I can't have them in my home. When my husband was growing up, the one started on fire that was on his bed. He got the fire out but not the memory.
Have you put in a fresh battery? When the back up battery gets low the smoke detector will chirp.
If this well is old, as mine is, there's a good possibility that the black stuff is chunks of rubber from inside the wellpoint. I've never had one apart, but I've seen them from a short distance in some of the pump repair shops I've been in and they appeared to have some sort of material between the ribs of the point itself. I don't know if it's rubber or what, but it was dark colored and I would think that after a large number of years the point itself might start to deteriorate and maybe it would come up in the water lines. I've heard of and seen sand coming into a system from a point that had had a spot broken out of the side. Sometimes it would pour right out of the faucet as though it was water. So, that's my theory. Take it for what it's worth.
Slow down - use can't drive 40mph over such obstacles.
