leak in water line?

[michael a sherba]

We get our water from a shallow, wide-diameter well dug into the side of a hill above our house. Thus our water is gravity fed to the house by a long, 600ft line. A pump in the basement fills a pressure tank. Whats happening now is that every few days we get a lot of air in the water lines in the house. When I check the water line, it is, in a sense, dry. that is, the syphon of the line in the well, I assume, has been lost. The pump can suck and restart it, but then there is a lot of air. If I reverse the flow of water (which I have been able to rig up), Im assuming that I clear most of the air, and restart the syphon, and it all works fine again for a few days. Im wondering if this is clear evidence of a leak in the line? Are there other things I should be checking. The water level in the well is clearly above the intake, but lower than it should be. I dont think the air is coming in because the level of the water is dropping below the intake. Are there any tests I can do to prove that there is a leak, or even to locate it? Theres a lot of line, obviously, and digging it up, or putting in a new line, is going to be very expensive.Thanks for any help!Onno Oerlemans

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