i have an an old well on my property that hasnt been used in many,many years.but it hasnt gone dry,still plenty of water in it.i want to hook up a hand pump to it for use as an emergency water source.but i have a few questions.
1)how do i find out if this water is still safe to drink?
2)what do i need to do as far as cleanout of the well,if any?
3)how far away can you run a hand pump away from the well?
4)what kind of filter system do you use with a hand pump?
5)what are some good ways to hide or disguise the pump?
this well hasnt been used in 20 to 30 years.any advise will be greatly appreciated.
gp

First thing I would do is make an attempt to check the depth of the well, Remove the well head, be careful old well casings can be fragile, depending on what type of pump was previousley used this could be easy or hard. after you have removed the well head if there are no wires you lucked out, most likely if the well is that old there wont be any wiring, depending on how big the well is, use a large nut let say like 1" tie it to a good heavy string at least 150 or 200ft the deeper the well is the better. Use a small amount of bleach on your nut and string you don't want to get any bacteria growing in the well if there isn't already, bleach will also work for killing bacteria that may already be growing in the well, just make sure you flush it out good, meaning make sure you run allot of water out of the well before you start drinking it. I would worry to much about the the other stuff until you know you have a good well PM me if you want more info. The more water you run out of that well, the more its going to tell you about how good it is.