Well was running clean until sprinkler system install. Now it's silty

[Montana Brad]

Hello All -

This is my first post here. I've been troubleshooting a well water problem for a week or so, and this forum has been the most helpful resource I've found so I figured I'd post with the hopes of getting answers to my somewhat unique well issue. I've listed the well information at the bottom of the post

My well was dug about 1.5 years ago for a new home. We ran a hose on the well for about a week until it cleared up and then we move in. That was 10 months ago. We haven't had any issued with the well water until 3 weeks ago when we installed a new sprinkler system.

After running the system for a couple of weeks we noticed a lot of silt in the well water. I contacted my well driller and he told me he suspected it was due to increased demand on the well as well as it being spring time here in Montana and the run off stirs up the aquifer. He suggested I run the well at a higher rate than that sprinklers until it cleared. I did that and it took about 7 hours. I shut off the 2 hoses I had on to run the water and within a few minutes it was silty again. Because it's an artesian well, he said we can't surge block the well and that what I'm doing by running the hoses all day is the closest thing to it.

I've now run 2 hoses at roughly 25 gpm for 7+ hours (and then turned them off for a bit to let it get silty again before restarting them) about 6 times, but I can't tell that it's doing any good.

Any advice or insights are appreciated. Even if it's just the suggestion to keep doing what I'm doing! I could use some encouragement at this point as I'm getting pretty discouraged.

Thank you!
Brad


Well info -
Location - NW Montana
Depth 236'
Closed in pressure: 11 PSI
Artesian/flow test - 3 gpm for 24 hours
30 GPM with drill stem set at 220 for 1 hour
recovery time 24 hours
recovery water level -4 feet
Drilling method: Rotary
Borehold dimensions:
0-30 Diamter 8
30-236 daimeter 6
casing:
-4 to 136 diameter 6 well thickness .25
16-236 diameter 5 well thickness .258
Completion:
226-234 diameter 5. 9 openings of .25" x 3" torch or plasma cuts

Well log:
0-38 clay cobbles
38-210 shale like clay
210-236 fractured soft brown rock - water 30 gpm

 

[Bannerman]

Lots of detail regarding the well, but no detail for the pump,

Brand and model?
Placement depth?
Drop pipe diameter?
Pressure tank size?
Pressure switch settings?

You said 2-hoses are running 25 GPM.
Does the pump cycle while running that flow rate?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

It is still a new well and it was never developed properly. It may take some time to develop a well. Days, even weeks of running maybe required to bring in the sand from the formation and get the well settled. It shows your water comes in from "soft brown rock" at 210' to 236'. You will have to pump it enough to get the soft stuff out of the rock. When the water clears up, stop the pump for 10 minutes or so and start it back up again. You may even want to set it on a timer to do this over and over again until it stops puking up sand. If it was on an timer and didn't clear up in a week or so, you might want to talk to the driller about other options like gravel packing.