Whistling Well

[StarTed]

I'm wondering if others have a well that expels air very often.

I just returned fro the shop and herd this sound like a high pitched alarm coming from the well area. When I went over to investigate a lot of air was coming out of the well top screened hole. When I put my finger over the hole it stopped making the noise. I dragged my finger across the screen a few times and the squeal stopped.

The well can expel air for days at a time. That makes me wonder if that is a common occurrence. An old timer in this area told me that the professionals say that it doesn't happen but we know differently.

Have any of you experienced this phenomenon? I'm in the eastern Washington scab lands (lots of basalt overflow.

.

 

[MTboatguy]

You must be pulling water from an area that has a air pocket above it, I have had it happen a few times with my well here in Western Montana, but not very often, we had a very dry summer this year, so we had it happen a bit in early Oct when the underground source was filling back up with water, never did run out of water, but had a heck of a lot of air in the water flow this year.

 

[StarTed]

Well, it's back to whistling again. There is a lot of air escaping. This level of air escaping is rare but it is often hissing and can do that for several days. I can hear it for over 100'. It doesn't seem to affect my water supply however. No air in the water, only iron bacteria.

The well was tested at over 22GPM for 4 hours with no noticeable draw down. The well went through around 20' before entering solid basalt for around 130' then another 90] of fractured basalt and finally about 60' of hard basalt. The well is in a mima mound where there is some top soil. Other places have only an inch of top soil so the only thing that grows is cheat grass.

Thanks for replying. I wonder how widespread this phenomenon really is.

 

[joed]

Are you sure it's air and not natural gas? Raw natural gas does not have an odor. They add that so know if you have a leak.

 

[MTboatguy]

In this particular part of the country, we don't have any NG reservoirs and believe me they have looked for them, you won't start seeing those types of areas until you start down the front range of the Rockie, Eastern WA is the start of the Rockies and it continues on until you get to around Mid Montana and Wyoming at the start of the Great Plains, a lot of caves and pockets were created in the rock during the Missoula Flood when the ice dam broke and it created such water pressure that is basically gouged out areas underground. I remember when it first happened to us, I called the guy that drilled our well back in the 60's and he explained a lot of it to us.

 

[gm280]

I have zero experiences with wells of any type or location. But I use to spelunk caves, and depending on the type weather conditions and time of year some caves would have a huge air flow coming out of them. Other times near nothing. So maybe even barometric pressure can assist in air flow from a well. I honestly don't know for certain. But it does effect caves. JMHO!

 

[StarTed]

Update;

The well stopped whistling after the first day but the air is still coming out and has been steadily hissing since then. I can hear it from almost 100' away.