I have a question so I thought I would tap into this source of knowledge.

I have a site with 4 recovery wells that have scaling problems (high mineral content in the water here) and tons of biofoul (little buggies that gunk up the pumps). I can tell they are not iron-specific because the color of the biofoul (clearish and gel-like, maybe the consistency of mayonaisse). I don't want to cholorinate my recovery wells because I don't want to mess with my analytical results so I'm trying to think of an alternate treatment which is not a chemical treatment.

I'm thinking dry ice. It is just the solid form of carbon dioxide and I'm sure by dropping some into a well (I've already figured out not to introduce more than 1 pound of dry ice to 11 pounds of water or it will freeze), it will agitate the water, no doubt, but will it plug my aquifer and seal it off? Or cause my well to come up out of the ground? It will introduce no unnatural chemical or chemical reactions and won't change my pH. I'm thinking this could work in the right circumstances. It will have the added benefit of "boiling" out all the accumulated fine-grained sediments that have settled into the bottom of the well so we can surge it out of the well.

Does anyone here have a well that has had to be treated for biological overgrowth and how did you do it? My techs want to chlorinate the well but I don't think I want to since I sample the water regularly. I have a subcontractor that will "scrub" the inside of the well - which will loosen the scale but not affect the biofoul at all.

We have 5 circles. Nothing better than getting a drink of water from the tap on a well. and it's a darn site better than any city water I've drank.

I don't know if this is really what your looking for but dating all the way back to the Romans, they used to hang silver bars in their wells to prevent bacterial growth. I understand that it was very effective. I wonder if you could somehow suspend some silver in the well pipe and the tank. I would guess that a small amount of the silver would leech into the water but I don't think it would be enough to be considered harmfull.

I am on a well, but your problem sounds fairly unique. I have combatted sulphur creating bacteria before. But I do not have any experience with what you are facing.

I do know that bromine works better than chlorine for sanitizing, in that it flushes from the system very quickly.

Good Luck

Hmm we live in the same area, and I do know what you mean about the high mineral content.. But not the white stuff.. Ours is the black crap the sulfur..I guess .
I just had a new pump put in just 4 days ago, the last one was in 2002. The pressure controll switch was coroded inside and did not allow the pump to shut off, so it burnt out. I was always trying to figure out why my electric bill was so high..
We just throw bleach down the well 1 gallon every 6 months..
The Well guy used tablets.

But to do it without chemicals I dunno.. Call Townsend pumps, he seems to know quit abit about it, or thunder well out of shallow water there pretty good also..

Later
Slimland

call your local health dpt. they might know

bloo, i think this'll work. sounds like the romans were keeping the vampires away from their wells. you may want to recommend this, because it seems vampires have struck around your area.

blahhh, i've come to suck your blood!

These wells that I am talking about are not domestic drinking water wells, thank God - they are contaminated recovery wells from which water will be treated through a remediation system and reintroduced into the formation. Shnerdly, I will look into that. I will look into all tips and advice I receive here. That is very interesting. I will have to locate that background levels for silver for the area and then compare them to any documented regulatory levels to see if the addition of silver would "contaminate" the well above maxmum contaminant levels. If not, then who knows! Thank you!

Thank you CJ...I will also look into bromine!