Help for a Friend--WELL WATER PROBLEMS

[HeavenHelpMe]

My friend just moved to a new house with a well about 2 weeks ago. The well was tested, of course, when it was inspected for the sale. No problems reported from that.

Anyway, she just emailed and told me the water was very cloudy/muddy looking since last night! Now, it is raining buckets here, and they are calling for 2 inches or maybe more, but she's never seen anything like this. She even called the previous owner of the house, and they said nothing like that had ever happend before.

Can anyone offer advice or even know what this problem could be? She is worried, as they are just getting by financially. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks.

[HeavenHelpMe]

Thank you for the advice, Rose. I'll pass it along. I feel so bad for her.

[pookshollow]

We have a shallow dug well, and since the last big deluge, about 5-6 weeks ago, we've had murky water. It's been improving, but it poured last night, so I'm sure we'll be back to it. We're on heavy clay soil. The previous owners say it normally clears up after a day or so, but this hasn't been a normal fall!

We've installed a ceramic filter on the cold water pipe into the kitchen - there's already a couple of filters down by the pressure tank. That gives us clean water for drinking - but we do have to clean the filter quite often because it clogs up and slows down the flow to a thin trickle.

And when all else fails, I stick a bucket under the downspout, filter and boil.

[rambler]

_So_ much more info would be needed to be able to help out here. Without it, we would all be taking shots in the dark, with no idea of what is going on.

If she has a shallow well, & rainwater is leaking into it, that will make the water cloudy, as well as rinsing surface 'nasties' into the aquifer. This situation should be cleared up as soon as possible, and steps taken so it doesn't happen again.

But that is only one guess, there are _many_ more, depending on a deep/ shallow well, a surface/deep pump, a spring box, a cistern, and on & on.....

Without more info, getting someone local to figure out & fix the problem might be best.

--->Paul

[Hammer4]

Have her describe what the top of the well looks like, is there a cap, a well house, etc. You want to prevent surface runoff from ever getting into the well, it sounds to me like some surface water flowed down into the well and caused that condition.

As others have described, if it's a shallow well and you get a lot of rain, you can get some murky water as well.