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The only thing you really need to do is take a sample and have the water tested to see if it's safe. Since someone has been living in the house and they aren't dead yet, it probably is.
Pouring bleach down the well is really a futile exercise is it only "treats" whatever water happens to be near the foot valve when you pour it in. If you're on the water table, it will only disinfect whatever it can reach. If you're on an underground stream, it'll quickly be washed away.
If you're concerned about water quality, the best bet is to treat it between the pump and the house. There are several ways to do this and any competent water treatment company can advise you. However, due to my past experience, I'd stay away from chlorine injectors. We had one installed when our well went "bad," and the whole apparatus collapsed one day and we never knew it until my wife took a shower in nearly pure chlorine. She didn't breath well again for 6 months.
Your biggest problems with wells will be these:
1. Freezing in the winter. You MUST make sure the pumphouse is heated or very well insulated, including any pipes which are exposed outside. We kept a heat lamp going in ours all winter and never had a problem, so that's your best bet.
2. Pump problems. They will wear out and they will quit working for a variety of reasons. Most wells now have submersible pumps, which means the actual pump is at the bottom of the well, rather than the top. I personally never liked those because any problems require one to pull the whole thing up to check on it. On the other hand, wells with the pump at the top have what's called the foot valve down in the water and it tends to get clogged with sand or corrode.
3. Things fall into the well if you don't have the opening where the pump sits well covered. We once had some kind of animal (probably a rat) fall into the well and we never knew it was there until the washing machine intake got clogged with gray hair. Who knows how long we'd been drinking that rotten rat before we discovered the problem. After that, I wrapped the well head with very fine mesh wire and we never had that problem again.
4. Water quality can change over night and you'll never know it unless it begins to smell or you have it tested regularly. For instance, a well we had ran pure, clean, superb water for over 20 years, then suddenly began stinking to high heaven. When I had the water tested, we found that it contained dangerous levels of fecal matter. There was no way to determine where it came from. The local water quality guy told me it could be coming from right next door or 100 miles away. After that, all our water had to be treated for as long as we owned that house.
Based upon my experiences, I'll never own another house with a well. Yes, the water quality is usually better than municipal water, but the headaches involved in having a well just aren't worth it to me.
Have lived with wells and septic for over 20 years,very happy,a little common sense will help.
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