sand in the well water

The one logical question might be ask where is the silt / sand coming from? Normally after a water well is flushed there shouldn't be much of a source, least not normally in volume.

One thought is seal on the well may have failed and ground water is acting to flow down the hole, carrying the fines from the drilling process to the bottom. Might want to consider checking the seal on the well. The other might be run the problem by the people that drilled the well. If anybody should know or have a theory / solution, should be them

On the Richter Scale, each increase is the square of the power below. I know that this is somewhat inarticulate, but I only know enough to be dangerous. I just know that a 9 is HUMONGOUS!!

Just for chuckles the Richter Scale is a log scale, each increment is a ten fold increase. Maybe that #9 job broke the seal on the well???

I would try raising the foot valve. is the wellhead above ground and the ground sloping away from the caseing?how does the water in the well look? could there be a crack in the supply pipe coming from the well?if you open the well head or pipes use javex to sterilize the surfaces.

After our new well was installed a year ago, we too had a lot of fine sand in the water. The installer suggested that I run the pump continuously for 10-12 hours (our well is +50 GPM recovery, so our 15 GPM pump wasn't going to run it dry) to flush out the fine material. Did this procedure a couple times and now the amount of sand getting caught in the particulate filter is probably only 5% of what it initially was.

I ran a couple garden hoses outside instead of sending water down the drain. If you have any iron in the water, don't let it run on anything you don't want stained.

cracked or busted well casing sounds like.... you need to pull the line out and get someone with a "downhhole camera" to check the shaft and casing for breaks and cracks.
SILT laden groundwater is leaking into the shaft. I have a cracked casing I put on a filter, the cartridge stops the water flow afer about 3 wweeks and the filter is full of talcum powder MUD.
but my water is nioce and clean for the 2 buck filter every 3 or so weeks.

if it clogs up like in a day, you have a badly ruptured shaft casing, the only real way to tell is pull the line out and drop in a downhole camera.

Hmm, if it is ruptured, how can you fix that?

...run casing pipe down the hole inside the old casing pipe?

Think I was saying understand the problem better. What is being called silt may be something like benonite which is being carried down the hole by some mechanism.

You have to understand exactly how that well was drilled and what was used. Something like this as a reference.

http://www.eatondrilling.com/well_construction.html#

If I understand the history, the well worked well for some time after being put into service. Then this problem started to occur. My assumption here being the input of materials (sand, fines, silt, whatever) is not coming from the production zone.

My conclusion was somehow there is water flow down the well to carry the materials down, failed seal, cracked casing, poor flush, sort of out of my league to be guessing. My point being the silt is already in the well in the upper zones, maybe is part of the sealing materials. The guys that drilled the well should be in a very good position to service it and have probably seen the problem many times before.

As stated a good inspection is probably the place to start.

Our landlord has informed us that although the well is 100 feet deep, the casing only goes down 25 feet. We were to have a well guy come and inspect today, but it is too cold. We are hoping for warmer weather next week. Meanwhile, the landlord has hooked us up to his well. We are living in the house that used to be his in-laws; they had a line run from landlord's well to our basement. We are to conserve as much as possible so as not to run his supply down, but at least we have clean water until our well can be looked after.

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Cathy N.
"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ" Colossians 3:23-24.

In the 1960's Alaska had a huge earth quake. My dh's uncle's well in Central Iowa collapsed and they were told it was due to the earth quake.

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This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.