What is it? A hole in the ground!

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donald_w

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A couple years ago I bought a house with well water. The well is about 80 feet behind the house - was drilled in 2001 when the house was built. I do not know how deep it is.

About 10 feet from the well, I found a 4" PVC pipe going straight down (see photo). The top is level with the ground, it is full of water, is not capped, and was covered over by grass.

I tried to probe for the bottom with a 10' pole, but didn't find it, so I fed a 100' garden hose down the hole. It seemed to go straight down with no resistance at all. So it seems I have a pipe with at least 100' of water in it.

What is it? Should I cap it?

Hole.jpg
 
It might be a good well. But anything that falls or drains into that well is getting into your other well. I would pour some chlorine down there and plug it good, then test the water in the well you are using. You may have to do some sanitizing.
 
donald_w said:
Valveman,

How do you suggest plugging it?
Click to expand...

Technically you are suppose to try and pull the casing out. Then pump a mix of cement and Bentonite from bottom to top with a trimmy pipe. It is not easy or cheap.

But if there is a possibility of using that well again someday, I would glue on an extension to the casing to get it 18" above grade, and glue a good PVC cap on top of that.
 
Are you sure it's not got to do with the septic?
 
He said he ran a garden hose down 100 feet, so it's not a septic. I would be more concerned with the fact that it was full of water. Wells that don't take water, generally won't make water. So it could be a well that has a plugged screen or a well that was never completed. I would recommend filling it with cement to protect the aquifer in your area.
 
Septic is way on the other side of the house, so I'm sure it has nothing to do with that.

This was farmland until the 90's when the area started building out. Being that close to the existing well, it does seem likely that it was a first attempt to drill a well which was abandoned for some reason. Why would that happen - broken drill? And it seems pretty unprofessional to just leave it like that without filling it or something.
 
There are many reasons for an incomplete well, more than some drillers would like to remember. I agree, it should have been plugged. Rule here in Florida is to plug it like Valveman described except we don't have to pull the casing. Then tremmie it full of neat cement. With yours it shouldn't be a big deal since it doesn't take water. Here with the abundance of water that limerock gives, it's hard to fill one. The moving water just floats the cement away. So other methods have to be used and the cement bill can get very expensive.
 
Most deep wells that use a pump that goes down the well and pumps water up into the house are 4inches wide and the well is drilled six inches
 
Actually the 4" pumps will fit into a 4" casing. They are just under 4" in diameter.
 
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