I have a problem with my water well. I’m hoping some of you experienced folks can give me some advice.
The well was drilled in 1989 so it’s 34 years old. East texas, hard clay soil, 350 foot well. There’s a layer of lignite coal down about 90 feet, so the water is sulphur water. It flows plenty of water…..the volume has never been an issue even in the driest years. My elderly aunt lived in the house for the first 11 years….she didn’t use a lot of water but kept it flowing regularly. After she died, the well only gets run on weekends and sometimes goes 2 or 3 weeks without running. After about 15 years the water started to show signs of getting black. It’s steadily gotten worse. If I run the water hose outside for about an hour, the water clears up and is fine. But if I don’t run it for a while, the water turns very black. The problem has steadily gotten worse…..during the summer drought I would run the hose all night and the water would stay clear for all weekend, But now it’s gotten worse. I ran the hose for two hours last night and it cleared up, but today after only 24 hours it was very black again. Very black.

What do you think it causing the water to turn black? I’m guessing the old steel casing has rusted from the sulphur water. The acidic water tends to rust the fixtures in the bathroom, so I’m guessing it does the same thing to the well casing.
Can water well casing be replaced?
I’ve heard they can sometimes put in a liner……would that fix the black water?
Or would it require drilling a new well?

Like I said, there’s plenty of water, but the water turns black if it sits for even a day.

Does it have an inline filter/s?

No. I'm sure there's a screen of some sort on the pump at the bottom of the well, but no above ground filters at all. Just a regular well tank.

I'd start with a well service company coming out to diagnose the well, could be a lot of things wrong.

Where in East Texas?

Walker County.

sounds like your correct with the rust on the casing being the cause. old galvanized pipe was real bad about the black stench stuff if it sat long.

here is a well guy we used, put in 6 here at riverby flats and did an excellent job. they are in the canton area I think, somewhere south of lake fork.

Max Rumbelow

903 574 4194

Call this guy Texoma Water Systems he's forgotten more about water than you and I will ever know.
He fixed our sulpher and iron issues.

Ken Brawley 903 818 9975

When did they switch from steel to pvc casing? I would have thought before 1989......
The other issue could be over time the seal has gone bad. Thus, allowing that sulphur to penetrate down to the water supply.

The best way to keep a well clean is to run it a bunch, then let it come back to level, then run it a bunch more......basically rinsing the walls of the hole.

For a DIY treatment, you can pour 2 gallons of bleach in the well (has to be plain bleach, no sented stuff) wait 12 hours then run well for about 2 hours. After you pour in bleach run garden house back down the well head for an hour to agitate and mix the bleach. If your issue is bacteria this will clear it up.

Question: Is the water black coming out of the well head or in the house? Could be a plumbing/pipe issue in the house.

I wondered this too. We had an old well and rusted casing, our water came out red. We tried filters but it plugged them up pretty fast.

It’s not anything on the surface. About three years ago we bulldozed the old house and put in another, and replaced everything on the surface from the tank to the new house. No filters at all on the surface.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to replace the casing without re-drilling the well? Nothing wrong with the water flow……it just seems a shame to abandon a well with plenty of water.

I did notice that it was better in the summer…..during July and August I had it running a ton. But it didn’t last.

You might try jetting it. The well service guys use water or air. Sitting for that long allows for rust and setiment to build. It may just need cleaning. I'd call one of those service guys mentioned above since the well is 350' deep. They shouldn't charge too much to tell you what they think. You might get them to run a camera down hole. Don't know how much you want to spend.

[quote=angus1956]For a DIY treatment, you can pour 2 gallons of bleach in the well (has to be plain bleach, no sented stuff) wait 12 hours then run well for about 2 hours. After you pour in bleach run garden house back down the well head for an hour to agitate and mix the bleach. If your issue is bacteria this will clear it up.

I would try this first.

Is the pipe going down to the pump galvanized or pvc? Might be that as well.

It could be algae/bacteria growth in the pressure tank also. I saw that you replaced everything downstream of the tank, but maybe the problem is in the tank.
You might try shocking the tank with bleach before you pull the pump and see if that helps.