Why is my well water carrying sediment?

[southpawboston]

First post here. I've done a fair amount of plumbing work but I know absolutely nothing about wells. I own a 35 year old home with a well that was drilled when the house was built. Still running the original pump, and I don't believe the well has been re-developed since new. I do not know any other details of the well (depth, casing diameter, pump type, flow rate, etc). live in the Catskills of NYS, where there is fine red clay everywhere. Since the house was new, the water would run crystal clear unless too much water was consumed (lots of showers, laundry, etc), at which point the well would dredge up fine sediment, and suddenly the water would turn murky pink-brown. If you backed off the consumption, the next day it would run clear again. It worked this way for the first 33 years and we just lived with it, accepting it as a limitation of our system. All the toilet tanks are lined with a thin layer of fine red sludge from all the accumulated sediment over the years, and things like toilet fill valves tend to go bad prematurely, presumably from the sediment. We have a 5-micron whole-house filter which we replace every few months (it's always solid brown when we change it out) but it doesn't block the fine stuff.

The past two years, things have changed. On some days, even with very little water consumption, the water can suddenly turn pink. On other days, you can use all the water you want and it remains clear. Any idea of why this happening? Does the well need to be developed? Does a well-drilling company do this?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Valveman]

Might need to do a water test to see what the pink stuff is. But developing a well just means pumping it long and hard enough to get as much sediment out as possible. A well company is needed if the well needs cleaning, chlorinating, brushing, surging, or any type of physical cleaning. But you can develops the well with what you have. Just need a large enough valve, like a frost free hydrant or ball valve, to let out enough water to keep the pressure low. Then just monitor the output and keep it running until it cleans up. Sometimes takes hours or days. Also, some wells need the pump shut off, let the well recover, and pump the well hard again over and over to get the sediment out.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

If you put your pink water into a clear drinking glass or jar, how long before the sediment clears?

I think you want a filter to deal with that, and that test will be part of what kind of filter you would want. If the amounts are small enough a cartridge filter could be good. A 4.5 x 20 cartridge has a fair amount of capacity, and you can even get washable cartridges. Most of us use replaceable cartridges. How quickly the sediment falls to the bottom of that glass can help select the micron size of the filter. If you had a lot of sediment, a backwashing filter could be called for. Backwashing iron filters usually also double as sediment filters.

A well company would develop the well, but it would cost more. It takes time. Their time is not cheap.