Shallow well advice in South Texas

[Andy_D]

Looking for some advice on getting a shallow irrigation well to work in South Texas. I'm near the coast and my soil is fine sand (almost like powder). I have done 2 wells here in the last 5 years and have never been able to get a good flow out of them. I have used 1-1/4" PVC Wellpoint screens and it seems like the just plug up on me, when I have removed them they had lots of sand on the inside and I've had to blast them with water to clear the slits.

I have even tried dropping a 1" footer vale down some 2" PVC and while it initially will pump, a sand slurry rather quickly makes its way up the 2" PVC and shuts things down in short order.

I've been able jet in 4" casing down 12'. Measuring down the water starts at 7-8' down. I've been sending my PVC well points down 22'-24'Measuring from the topside check valve down to the bottom spike. I also tried at 16' as well. With 2 wells setup like this and manifolded together I was formerly able to run 1 sprinkler set on low pressure (valve pinched down) until the wells plugged up and became unusable, usually in less than a season.

Any suggestions on alternative strategies? what am I doing wrong, or what could I be doing better?

 

[Fitter30]

Probably pumping to much gpm stirring the sand up. Pumping 1 gpm is 1440 gallons a day. Could pump the 1 gpm into a storage tank and pump out of the storage tank

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Andy_D]

Well I had some decent success yesterday. I jetted down 34' with 2" PVC (All I had) pulled it and put down 29' of 1'1/4". I spliced2 PVC Well screens together. 1 5' and a 4' for a total pf 9 ft of well screen. So I am drawing water from between 20' down to 29' I have enough flow to run a modest flow on a sprinkler. I think that if I repeat can this and manifold together 2 wells that flow at this rate I might end up with enough flow to fill my pressure tank and allow my pump cycle. I guess I'm just stuck with soil conditions that are not conducive to good shallow depth water flow. The 9' of well screen certainly does seem to have helped.

 

[Valveman]

You didn't say what size screen you are using. Typically I would have the cuttings or fines analyzed for particle size. The screen needs to be smaller than the particle size. But if you get the screen to small it can just clog and not flow water. A gravel pack is usually best to make a media filter, which will deter the sand. I would use like 0.010 size screen and gravel pack with something slightly larger like 0.020. The gravel pack will collect the sand and make a media filter, which will not clog as easily as just small screen with no gravel.

I also, think Fitter maybe right about sipping from the well gently. Using an air lift pump you could sip 1 GPM off the top and store it in a cistern for a booster pump to supply as needed.