As the song sais, How will I know

[FarmboyBill]

I had a well drilled some 10yrs ago, It was supposed to be at 180ft. They hit water at 160 but went down 20 more for a resorvour. Well, I dropped a weight down mine today in preperation to useing it. I had been digging a pit around it around 8ft sq. I got all I had wanted to do today and thought id drop a weight tied to a parachute cord with rags tied at 10ft so I could tell Agmantoo at what depth the water level was. It only dropped to 50ft. DRY. It has been below ground for 2 yrs as hay man obviously cut and bailed it 2 yrs ago. Could it get 130ft of stuff in it during that time.? Im rather thinking not. Ive got a next door neighbor of whom my well is on his water line. Its around 50ft from his house, and around 200ft from mine. We have never liked each other. Is it possible that he??
Or on the udder hand, could the well driller have drilled it to me and only went down that deep? I am going to make a T or 2 of them with the bottom leg around 24ft long. The top of the T will rest on the bottom of the ground on both Ts. I will weld a brace across the bottoms of the T, and rig a pulley with rope in the middle of it, Ill stand this rig up it resting on the top of the Ts. Ill get a short length of pipe, 2ft long 4in dia and take it in and have a lathe man sharpen it on the insides. Ital be around 2ft long, and Ill weld it to a piece around 12ft long. On the other end ill drill 2 holes crosswise of each other and run a thick cable. Ill tie the end of the rope to the cable, and the other end which will go through the pulley at the top, and a pulley grounded at the bottom either by a ground cork screw anchor, or by useing a tractor and haveing it chained to it, and then to the tractor. By dropping this pipe down the caseing, and pulling it up, I can run a wood plunger down the pipe to push out any dirt ive collected. If the neighbor has dumped dirt down it, itall be easy to get it out. If its only been drilled at 50, Then itall be hard to collect dirt.
Question is, Is there anyway I could tell if its was only drilled at 50ft?

[Yvonne's hubby]

I doubt that it has filled, most likely you have a rock or chunk of dirt plugging it. I used to have a devil of a time pulling the pump out of our well. rocks kept shifting around on the sides of the well.

[FarmboyBill]

This one is cased with 6in pipe, and that is surrounded by concrete for around 2in dia around the caseing pipe.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Fishing popper, not rags, on the end of the string.

[meanwhile]

I am not sure about a narrow drilled well but we had a spring well reservoir that had rocks and dirt cave in on it at the bottom. It has cement culverts as the walls but at the bottom, it all caved in.

Surely the neighbor would not have put that much dirt in there? Also - is your area in a drought? Our spring reservoir used to hold 350 gallons of water but Western NC has been in drought for years now and it went down to only 100 gallons. It could be that your water table dried up and that caused the rock and sand to cave in?

Good luck - water problems are hard. I hope it works out.

[FarmboyBill]

The well is SUPPOSEDLY) cased down to 180ft. If it has 6in plastic pipe from top down to the bottom at 180ft, HOW IN THE WORLD COULD SEDIMENT, ECT RISE UP INSIDE THAT PIPE UP 130FT.???????????????????????????????

[meanwhile]

Not sure - One of my wells was supposed to be cased down all the way but I found out it was only cased down to 60 feet or so! The only way to be sure would be to pull up everything and see what you have down there. We had to hire a new well man to pull the pipe out of one of our Cabin wells. It was not as deep as the first man said, he had not put the pipe down that he claimed........sorry but your's might be the same.

Sediment could get in the pipe too but, I agree with you, I don't see how it could get up that much. It would have to go over the pump.

[J.T.M.]

Around here you can go to true valu hardware store and rent a camera designed for getting into plumbing pipe ect. I dont know how long the line is but maybe this will help you (?) .

[Waiting Falcon]

Get the records from the well driller. Wells can cave in but you say it is cased/ or is supposed to be cased? Dirt does not usually push up from the bottom. I do not know what kind of soil you have there but here for instance a well is supposed to be cased down to bed rock or 80 ft. which ever comes first.
Yes you do need to find out what is in your well. Taking soil out should tell you if it is topsoil or what.

[FarmboyBill]

JTM I dont see how that would help until I locate the bottom of the caseing. Wherever it may be, or rather, at whatever depth it may be.

[oregon woodsmok]

I would not rent a camera to check a well pipe. Those things are used to inspect sewer pipe. A camera is a good idea, but you want to be absolutely certain where it has been so you don't contaminate your well.

[J.T.M.]

Ya ,I dodn't know either .I just wanted to add to my post count. j/k.

I just remember my brother saying he used one one time to find a clog between his house and the street. Is it at least a "B" for effort ????