Shallow Well and a Trash Pump

[muddydawg]

New to the forum. Lots of useful info but couldn't find a answer to my question so I decided to post up. I have a small cypress pond. Dry but the soil is soft and wet. I am wanting to flood it to with about two- three feet of water maybe twice a year and control the flow so I can manipulate the water level. This would be pond is in the middle of the woods so I need a water source. So in comes the idea of a shallow well.

I'm not asking about the installation process. Already found a good bit of info posted. My question is what size pump should I use? Is there a chance I could use say a trash pump to pump the water out of the well and flood the area? Then disconnect the trash pump. No electricity for miles.

Thanks for the help and any information.

[Texas Wellman]

You can do this and it can work with spectacular results. First thing-you need to be either at or near sea-level. Assuming that you are in Florida then you have that one covered. The 2nd thing is that you need a relatively high water level, like around ~10 feet. Since a centrifugal pump doesn't work exactly like a shallow well jet they have a hard time getting started or primed.

What we normally do around here is directly connect a 2" suction hose directly to the casing on a 2" well. You then fill as much water in the pump as fast as you can. You probably won't be able to fill up the casing/pump without a footvalve but you can raise the level a little. Start the pump and hope it primes/picks up. You may have to wait several minutes. Beware running your pump dry for very long as the seals etc. can burn up.

You can get a solid 30-60 gpm of water out of a correctly done set-up like this, depending on well yield etc.

Good luck.

[Texas Wellman]

Also I have seen some use a smaller trash pump so that a footvalve can be used, which makes it easier to get the pump primed etc. The down-side is that you won't have as much flow. I'm unaware if any gas powered jet pumps exist but it might be worth a search.

[muddydawg]

Thanks for the information. I will search around for the jet pump. I appreciate your time! Will post up when we have it complete. Thanks again.