Olalla: My Well Pump Won't Shut Off

Why this happens in Olalla

Start with a waterlogged pressure tank. Rapid short-cycling, on and off every few seconds, means the tank has lost its air charge. Around Olalla Bay and the Olalla Bridge the housing dates from 1970s-to-2000s farms and acreage homes, which makes this the likeliest answer to well pump running constantly.

Then a failed check valve. Lets water drain back down the well when the pump stops. We've seen it near the Olalla Bridge more than once, usually on 300-foot poly lines from well to farmhouse.

Don't overlook a leak on the buried line. Long poly well lines go brittle and split, often at a rock pressing on the pipe or a bend. On Olalla properties from 1970s-to-2000s farms and acreage homes it comes up more than you'd think.

Before you call

From there it's a correlator across a long pasture run and a ground microphone at the break.

First steps for well pump running constantly near Al's Grocery: close the house main shutoff and see if the cycling continues. Note the rhythm: slow steady cycling or rapid short-cycling. Walk the line's route for a green stripe or soft ground. Then call; the rest is a locate through hardpan on Banner Road, not guesswork.

What happens next

When it's the buried line, the fix in Olalla is well line leak detection: we locate acoustically, isolate the problem through bluff clay on Colvos Passage at the marked spot on small farms near Burley, and restore. Pipe locator and the mini excavator ride on the first trip so it's finished the same visit.

Banner Road, Al's Grocery, Burley: near any of them, well pump running constantly gets the same crew and the same equipment. About forty minutes down Highway 16, day or night, with the mini excavator on the trailer for wooded acreage on Banner Road.