What Did Ya Get Done This Weekend?

[kenny c]

No idea on why there is so much sand. Up hear in Rhode Island we are supposed to drive the 6" casing into the bedrock. Sometimes it doesn't get that far and ground water will wash in to the shaft carrying sand, silt, and other contaminants into the well. Other times there can be fissures in the bedrock that not only bring water into the well shaft but rinse sand and silt in with it also. If the sand is coming in above the pump it may be coming in from ground water as you get lots of heavy rains. This may sound weird but we once had a customer who's well would get filled in with sand and every year we would have to pump it out. If we weren't careful and didn't pump the water far enough away it would rinse back into the well taking more sand with it. This may be happening to you. As with any hole it hard so see inside, never mind one that deep so these are just guesses. Good luck.

[smallfoot]

Casing top is 12" above the ground. It's never been under water even in the hardest rains.
I don't think it's coming in from the top. Are you saying it might be going down the outside of the casing? The way this sand is acting, I think there's a lot of silt. I poured a bucket full out of the air lift end about noon. There is a bunch of sand that settled but the water, undisturbed, still looks like mud. It's been sitting all afternoon.

[Skip]

i was waken up by a big thump about 9:40 this morning. Looked out the front window, and someone was parked in the space between my driveway and the neighbor's. And the new power pole from this summer was broken in half laying across my driveway. Some of the neighbors caught the driver trying to run away from the scene. Drunk as a skunk. So, from around 10:30 to almost 4:00 I got to watch the power company replace the pole and restore power to the block. I got off easy. The mast to my service is a little loose, but my neighbor's was torn clear off the side of their house. And to msake it even more fun, they are out of state visiting family. I called them and let them know what happened. The power company crews were great. I'm warming up again, and fed. Life is good. Happy holidays to the lot of you.

[kenny c]

Originally Posted by smallfoot

Casing top is 12" above the ground. It's never been under water even in the hardest rains.
I don't think it's coming in from the top. Are you saying it might be going down the outside of the casing? The way this sand is acting, I think there's a lot of silt. I poured a bucket full out of the air lift end about noon. There is a bunch of sand that settled but the water, undisturbed, still looks like mud. It's been sitting all afternoon.

I think it may be possible. I have no expeirence with the way you described wells and pumps are done in Florida so I don't have as much insight as you. We don't have the sand that you have so the situation is different.

[earthman]

Glad your heat is back on Skip. I don't like cold.

[smallfoot]

Well......damit! Got the new pump up about 10 ft, stuck again and pulled apart.
OK, down about 20 ft. and brand new $ 500 pump, all the drop pipe and all cable came out, so we assembled 40 ft of 2" galvanized pipe and pounded the dam thing back down intending on pushing it down as deep as we could. Got down to the original pump location and it stuck again, a 9lb. sledge only pushed it another 2 ft(32 ft). It's bottomed on sand. sheesh!
Put another brand new pump down at 24 ft. and held it by hand so I could move it and just hooked power to the pump and was intending on seeing if another regular well pump would pull the sand out and quicker. Flipped the switch, pump worked great for about 5 minutes hauling up sand by the buckets and lots of muddy water. I was watching as it ran, ready to shut off and pull if it failed. I could hear the pump running and then the water stopped but still heard the pump. I flipped the disconnect switch and pulled the pump up by hand. When it came out of the casing, I noticed a wobble between the pump and motor. Got it on the ground and pulled the screen around the intake. As soon as I got behind the screen, I could see why it wobbled. I think the sand locked the pump and the torque of the motor twisted the assembly enough to snap the legs holding the pump to the motor. Boys, I did everything possible by me to save the well. Calling the well drillers out to place a new well. Maybe rust has opened a hole in the casing, another possibility that is not apparent from top side but I just don't think I could have pumped this much sand out of a 4" casing at 105' and be left with a dump truck load of sand. They didn't leave this much sand after drilling the original well. Now, I've got to start trimming trees to get a drilling rig where it was easy almost 30 years ago. Good bye shade!

[Old Iron]

Good grief small

[DozerII]

That really sucks SF

[smallfoot]

Yeah, I could build another hotrod for what this will cost....

[Dr Crankenstein]

The state will now be known as Lorida, because smallfoot used all the effs!

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