Your thoughts?Plugging an old water well, should I?

redtom

Well-known Member

Mom and dads septic drain field quit. Silted and plugged after 47 years. Got guy in to put new one in. Health dept inpector that laid out field had to see the old well. Its a crock well with 18" or so cement tile on end with a cement lid, I believe 37ft deep. He prefers it get plugged since it hasn't been used since 1983 and presents a hazard. I agree and septic digger will gladly do it. The house will be sold in the near future as they are in their 90's so it only makes sense. My dad always though of it as a "backup" if the city water failed, but it is salty and murky if drawn hard. A well presents a liability not an asset, right?
 
Except for being something "nostalgic" it sounds pretty much worthless like it is. If it were on my land my initial thought would be to say fill it up.

That said, thinking further I might not want to lose the backup either. So, if your Dad still wants it as a backup, here's my idea. You might try putting a pipe with a well point setup on the end down the hole. Then fill the first ten or fifteen feet with gravel. From there top off with dirt. That way the gravel should give a pocket for the water to flow into and then into the well point. It might not provide water like an open well does, but it would be enough to keep water flowing to water a garden, etc if the city ever had a drought problem and put a stop to anything beyond normal use. It"s happened before here in NC, and if it can happen here I"m sure it could happen anywhere.
 
I agree completly. If you have it, it is "well" worth keeping...sorry about the pun. Just fix it up like Wayne suggests- will help for irrigating a garden and safe enough that no body can fall in or contaminate it.
Grant
 
Friend of mine was looking at a piece of property, so we rode it with atv's. Found an old brick lined well, 6' across, no lid. Had about a foot of water, and a calf that had been "stewing" in it for a year or two.

Plug it.
 
In recent years, due to an increasing demand for water, most older wells such as you have are no longer dependable, however, if there is a certain amount of flow, I would do as NCWayne suggested. This would still supply water if needed, and eliminate any danger. I have a similar situation with an old well,and am going to give that suggestion some serious thought. Thanks, Wayne.
 
Yes the well you describe is all liability and no assett. Plug it while you have the contractor on site.

Good thing to update the septic at this point also. Here in NW Iowa you can run a Grandfathered septic system until you sell the property. If the property changes hands I know septic has to be brought up to spec.

jt
 
Don't you have a health dept/wellhead protection rules in your area?

This should be a no-brainer!
 
Do like NCWayne said. Make it safe and keep it.
Our city is going to run out of water in the next month or so. Right now, water is being rationed. Those of us that have old wells, still have green lawns and live trees. If I have to use it for the house, I'll have it tested. If it isn't potable, I'll have to haul water for the house, but I'll still have the well for everything else. You may think that your city will never run out of water, but in the nearly 100 years our city water system has been in existence, no one has even been asked to conserve water, much less run out.
It won't cost much to fix your old well, but a new one would be around $20,000 here. It may even make the place worth more when its time to sell it.
 
I would keep it. Here, if you sell a property with wells or septics that are grandfathered then they remain so. I guess the Constitution isn't in force in some areas or they are confusing the Bank's financing rules with law. A well is an asset if it produces water and is capped safely.
 
Here in the North-East, many have changed over to town water. A lot kept their old well to use for outside use such as irrigation and washing vehicles when the town tells them to conserve on usage.
With a cover as you said I would keep it.
 
If mine, it sure would be a "no-brainer"! Keep it! And make it safe. Wish it could be moved here.
 
I'd do as NCWayne recommends. I never close out an option if I can avoid it. Nobody knows what the future will bring. A capped off well head sticking out of a filled well will be a potential asset, not a liability. Aside from the additional expense of the casing (which won't be negligible if you want to do it right), it's hard to see a down side here.

Stan
 
Out of curiosity, what city do you live in? Water scarcity is going to be a huge problem in much of the US into the foreseeable future. It already is in the southwest, of course, but most of the country will eventually get a chance to experience it.

Seattle has had summertime water restrictions for decades already. (Seattle gets a lot of rainy days, but not a huge volume of rain.) When the winter is warm, or winter rainfall is relatively sparse, there won't be enough snow pack in the mountains to get the city through the summer. Water supplied by rainfall is like solar energy or wind energy---it's not necessarily there when you need it, and it's expensive to store (virtually impossible in the case of the amount of water needed by a large city).

Stan
 
Keep it and cap it to prevent unauterized access. In addition to emergeny water supply it can be used for geo-thermal heating and cooling.
 
Here in GA state regulations require that a well be filled if not in use after a certain period of time. That being said, the state makes no attempt to enforce it. I can count several lots in town a couple of miles from me, that have wells, the house burned years ago, the well is still there (town has had city water system for many years). I know of two owned by the town that are in disuse and not plugged, and one on state highway right of way that is not plugged (they are all capped with concrete caps, quite safe, but not filled as required by regulations). I know of several more also.

Charles
 
>they are all capped with concrete caps, quite safe

I disagree with the idea that a hand-dug well is safe if it has a concrete cap. The wall of the well can still collapse, leaving a hole for someone to fall into. At that point, it becomes difficult to find and rescue the victim. The only safe hand-dug well is one that's been filled in with sand or gravel.
 
You have received opinions on both sides, in about equal numbers, which is par for the course.

What did you decide?
 
In this area you would have to fill it in if health board knew about it. I put in a new 4" well and health department makes you plug old well.
 
A property appraiser or a local realtor should be able to tell you the approximate value of the well and the local requirements to sell property with a well like yours.

If the property it is connected to city water, I suspect the old well will be a net liability instead of an asset. Having it too close or under a septic drain field does not sound good. In the 1970's a neighbor farms had problems with a well located too close to their cattle lot (high bacteria and nitrate levels? - the water was bad for new babies, gave the baby scours).
 
Getting plugged today. It never gave good water. The pump must be seized from non use. Its about 92 ft from septic but under the 100ft minimum. So its gone
 
Only one of the wells I know of is hand dug, possibly two. The others are, from all appearances either machine bored with concrete sections for casing, or small drilled wells.

The reason for sealing them is not so much safety as for preventing surface fluids and contaminants from getting into the deep aquifer via deep drilled wells. or simply back into the ground via a bored well.

Safety is certainly a concern. Local man recently fell into a previously unknown well in the woods while walking with his wife. Luckily he was not injured too badly and was quickly rescued. Probably would have become a missing person had his wife not been there. Another situation was a unused well accessed via a crawl space under a house in town. An animal fell into it and was rescued. That one should have long ago been filled.

They have to be sealed water tight. Sand, rock, in the bottom but clay and bentonite at the top.
 
I see you plugged it.
growing up, we had a hand dug well with a handpump on top.
When the wood cover was replaced with concrete,
it was made sorta like the second level in a parking garage.
Much larger than the well, heavily reinforced.
(My dad used to park on it sometimes.)
Still had the handpump.
later years, when the handpump was removed, square steel plate where it was, bolted down on 4 corners.
I liked the cover, as it cut down on the times I would have to go down in there to fish out a dead critter.
Never cared for that too much.........
finally was completely filled in a few years back....sad to see it go...good water
 

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