Why the Well
A flooded well or a broken cap is health department territory, not a filter you add this afternoon.
Do not drink it. Do not “filter it” with a fridge pitcher. Test for coliform through the health department or a certified lab.
Heavy rain. Water in the well pit. A cap that is cracked, missing, or under a flood. Muddy water after the well went dry. That is how surface water gets in.
Do this first
- Stop using it for drinking and cooking until you have a test. Bottled water or a known-safe source.
- Look at the well cap. Is it on, sealed, and above the ground? Standing water around the casing?
- Call the local health department or a licensed well contractor. Ask about coliform and E. coli testing, and whether they want the well shocked.
What it probably is
Surface water in the well. Coliform bacteria are the screening test health departments use. A positive means the well is not sealed against the surface, not that you picked the wrong cartridge. E. coli in that test is a stronger sanitary signal. Shock chlorination is a disinfection procedure for the well, done to a real procedure, then you retest. A licensed well person inspects the cap, casing, and pit. That is the work.
A UV light or a whole-house carbon tank is not the first move on a flooded well. Those conversations come after the well is physically protected and the lab is clean. A pitcher does not disinfect a well.
What not to buy
- A fridge pitcher as the fix.
- A UV system as the first thing you do, before the cap is sealed and the well is tested.
- Whole-house carbon because an ad showed up for “well bacteria.”
Slimy gunk in the toilet tank with no flood is often iron or sulfur bacteria — still not a pitcher, but a different page. Sudden sand or mud can also be sediment; if it followed a flood, stay here. Rotten-egg smell after the well sat or took on water belongs on the smell page only after this sanitary question is handled.