Wells, Sump Pumps and Septic Sewage Systems - Possible goulds submersible failing?

Appreciate any thoughts on my Goulds 5GS15422 (1.5 HP) electric submersible pump. Installed new in 4/05 inclu. piping and electrical components by competent mechan. engineering firm. Our well is 575' deep, about 5 gal/min., and have had no troubles of any nature since 4/05. No sulfur and slightly 'hard' water. 2 months ago our next door neighbor drilled 8 vertical bore holes for geothermal. Holes are on a hill above our well and about 60 yards away and are 200' deep. 2 days into the drilling our well water turned chocolate brown. It took about 6 weeks to clear, but the sand and silt material is still clogging the faucet aerators, getting in our hair during showers, etc. Solids were MUCH worse during the initial 7 days after start of drilling. About 4 weeks after the choco. water, our Goulds would shut off for about a minute at a time, every other day or so. Family of three and a small farm of 8 horses, few sheep/goats/chix., etc. Over the last month the Goulds will shut off up to an hour now which occurs every 2-3 days. Big impact on the family operation! An electrician friend tested the pump yesterday by connecting a digital read ampmeter to wires inside well casing. When pump kicked on, it read 16.6 - 16.9 amps! The Goulds pump book indicated should be between 10-13. Seems like pump is overheating and turning itself off? Could the solids in the water during this last 2 months have caused damage to pump? Again, we are still seeing particulate in our water in the house. Thanks ever so much! bowhuntman

Sounds like your neighbor did you in! Obviously, the drilling next door has caused you a problem. It sure sounds like the pump has a problem. Since it's only four years old, I'd be after the company that did the geothermal installation to pick up the repairs.

Sounds like your pump is becoming sandlocked from pumping the solids.....For sure, the neighbors activity has affected your well, but I doubt you have any reasonable recourse to the neighbor or the other contractor...other than months or even years in lawyers offices little chance of a favorable outcoime for anyone. They had no way of knowing that this could happen. I'm assuming your have an uncased open rock well, probably 6 or 6 1/4". you could install a 4" pvc liner with well screen (you need to know where your water bearing fractures are) to properly place the screen. If you don't know, and your original well driller can't tell you, you could screen the entire well. You may be able to gravel pack the screen, if done carefully (there isn't much room with a 4 in a 6), which would definitely hold back the sediment and keep you from pumping it. One other option, would be an in-well sand separator. I've used Lakos with some success. It's a centrifugal desander installed on your existing pump.

That's pretty ugly, it's hard to believe there's no recourse for this! Any solution here is going to be expensive!

I'm not so sure I believe they had no way if predicting the possibility. I know in our area, a contractor had to blast for a foundation, a well that was 500 foot away was damaged (beyond repair), the contractor had to drill them a new well.

I notice that the OP didn't say that he has spoken to the well driller yet. Years ago, there may not have been recourse since "hydrology is not an exact science" and proving damages and causation was almost impossible.

But I have heard that things may not be as bad as that anymore since the States started requiring insurance. I would talk to the driller and if you can't get a free hole out of it, the licensing agency.

I have to believe that there is some recourse here. Having someone do that kind of damage and just eating it is not right. I would most certainly persue all possible avenues before simply throwing up my hands and eating a repair bill of thousands of dollars!

First thing I would do is check the well log and see how the well was constructed. If you have casing in the well that goes below 250' then it will be hard to prove your case. If your well is mostly rock and has very little casing you will probably have a better chance of legal success. Contact the well driller who drilled your well and discuss it with him, then maybe contact a lawyer or two and get an opinion. I'd make sure it was a slam dunk though before you spend thousands on legal bills and have nothing to show for it. Those thousands could have gone to fixing the problem that was really caused accidentally and clearly without malice.

That's good advice, I never said you should go out willy-nilly and sue everyone in sight. I'd just look into the possibility of having the person responsible for the damage make it right. That doesn't seem to be an unreasonable idea, at least to me.