Treating well with chlorine

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
My shallow well is into an aquifer that is made of blue clay, that holds a huge amount of water but gives it up very slow
I have drilled a lot of wells in Michigan and I have never known Blue Clay to give up a drop of water. Only if there is a small sand vein running through it in your bore hole would you be able to get water from it.

Your right about all shallow wells not being polluted. Most of the wells I drilled there were under 50 feet and many were only 25' deep.
 
Different areas around the lakes may well be different just like I’m sure the shallow wells in Florida are much different. The blue clay between Ohio and NY in Pa are loaded with water. In order to test the ground we dug down and hit the clay I remember taking a handful and squeezing it like a grapefruit and seeing the water come out. I have about 40’000 gallon in the well. I tried to bail it when we put it in and pumped 15 gallon per minute for about 8 hours and brought it down some the next morning it recovered. I have been pumping on it now for 30 years.
 
You must have a much different kind of Blue Clay than the South East corner of Michigan has. The Clay I'm familiar with was not hard, but you couldn't squeeze it that easily. It was moist, but wouldn't yield any water. Generally when you got to the bottom of the Blue Clay, you would run into an aquifer that was sand and gravel and that's where we would set the screen.

Even back in the 70's when I started back drilling after a stint in the Army, I came across several dug wells, but most of them had cased wells drilled right down the center and the dug well was filled up with sand. They would stop filling of the hole about 6' from the top and use that as a well pit.
 
Back
Top