Hi Gerhard, The appearance ...

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Hi Gerhard,

The appearance of mud seems to be a very unlikely development at a working abstraction well. Usually mud can be present at the beginning of the operation but not after what is termed the well development. Before serious money is spent on anything else than interim treatment options the cause should be identified as this might just be a transient problem, due for instance to well pipe corrosion and wall collapse. In my experience the presence of iron might lead to well clogging and a slight colouring and or turbidity of the water but that is not mud.

If you have data 'll be happy to assist. Below some questions:

  1. Does the mud settle?
  2. For how long has the problem been going on? How much water has been pumped since the onset? Is the problem worsening, constant or getting better?
  3. Can a well depth measurement be performed, even if only up to the depth at which the pump is located? (Turn off the pump!)
  4. Can you provide analytical data of the water before and after the change?
  5. Do you have pictures of the muddy water?
  6. Can you provide information about the geological materials the well is hosted in? One of the good things with ground water is that often it is geologically prefiltered and most of the time there is no need for additional treatment measures.
  7. Do you have information about the well operation? Amount of drawdown and recovery when not pumping? How does it compare to the measurement data of question 3?

Best regards

Francisco

If you want to use my email: franegrao@gmail.com