Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Dug well question

Got a dug well, maybe 15 foot deep, on a side hill. Used it close to 40 years without many problems. Occasionally, with heavy, long rainy periods, it has gotten cloudy for a few days,(assumed some ground water got in), but clears right up. There is a foot or better of snow on the ground right now, no thawing, running water, no construction/digging in the area, and yet almost overnight, the water went cloudy, more so than I've ever seen it. We have some minerals in the water, mostly iron, but a small Omni filter takes care of that. The pan of water on the wood stove started showing a white powdery residue as the water boils off just of late also, guessing maybe lime, but have not had problems with that before. Any ideas what the heck might be causing this sudden cloudiness? Thanks in advance for any input.

I'd have the water tested.

May be time for plan B..?

Is the soil surface around the well sloped away in all directions for ~15’?

Is there a diversion for surface water coming from above?

At 15’ depth it’s almost certainly ground water unless dig through a clay layer.

“Iffy” source IMO. I’d keep a bottle of bleach nearby and splash a few oz periodically depending on volume used.

Yes, good slope away from the well, had a guy with a dozer do that years ago. No diversion ditch above it, that would be a real good idea when things thaw out enough to dig come springtime. Ground is mostly clay here, the few times the well has gotten cloudy after hard rain, just had to wait for it to settle out, it's too fine to filter, at least with our filter. I have bleached it before, and will again once I can, (hopefully), figure out what got it stirred up. Going to try pumping the water out today and see if what's coming in is clear. Thanks Mike.

It's amazing how water will keep flowing underground not far under the surface throughout winter even when it's well below freezing.

not that amazing. geothermal heating takes advantage of the fact that there is heat in the ground. i helped build a off grid home that used this principle. we insulated the basement walls with 6" of polystyrene between 1/2" plywood panels. this leaves the basement 1' smaller in length, and width while allowing the year round @•56 degrees earth to heat the floor. this saved a lot of energy when heating and cooling the building. get below 6' and i have no doubt it will be running water. (as long as the air temps are not too low in the well shaft).

Not an expert buy any stretch but my well driller explained to me how my well went bad...it was about 50-60 years old...as the water migrates towards the well it brings any and all silt minerals whatever with it...eventually it stops flowing and plugs around the well...
He drilled a new hole only about 20 feet away which was very concerning to spend 10 k an I was thinking I had a dry well right there...
We hit great water initial pump down was 115 gpm...he said it would gain some more gpm after a little use...the new well doesn't have near as much lime as the old well did...