Plugging an old artesian well

[grahamk]

What is the best way to plug an old well? I have a 6 inch steel casing well that is 420 feet deep, and a small but steady stream of water is running artesian out of the top of it. I tried an inflatable test plug - but even though it is just a small amount of water coming out the top of the well, it appears to be under some reasonable pressure because it leaks around the test plug due to the uneven nature (rusting) of the old steel casing. This is causing a large swampy area around the old well that I would like to fix.

I live in a very cold area and think that just capping the well with any of the various caps out there will just result in it freezing in the well casing and that's probably not good.

I have been thinking of putting the inflatable plug back in (about 6 feet down the pipe) and then filling it up with fast drying concrete. Not sure if that would work, and if it doesn't my options then become very limited.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Valveman]

Most states have rules for how a well should be plugged. Plugging a 420' well with a trimmy pipe and cement from bottom to top is the proper way to plug a well. I wish I had water flowing freely from a well. I would put it in a tank and use it. As long as the water is flowing it won't freeze. If you could pipe the overflow from the tank to somewhere that doesn't cause a problem you would have almost free water.

 

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[Michael A DeMarco]

My 6" well flows artesian and I ignored it for the first few years I was on the property. It leaked all the time until I used an inflatable test ball plug to stop it, it was just a passing thought walking by it one day and I could not believe how well it ended up working. It did not freeze, and that plug was not touched for a 2-3 years with no issue.

When I placed the well into service we did out best to use emery cloth to clean up the rust scale and got a cap to seal and hold back the artesian flow.