Artisian well

If the water level is low, 200' of poly pipe is a good pull by hand. Have some help. 200' on galvanized steel or ridgid PVC pipe, you may need a machine or an expert.
Rope is an option, good if the pumps breaks off. LJ

I believe you should only have a check valve in the well casing if your poly coming out of the well casing is not below freezing. My mother has this setup. There is a check valve near the tank which lets the water backflow into the well keeping the poly empty from the well to the house. This works in conjunction with the valve in the well casing. Are there any leaks near the tank? My mom had one and when I fixed it, I found that I had a dry joint. Not soldered very well but the flux was holding the water back. I couldn't believe it. It held for thirty years and I could pull the joint apart by hand without heating. This is where most of the air was getting into the tank. Hope this helps.

If you have the type of pitless adapter that I am familiar with, it should have a threaded hole (female pipe thread) in the top. Either 3/4 or 1 inch diameter. You take the cover off your well casing and insert a piece of threaded steel pipe (with a tee type handle attached to the top end) into that top thread and you should be able to pull the whole mess up. No digging. Might require quite a pull though. I did mine about 20 years ago and, as I recall, I used a come-a-long attached to a raised tractor bucket to pull everything up a little at a time.

The pitless adapter should be brass with an o-ring seal that is on a taper so you can let everything back down slowly and it will be guided into the correct position. Mine is a two-line jet pump system (not submersible) and the well is about 150 feet deep.

If you wind up replacing the foot valve (check valve) like I had to, I recommend using an all plastic valve. The plastic one I used replaced a brass one and is still working fine after about 20 years.

Rod