Rehabilitating a well

Would appreciate input and critique on our action plan for the well.

Background
In Portugal where hot & dry months start in June through August.

The well is a ground water well not an artisan well.  It is open on top and has been contaminated by soul around.

It was full to overflowing until July and now dropping in water level every week. It has dropped 1 meter (3 feet) in a month.  It is 2 meters wide (6 feet).

It has brick collar on stone wall.
Not been in use for ? number of years.
Water tests at labs as follows.  However, all in Portuguese and comms with lab for help is non existent.  

* turbity  >10 ntu
* PH 5.53
* alkalinity 12.5 (mg (CaCO3)/L
* calcium 2.18
*Manganese 9.1 ug ( 0.0091 mg/L(
*Hardness calculation        9.5
* Iron Iron                60 x10 ^1 ( dont know why they guve me results like this)
*coliform 80 ufc/100ml
Escherichia   0
Enterococos  0
Total micro organisms at 36 degrees (97 Fereinheight) 4.5 x 10 ^1 (again I dont understand unit of measure used)
*Clostridium  40 ufc/100 ml

Neighbour's well is 30 meters away is in use with double uv system andctest results show no coliform and bacteria but turbity, ph etcetera similar to my well.

This is what I think we should do
1. Shock treat water in the well with High Strength Chlorine if I can find or fast action swimming pool chlorine, which I know we can get.  Well has 3.5 meter (11.5 feet) water and is 2 meters diameter.  Not sure how much chlorine to chug in.

2.  Pump treated water into 2nd hand 1000 litre water containers temporarily

3.  Slurry pump silt out using pumped out well water.

4.  Scrub well walls with chlorine water

5.  Mend missing rocks and replace bricks on top of well

6. Put layer of gravel around outside of well and concrete skirt of 2 meters.

I do not know the history of the well.


With slurry pumped out of well I want to 'purify' on the property and was thinking of pumping onto ground in 2 meter square skid container that sits directly on the ground.  Planting Giant Spanish Grass aka water cane as I read they are good purifiers and composting over slurry out the well to use in a couple of years time after having soil tested.

Distance from well worries me.  There is a winter stream on West side that runs past about 15 meters away, which I must not contaminate.

Well is right on boundary on North side.

East side the boundary is 20 meters away.

South side is neighbour's well 30 meters away.

Challenge is containing the contaminated water and mud.

Once we have done this we can retest the water and decide on appropriate treatment.

Would love your input please.

Photos with well

I dont think you need to use chlorine in that situation.
Removing contaminated material may be more effective.
It may have been used form crops or stock in the past, hence limited protection for having better quality water for humans.
Can the sun be excluded from the well with a cover?

It may have remnants of wildlife and dust down the bottom so a desludge can only do good.
Using small hay bales it will be possible to trap sediment and let the water run away.
Then let the sediment dry in the sun.
If you can get bigger tanks to store the water to allow settlement time it will be better.