Well problems, we need to shock it

[Columbia,SC.]

We had our 2 1/2 year old well tested and the results showed choliforms (spc) bacteria. The county office gave me a nice printed instruction sheet on how to do it and we did it. The problem is this, we dumped in the amount of liquid bleach called for. After running the hose at the pump for 20 mins. we NEVER smelled the bleach come out of the hose.
Than was lastnight, tonight we used pool shock powder mixed in a clean 5 gal. bucket and still never smelled the bleach.

This is a 460+/- deep 6" well with 340' of casing, not real sure what the water level is from the ground down to the pump.
Should I go and buy several gallons of bleach and just keep dumping it till we smell Quote 'A STRONG BLEACH ODOR' or will that ruin the pump?

This is in MO and it cost us about $7,000 for nasty water!
Thanks in advance for ANY help!
Columbia,SC

[comfortablynumb]

how much did you dump in the well?

over 400 fet of hole, it takes a suprising amount of water to just get the well casing wet all the way down.... maybe you need to dump more water down the shaft to wash the clorine all the way down?

[boonieman]

If your well casing is 6", it holds 1.5 gallons of water per foot.

Recommended treatment for a well is 3 cups liquid bleach (5.25%) per hundred gallons of water.

Say for example your water is one hundred feet down, which would be about 350 feet of water in the casing, that would mean you'd have about 450 gallons of water to treat, which is 13.5 cups of bleach if my math is right.

You really do need to know how far down it is to water to calculate it accurately. If you do it correctly you should definitely be able to smell it. I occasionally shock my well because of iron bacteria. My casing is 165 feet deep with water 20 feet from the surface. I used two gallons of good bleach (not the cheap stuff) and I could definitely smell it in the water faucets. I kinda doubt you can put too much bleach in there to damage your pump, but that being said, stainless steel does not like chlorides at all, which is in bleach. So I would say hit it hard the first time until you smell bleach if you've already added the amount of bleach indicated above and didnt smell it. From then on, stick to the formula if possible. I'm no expert at anything, but I find fecal results from a well of your depth puzzling unless you have surface water getting into your well, or the water table. First thing I'd do is get a resample of your water and get it tested again maybe by another lab.

[NYSaanen]

I would give it some time rather than dumping a whole lot more into the well. Our well is 200' deep, with about 160' of standing water. When I put bleach into my well, it takes time for it to mix.
Remember, if you have a good quantity of water in the well, mixing a gallon or two or five into a well holding 400 gallons, without a mixing motion, takes time to run through. We usually give ours about a full day, until we smell it at the tap. Once we smell it at the tap, we run each faucet until we smell the bleach, then shut them off overnight. The next day, we run the water into the pool in order for it to be "rinsed" out of the well". When we no longer smell it coming out of the hose, we then flush each tap out individually.

I also, right after pouring the bleach into the well, run the hose down the sides of the well in order to "rinse" the bleach that has clung to the sides of the well, to be washed down in.

[Columbia,SC.]

Hey all,
Sorry I did not get right back on, we had a full day of our kids and one extra, plus some out of town family to visit with.

Kelly tells me that the paper work says the water is 100' down, not just making that up Boonieman :P it really is acording to the paperwork.

when this well was dug the first month was awfull, we had none stop sand and grit filling up our whole house filter every 2-5 days. I also added a second one behinde the first. The well guy came back and lowered the pump 3 sticks of pipe...30' or 60' feet? I was there when they finished and the mans son poured some chlorine pellets down the well. The water was fine for a couple of weeks then it got nasty again. By nasty I mean that it smelled and had a oily film on top. We found out it was iron bac. and we got a water softener and that helped out the 'clear water iron ' problem.
To make a long story short, no matter how much bleach I dump down there it never comes back up,, could we be in a spring or an underground river that washes the bleach away and if so what / how do we clean out the pipe and pipes coming into the house?
Strugglin' Columbia,SC

[boonieman]

Actually, the here's how you are supposed to go about it;

1) Calculate how much water you have in the entire system...your well, the gallons in your hot water heater, and estimate the amount of water in your water piping in the house. Add all these up and that's the gallon amount you should use in your calculations. Remember 3 cups per hundred gallons of water.

2) Run a water hose from your outside house faucet to the well casing.

3) Pour the bleach into your well casing. Turn on the water hose and let it run into the well casing. Do this until (hopefully) you'll smell chlorine coming from the water hose. Why run the water hose into the well? Because if you just use the house faucets etc any water you are running in the house into the septic will pull fresh water into the well and dilute the bleach. By using the hose you are returning the same amount of water to the well as you are pulling out, making just a circulating loop. This minimizes fresh water being pulled in. Once you smell chlorine in the hose, cut it off. Then run the faucets in the house, including hot water, until you smell chlorine there.

4) Once you smell chlorine in the faucets, keep it all bottled up for at least an hour. Longer would be better if you can. Minimze running the faucets once you smell chlorine if you have a septic tank. Too much chlorine will damage the good bacteria in the septic tank.

5) Once you've chlorinated your system for the time desired, flush the system thru the water hose you had going into the well. Doing this pulls the chorinated water out of your well and allows fresh water to be pulled in without sending it to your septic system. Do this until the chlorine smell quits coming from the hose. Good luck!