Dirt in my Well water

[Trudy Nault]

My artesian well is 18 years old. We have never had any problems, until this Friday. All of the sudden, our water is coming out brown (not iron - dirt). It is coming in from the well this way. Could it be a cracked pipe from the well to the house, or are we going to need a new well?

We were going to pull the pump up to see if there is some kind of filter that can be cleaned (I don't have any idea what kind of pump it is or how deep the well is). We raised four children here and have not had any water problems - we are now down to only 2 people living in the house. I don't feel that it is due to lack of water.

Please help!!

Thanks,
Trudy

[Pumpman]

First of all, don't panic yet.
Many times, especially in an area where I'm at, which is earthquake prone, the ground around a well can shift and slough off around the well casing, allowing dirt to enter the well. Usually keeping water use to a minimum will allow the well water to settle and clear up. It may take several days.
I'm not saying that there isn't another problem, but give it a chance before you do something drastic like pulling a pump out of the well.
Ron

[Trudy Nault]

It looks like you were right regarding not pulling the well pump. Unfortunately, it was too late.

The pump was completely covered in mud when we pulled it. We cleaned it up and was told by a local well company that we should put it back in the well and let it run using a hose. The black sediment that was showing up in the water was most likely from a recent well drilling. We ran it for 24 hours and it did finally run clear.

Now the problem is trying to get all of the dirt and black well drillings out of our house pipes. The cold water seems to be running okay and we have good water pressure, but we can't seem to get the hot water pipes cleared - they're clogged somewhere. The water will get hot, but there is no water pressure at all.

Doesn't look like this house ever had any kind of water filter for water coming from the well.

Trudy

[waterdoc]

Your pressure drop might be the "heat traps" on the waterheater if it is so equipped. These are small plastic fittings installed in the inlet and outlet nipples of a water-heater. These are prone to clogging with the grit you describe. However, not all heaters have these and the only way to tell if it does, is to remove a fitting off one of these nipples and look. You might try closing and opening any in-line valves in the water lines. Sometimes grit will stop up valves. Hope this helps.
Waterdoc