ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area stray voltage

He actually has several houses around him. Some are vacant and few have old retirees living there. That's what the tech told him.

Some of the old submersible well installations did not ground the well pump motor nor did they ground the well casing. They said it is better not ground it, it protected the pump from lightning hits. The newer codes require the well and casing to be grounded.

Greg...

A rash of such 'copper collection' is sure to be underway across North America -- look for it wherever pigs are pole mounted.

I haven't seen a new metal well casing in 30-40 years. They are all plastic

Greg,

Around here they still use black metal pipe to go down either 50' or until they reach solid rock. ( I believe) they don't want any ground water seeping much into the well. Too much pollution around here. My well is at least 300' deep and I have at least 50-70' of metal pipe casing, however my casing isn't grounded, back when installed the well drillers didn't run ground wires with the branch circuit to the motor.

We only see PVC here. Those iron well pipes tend to rust out in our soil where it goes through ground water.
Typically a well will be 200' here to get to somewhat good water but you go through a lot of bad water first. Some may even be pretty salty. Even at 200 feet, I see 1 ppt salt sometimes.