I purchased my house (built in 1850) ten years ago. I have an easement for my artisian well, which is 900' from the house, on my neighbors property. The lip of the casing is right at ground level and it was just covered with boards and plastic. There was standing water around the casing, so I dug a trench away from the casing so it overflows and drains into the swamp about 20 yards away, downhill.

The water is tested every year and I put in a UV filter in the house. A few years ago I started getting a lot of sediment in the water so I had the well pumped. It's about 20' deep and they guys pumping it could barely keep up with how fast it refilled and they had a LARGE septic truck that they were pumping with. After they pumped it, we put a 3' plastic "sleeve" to try to keep some of the sediment out, but it still "drains" at ground level (they cut some holes in the sleeve).

Anyway, my pump died (either the impellers or the whole pump) so I've been doing some work on the well to try to get the pump out. It's not a side-seal, it looks like it's fixed on with a union fitting, but that's the next problem. I want to get this fixed up so it keeps the sediment out, but am not sure what the best way to do this is.

I was thinking of digging the surrounding soil all down to just below the casing for about 2' around the well, leaving the plastic "sleeve" as it is, and then filling that area with gravel and concrete pavers just up to the lip of the casing. My neighbor recommended leaving the plastic "sleeve" on and mortaring the entire sleeve to the casing and cutting it off about 1' above the ground so there's no way ground water will get in the well, and then getting a plastic cap to cover it instead of using boards and plastic.

I've got a second well on the property which I've been using in the interm so it's not an immediate problem, but I'd like to get the pump pulled and get someone working on that before it gets too far into winter so I can get this hooked up next spring.

Thanks!!

Any ideas??