Revitalizing old school dug well

Hi all - I'm plotting my way out of renting in this awful economy. Was offered to build a small cabin on a relative's property for the next few years, and I'm planning to build one there and move it when I get my own land. There's an old farmhouse site there with an old school dug well - it's about 6ft down to the waterline, and the water down at the bottom is about 3'4" deep. The well is about 3.5ft wide. This old thing was probably built and used a long time ago. It's lined with rocks covered in moss. The well has been covered by some pallets and branches for the past few years after a dog fell in it (don't worry, they got her out safe!).

I think it would be so cool (and potentially more affordable) to revitalize this old well rather than dig a new one! Anyone here done that before? Any tips? I'm guessing it would be worth it to:

-Dig out the sediment by hand and pump out water, get an idea of its refill rate and let it refresh itself a few times to clear out any ick
-Shock it with bleach and then do a water test
-Hire someone to line it with cement discs and backfill to the liner with gravel, have them install a proper cement cap (this is kind of sad, since the rocks are so cool! But would probably be good for water quality and human safety?)

I'm hoping to eventually be able to drop a pump down there, and pump water over to my cabin. I live in a cold climate, so hand pumping in the winter sounds... not fun.

Any and all tips, advice, stories, ideas, etc welcome!

Hey Melissa - thanks for sharing your dream to get out of rental market and set up in a cabin on your family property.  There is so much that can be done in a tiny home space!

First step might be to send the water from the well in to a lab for testing. Probably helpful to know about microbial / chemical / etc content in the well and in your watershed before any other plans / efforts? In your description, you mention doing this as a later step. A bleach shock can help with microbes, but not other toxins in the water. With a water table at 6ft down, the water is shallow enough in the landscape to be picking up agricultural chemicals / pesticides / herbicides / fertilizers / manure pathogens / pharmaceuticals.  It all depends on what is happening within the watershed.  Depending on the hydrology, that sphere of influence can extend a long way out.  Useful to find the hydraulic gradient (which direction the water is generally flowing within the ground) so you can assess where the water that comes to your well might be coming FROM.  The website https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ has monitored wells -  you can query groundwater level data from near your location. If there are USGS monitoring wells in your area, their water table elevation data over time lets you infer the gradient direction.  You can also look at topo maps which might make it obvious based on your location (like if you are on the upper side of a valley and everything is downhill from you:  nationalmap.gov  The ecology departments in most states keep a log of wells and depths, so that might be a source you can dig in to online as well...

Once you know what you are dealing with (hopefully clean wonderful water), other necessary steps in future might become more clear.

Let us know how you get on with this project!

That's super helpful, Kara Ann! I can't believe I didn't think of testing it beforehand, haha. Thankfully the spot is next to an organic farm, and the fields nearest are pretty lightly used and often fallow. There has been PFAS testing in soil and groundwater nearby, and the landowners uphill from me all around are either homesteaders or organic farmers.

I'll grab a sample today and send it to the lab, and see what it's got.

One of my major questions is about its shallow depth - I have no idea if, long term, a 6 ft deep water table is even safe to tap into. I figure I'll dig out the sediment and see how deep the original well was, but 6 ft could be open to a lot of future contamination.

Thankfully (??) we're in a drought right now, so I know that the water level is at least relatively durable and won't dry up too easily.

My friend in Nova Scotia moved into her family's 100 year old farm house with a well and bucket system and no indoor plumbing. The well had a wooden box over it, with a hinged lid.

She eventually decided to add to the house, including a modern well and plumbing. The house is now 150 years old, give or take, and still going strong.

So starting off with what you've got, and doing the checks suggested above, make total sense to me. Are you in an area where companies are fracking? That's a major danger to wells from everything I've read.

Many of the plants you see may actually be helping keep the water clean. However there is a reason that many old wells had a roof over them. Our back well needed a building over it, and I made one with fittings at the back corners so we could pop a couple of wheels on it and literally "roll" it off the concrete pad that the well equipment sat on. When rolled back in place, there are bolts to fasten it down in case of high winds.

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity - good luck and please post updates!

To prevent surface water running in, a brick ring could help.
Dont forget, the ground may be higher than it was when built because of build up of vegetation.
Nice find though.

Wow Jay - love the story about the Nova Scotia well
and very good point about the fracking, it really impacts the watersheds it touches... and about the phytoremediation with the area plants benefitting the water quality.

Hey Melissa - sounds like you have some thankfully benign surroundings with organic farms and homesteads and fallow fields. Hope the water test reflects that.

And regarding well depth - more shallow wells for sure have higher risk of contamination than deeper wells due to the natural filtration capacities of rock and soil....
but that risk does not drop markedly until the well is much deeper (50ft- 100ft), and even then very dependent on the local hydrology.
We can proactively balance the realities of that with the really good filtration possibilities that are available now.
The property that I steward is off grid, and I don't have a well - my water source is rainwater catchment (and I am setting up dew capture devices this month - woo hoo).
I use a filter that does not require electricity: https://lifestraw.com/products/lifestraw-max
There are probably plenty of other really good filters that others here on Permies are using and can suggest.
Filtration is going to be part of the water plan no matter what... so even if there are contaminants, there are ways forward.

Let us know how the test results come out.

Thank you all! I'll let you know about the results of the water test, and I have a local friend who had a dug well put in recently - I might get her earthworker's contact info and give them a ring, and see what their experience lends too. Updates to come!

assuming you like your test results (though you could get started before they come back), the next step might be to see what the well will yield compared to what you’ll use. take a guess at the highest rate of flow you’re likely to want and for how long and see what happens when you pull water out at that rate.

good news is that, all else equal, larger diameter means higher yield. and you’ve got a pretty large diameter.

When I see a hole in the ground that has been there for a hundred years or more, and it looks structurally sound, I figure that it will probably be there in another 100 years.

Some of the most sound Advice from Kara Ive read anywhere, Melissa.  Water is life, and the essence of time.  Testing your well can tell you about the land over time as well as health and safety.  I grew up with a hundred plus year old well on an old farm in west Puget Sound, WA.  Hand dug at 97’ and lined with a brilliant (an accident, maybe?) mortar/rock chemistry of 1880’s well technology.  The water smelled like rotten eggs, sulfates and no kid in the neighborhood wanted any no matter how thirsty they got.   However, turns out that the ecology and biochemistry of that aquifer is actually more sustainable,  naturally mineralized, and with substantial health benefits.  So investigate deeply:) you maybe surprised.  Public well information through county and state websites can help you learn about local ground water, and possible problems.  Call a few “More seasoned”, well drillers and plumbers locally as well they generally know things the public records do not.  
Rain drops of the first rivers that ran across the planet billions of years ago have shaped and sustained all life on Earth, for as long as we allow.  Footsteps of the farmer…  Take care, cheers.