Hi cartlos,

I am interested in the use of bentonite (clay) in stabilizing (clarifying) your well. I believe bentonite is used in sealing wells, waterproof walls and garbage dumps because it expands in water as clays will do. Clay material is an even finer particulate than sand or silt and liguifies when shaken. Then again I could be uninformed as bentonite's use as a flocculent stabilizer. Do you have more info on what your friend was alluding to? I believe velocity is your enemy. Your water should become clear again over time if you reduce your flow slightly for awhile or regulate your pressure down to reduce the demand on the well. Once clear then increase it gradually up to your old flow and pressure. http://www.deanbennett.com/bentonite-sealing-agents.htm JMHO. Aloha

Hi Dean
First, my friend is long gone. I've been all over the web and found nothing regarding this problem. What you say makes sense and I'm going to try it. I'm also considering raising the pump by 10', after all the available head is plenty. What do you think?
Thanks a lot for your response.
Cartlos

Hi Cartlos,

I am with you but I would find out some details of your well before adjusting things. Your objective is to reduce turbulence at the well inlet and and not draw down the water in the well to suck air. Can you measure the depth of the water in the well when the pump is off and when it is running? How deep is your pump in the well? Your well volume is about 100 gallons. What is your estimated usage per day for water? If your pump never stops pumping then you use 30,000 (20 gpm) gal per day, if the water level in your tank never changes. Is this a correct assumption? Or do you manually start and stop your pump as needed? Is it on a timer? Is this well just for irrigation? I need a better description to visualize what is going on in the well in order to provide meaningful help. Aloha

Hi DEan:
The depth of the water in the well has always been 20'. How deep when running would be very difficult to determined if ever do because I have to start dissassembling the piping to remove the seal.. I assume the water level does not change. The pump is at 60'. The system works automatically by means of a pressure switch. The well is for irrigation. To give you a better idea of the well capacity, I filled my 10,000gal. pool last year without any problem. The working pressure is between 40 and 60 psi governed by the pressure switch. To me the problem is that when the pump overdrawn the water, the material that once was stable at the bottom got loosen up and has created a chamber of loose material that keeps being pumped out.
Thank you .

Hi cartlos,

I guess, I don't understand your pressure regulated system system. It turns on with a 40 to 60 psi pressure switch but doesn't turn off with a low pressure switch, or does it come on when the pressure is at 40 psi and stops when the pressure is 60 psi? When your pipe broke the pressure switch read low pressure and the pump kept running? So if the pump runs to long it pulls more than your well can produce? Oh by the way, I am not the author of the website. I have never met Dean Bennett. I would bet the scour occurred at the top aquifer. If you drew down the water in the well it would cause scour at the top aquifer. I would leave the pump where it is. If the aquifers delivers different flow rates you can change the balance of volumes that the pump pulls from. Having two aquifers complicates things, especially one at the water table level. How much volume (gal) do you pump per day for irrigation? How long did it take you to pump the 10,000 gal? Aloha.

The switch at the time of the accident didn't have low pressure shut off. That is why the pump kept running. When I did the repairs I change the pressure regulator with one with low pressure shut off.The pump start running at 40 psi and stops at 60 psi, always working within that range. I do not irrigate every day but, when I do I guess It may pump around 3,000 gal. It took approximately 9 Hrs. to fill the pool. Now, how do we relate all this to the silt in the water and possible solution whithout going into buying expensive equipment?. Remember my original question as to how to stabilize the silt?. Sorry for calling you Dean. Frankly, I do not know where I got it. I'm an old guy and sometimes my mind wonderssss!!!. Thanks anyway. Ciao.

Hi Cartlos,

I have already answered your initial question on what you might do to clear the water up in the previous thread comments. I was just asking for additional information to discover what your system is doing in order to verify if my general answer was correct and add some details from your clarifications. Here is some more questions: When you run your system, does your pump cycle on and off during the delivery of the 3,000 gal irrigation cycle? Do you have a timer or controller to initialize pump start up and shut off?
Aloha.

From my limited readings and classes on wells, I recall that wells can and do develop a zone at their bottoms that become filled with "solids". I believe it was referred to as the anaerobic zone. Perhaps it got stirred up when the level was drawn way down. If that was the case and the only problem it should be possible to simply flush it out.

I am not a well professional or expert but I do know they are expensive and critical. By all means, don't start messing with it before a professional checks it out or you could make things worse. I also recommend coming up with a way to periodically test your drawdown as it is one important indicator of your well's condition.

Michael