How To Clean Out An Old Hand Dug Well

Cristo Balete

Posts: 860

Location: In the woods, West Coast USA

posted 6 years ago

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Kellen, I have never used UV light to disinfect water, so I can't vouch for it. Is it possible to get some kind of warranty/guarantee on the setup by the people who install it that it will clean the water to the degree it needs to be disinfected? I assume they will tell you how long the bulbs last, if/how often they need to be cleaned, etc. You will be testing it weekly or monthly? to see if it really is working? Be sure to be there when they install whatever you've asked for so you see how it works, and pump the installer's brain as much as you can. You'll be left alone with it, and you'll want to know how to take care of it, what the signs are of it having a problem.

So it sounds like the uncle died and the nephew is selling the place? The nephew never lived there? Was the uncle using the water or was he buying bottled water? If there are plastic water bottles stacked in the garage or a shed, it's an easy way to see what's going on with the water. Probably the water lines throughout the house will need disinfecting. The uncle may have been showering, doing laundry and washing dishes with it, but may not have been using it to drink or cook with, and it's been sitting in the pipes.

Most deep-well water that comes from a fracture in the earth (usually in the rock layers) or an aquifer doesn't have contamination in it, but that might depend on location. Wells that are cased don't allow ground water to seep into the well. e. coli is in ground water that tends to move slowly or is stagnant, and seeps through upper layers of soil that contains biodegrading organic material.

Of course, these days with fracking lots of wells are being contaminated with salt water. The coal mining by blowing up mountains in the Appalachian Mountains is contaminating water even into the states south of them. Military bases are often super sites of contamination that has gotten into the ground water. There is about a mile-wide zone near the ocean where salt water can infiltrate ground water and wells in coastal valleys as it seeps inland underground.

The measure of well water is gallons per minute. Code usually calls for 5 gallons/ minute minimum. That can easily be pumped dry. 60 gallons an hour is 1 gallon per minute, if that, and with any luck that's at the lowest point in the year. That's no guarantee it will produce a gallon a minute. It's a little suspicious that they told you gallons per hour, which implies they are averaging a slowly refilling well. It might go too low to pump, then refill overnight. You will learn over the next year just how it behaves every season. And if you are planning on having a lot of animals that will be adding e. coli to the soil, make sure they are downslope/down flow from the ground water entering your well.

Be sure to install a pump that will shut off if there is not enough water before it starts sucking mud. A couple of 2400 gallon tanks might be a good idea so you have a reliable supply. They aren't expensive and you'll never be in a position to have to wait for hours for the water to refill. I have neighbors who have a hand-dug well who had to get tanks because the well was not consistent enough. They are greatly relieved to have a measurable supply. They have a lot of animals, and slowly but surely their family members are starting to move in with them!

There are no guarantees that your well will behave like your neighbors' wells. Although maybe your neighbors will know something about your well, having talked to the person who lived there. I once had a well in line with mature oak trees (that can need up to 400 gallons a day) that was 150 feet deep and 15 gallons per minute. It was a joy. It was in the mountains.

Sounds like you really love this place, and that it does have water. Sometimes in a rural place we need to spend more money than we thought for peace of mind. I have struggled sometimes to spend big chunks, but I have never regretted quality and reliability in machinery or infrastructure. I hope it goes well for you. Pun intended?

Don't fall for the My-Place-Is-Special, It-Won't-Happen-Here Syndrome.