Grey, stinky water

[Pat]

3 LB, On the serious side you do need to get your "polution" out of the well as fast and as complete as you can. If there are any nearby neighbors who get a head of foam on a glass of water they might contact you through a lawyer regarding a hefty lawsuite. Don't assume that the sales guy won't have a big laugh with his buddies about the city slicker who dumped detergent down the well when told to use bleach.

Bad news rides a fast horse.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[3_lb_trigger]

O.K. this is getting really frustrating now. I went to run the well off with a hose like Gary said. I turned the pump off, drained the tank, then turned the pump back on to let it just run through straight off the pump. Everything was going fine for a while, there was only a small amount of bubbles, and no smell of chlorine. Then it started barely flowing, so I turned the pump off thinking maybe it needed a rest. When I turned it back on, it pumped out dark, muddy water for a minute, then clear for a minute, then barely trickled again. I turned it off since it wasn't hardly pumping, waited a while then turned it on again. Same thing. While it was trickling clear, I disconnected the hose and waited to see if it would fill the tank back up. Half an hour later, pressure gauge still sitting on zero. So now, I have no water at all! [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

[3_lb_trigger]

After the all the stuff in my last post, I turned off the pump and left the property for a few hours. When I went back, I turned the pump on, and could hear the ball in the check valve rattling, so I had flow to the tank. I knocked on the side of the tank and it was about 1/4 full. I opened the valve to the hose and the water was coming out was clear so I turned the hose back off, opened the valve to the house, and went inside to check it. Everything worked as normal. Pressure was good, water was clear, everything back to normal right? Well it seemed so until I went back out to the pump house, and the check ball isn't rattling, the gauge still reads zero, and knocking on the tank makes a hollow sound even at the bottom now, indicating that it is empty. Now I'm really confused! I resolve to quit while I'm ahead and call the local well company. After describing what's happening, he says it sounds odd, and he doesn't know what would cause that, but for $77 he'll show up and give me a 1/2 an hours worth of diagnosis. I told him I'd get back to him if I couldn't figure it out on my own. During the conversation though, he asked the address, and when I gave it to him, he said that his records indicated that he had replaced the pump in that well in 2002 with a good quality pump which should last a long time. Should I just wash my hands of it and pay the guy?

[Pat]

3LB, To pay or not to pay, that is the question. Maybe you should ask around and try to get a consensus. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Seriously, water at a residence is an important attribute and needs serious consideration beyond the level of support you got from your sales guy and the peanut gallery. Among other things it sounds like your well doesn't produce a very high flow. Mine doesn't either. If overtaxed my well produces a lot of fine red cloudy stuff. I have virtualy unlimited water available but I can't take it out super fast. Opening a hose bib straight off my well for too long will cause the problem. Runing a hose with a nozel on it off of a hose bib at the house, even opened up all the way causes no problem. Apparently the sustainable flow without sediment with my well is about what a hose with nozel wide open will flow.

A larger pressure tank, fed with a flow restrictor, is a good thing in these situations. The flow restrictor prevents the well from being drawn down too quickly and the large size pressure tank will supply decent volumes of water for a fair period of time. If you aren't filling a pool or irrigating a field you may make out OK. We can run the dishwasher, clothes washer and a shower or two and not have a problem but sustained fire fighting would not be a good use for our well.

I believe you have discovered a separate problem/issue with your well, unrelated to the first except the first caused you to discover the second. At some point it will become a prudent to run the water enough to clear it. You needn't do this at a super high rate. Total volume counts a lot and doesn't have to be done at a high rate. You have discovered what happens when you overpump your well. Avoid that.

When (if) you get things seeming to functon normally, i.e. clear water fills and flows from the tank when consumed in moderation, pull a sample as directed by the testing agency and find out if you have a contamination issue and what if anything is to be done about it. Next you can aceratin the water prolduction rate that you can safely sustain and consider using a flow restrictor to prevent exceeding your production capability. The flow restrictor goes between the well and the pressure tank. You may elect to get a larger or another tank to place in parrallel with the current tank. That will give you a better "surge" capacity for those times when several consuming devices just happen to make overlapping demands.

Keep us posted on your efforts and results.



[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GaryQWA]

There may be something like biomass blocking the pump's inlet screen. I vote for calling the well guy out and tell him everything that's been done; detergent, bleach, draining the tank to run off the well etc.. He may have to pull the pump. The price will depend on how far he travels, what type of drop pipe the pump is on and how long he thinks it might take him. If galvanized, the price will be the highest and if PE tubing the least.

Gary Slusser

[Pat]

GaryS, You're no fun... Speculating about the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin is far more exciting than using a microscope to count them.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[3_lb_trigger]

Well, I just can't call in someone to save me yet, because then I would have been defeated by this, and I still have some fight left in me. Here's the latest....... I went to the property this morning and looked at the tank. Still empty, gauge still at zero. (as I expected) The tank is only connected to the water line at the bottom, so I'm thinking maybe it's not refilling because it can't displace the air in the tank now.? I turned on the kitchen sink at a trickle and left it for the day hoping that maybe the constant, slow moving water in the pipe would start a siphon effect in the tank. When I returned at the end of the day, the tank was half full, gauge still reads zero. At least it seems SOME progress is being made. I have a couple questions now. Is the tank only pressurized by the pump itself after it is full? Also, Is the tank in fact full of air now, or does it have some kind of diaphram inside that caollapses when it is drained?

[egon]

Have you had the pump running constantly for this period of time?

Egon

[3_lb_trigger]

No, I can hear it clicking on and running for a minute then clicking off periodically.

[egon]

Think you had best shut the pump off for at least 24 hours, preferably 48 or more.

If you have pumped the well dry and the formation is coned it can take a lot of time to reestablish the original water level. Surface tension's and permuability may greatly effect the rate of recovery for a resivoir that has been pumped dry.

It may be time for proffesional help.

Egon