Jacqueline]

My well is 550 feet deep and, when pounded 25 years ago, produced 2 and a half gallons a minute. All the wells around us are iffy at best. We have run out of water ourselves 4 or 5 times in the past few years but only when guests come to visit and we used considerably more water than normal. We had our well checked and it seems to be producing under 1 gallon at this time. We considered fracking or going deeper but decided to wait due to the cost involved. The wells that seem to produce the most water are over 800 feet deep.
In the meantime, our neighbor, who's always had problems with water, hydro-fractured his well approximately 3 weeks ago. They are over 600 feet away so we were under the impression that there would be no effect on our well whatsoever. It turned out to be unsuccessful for them but ever since our water has been awful. Our water goes back and forth between dark gray or a cloudy white/gray. You can not see through it at all. We tried running it until it cleared up but that only succeeded in running us out of water. We have since recouped but our water still is cloudy.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LLigetfa]

I think you will need to run it hard for a while longer. Hopefully you have run-dry protection. You may need to do it in short spurts and allow time for the well to recover.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

If you put the water into a glass or jar, how long does the water sit before it clears up?

 

[Jacqueline]

If you put the water into a glass or jar, how long does the water sit before it clears up?

It doesn't clear up. It stays just as cloudy.

 

[Craigpump]

Hydrofracing pushes water back into the fractures, the more water pumped, the greater the extension from the well.

What you're seeing is the super fine particles of rock that were disturbed during the fracing process. In over 25 years of fracing, I have never seen a well where the water didn't clear up. Be patient. It will clear eventually.

Now would be a great time to see if the neighbors frac helped your well. Have someone come in and do a thorough yield test to know for sure.

 

[Reach4]

It doesn't clear up. It stays just as cloudy.

Even after a week?

 

[Jacqueline]

Even after a week?

The water looks the same no matter how long it sits.
Why is running it hard better than using it as normal? I'm just nervous it can harm the well if we keep running it out. Won't it keep stirring up sediment from the bottom and eventually ruin the pump? How long should we wait before we just get some sort of filter? I have to admit it's very embarrassing to have people come to the house and use any water. I don't want to spend money if I don't have to though.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Valveman]

If the well made 20 GPM it wouldn't take long to clean it up. But a well that only makes 2 GPM can take a long time to clear. I have a well that only makes 1 GPM. I just set the Cycle Sensor to shut the pump off when the well runs dry. Then it has a timer I set to turn the pump back on after a couple of hours. I let it run this way for a few days and it finally clears up.

 

[LLigetfa]

Why is running it hard better than using it as normal?

Because using it as normal will take much longer and later during periods of heavier use, it will get cloudy again until all of the material has been flushed through. The same number of particles will go through the pump regardless unless you flow restrict the pump. Reducing the flow rate may reduce the motivation of fines but then again it might not. Reducing the flow rate is a last resort when the source of the fines cannot be exhausted.

Motivating the fines may in fact be a good thing as it might open up the fractures to increase the yield.

You really need to have run-dry protection on a marginal well.

 

[Reach4]

The water looks the same no matter how long it sits.

That is not a good sign. It sounds like colloidal clay.

See https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/colloidal-clay.23057/#post-424675

If you had an effective filter, you could recirculate water from a hose tap, through the filter, and back to the top of the well casing. However getting such a filter will not be so easy or cheap I expect. If you did that, you would want to do a well disinfection too, I think.

You do need a well protection device that will shut off the pump for a while if the water runs out. This is not just for now, but for the long run.

 

[Jacqueline]

If the well made 20 GPM it wouldn't take long to clean it up. But a well that only makes 2 GPM can take a long time to clear. I have a well that only makes 1 GPM. I just set the Cycle Sensor to shut the pump off when the well runs dry. Then it has a timer I set to turn the pump back on after a couple of hours. I let it run this way for a few days and it finally clears up.

Would we have to pull the pump in order to install some sort of pump protection?

 

[DonL]

Would we have to pull the pump in order to install some sort of pump protection?

No

 

[Reach4]

Would we have to pull the pump in order to install some sort of pump protection?

No. If you have a Square D QD control box, I think there is a module you can stick in to to the job. There are pump protectors totally independent of the existing circuitry. They go in line with the input power lines.

Cycle Sensor is one such product: http://cpkits.com/collections/cycle-sensor-pump-monitors and will work with a range of pumps.

Pumptec is a device sold only for use with Franklin motors.

They work by detecting the change in current drawn when the pump runs out of water.

 

[LLigetfa]

They work by detecting the change in current drawn when the pump runs out of water.

Actually the better ones detect the current draw precisely enough to turn the pump off BEFORE it runs out of water.

 

[Craigpump]

Square D doesn't make the QD PumpTek, Franklin does