Grey, stinky water

[Pat]

3lb, Purex is BLEACH, chlorine bleach. I hope you did not pour detergent down your well!!!!!!!!! Many brands of NON SCENTED bleach are fine for the purpose and some have the instructions on the back of the bottle for purifying water. Larger doses for cloudy water, less for clear. Dosages are a percentage thing, unless you know the size of your well, both diameter and depth of water column you can't know how much bleach is enough. It is hard to put in too much since you can run the water till the concentration drops to acceptable levels. It is easy to put in too little and not kill everything.

You seem to have a foundness for taking a poll among the good ole boys rather than acting on sound sience. People can get really sick from bad water. We aren't messing with you dude, we are trying to help you do the right thing.

You should run the water till there is NO TRACE of anything left that you put in the well, then pull a sample in accordance with the instructions you would get from the testing agency, and get a proper water analysis. It is innexpensive and quick. Not as much fun as spunk water and dead cats in the graveyard at midnight but much safer for anyone unsing the well water.

Lets say just as an example that there is a source of contamination getting undesireable biologics into your well. You shock the ^(&^^$# out of it with bleach and kill everytning. Yu might now pass the colliform bacteria tests now (e. Coli is a marker organism for detecting fecal contamination of your water) Whoopee!!! A couple weeks later the chlorine concentration is quite low and you are drinking s--t again.

I am reminded of the guy who didn't want to have the operation so he paid a few bucks to have the X-Rays retouched. You need to run a lot of water and then get it tested.

Again, sure hope you didn't add detergent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[3_lb_trigger]

Pat, yes I did pour it down the well, and of course I have a fondness for taking polls in person, and on this forum. How else am I supposed to draw on others knowledge when I have none on a particular subject. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Like I said before, nobody will be using any of the water until it passes testing. However, I want to try to fix it first. There's no sense in testing when I've done nothing to clear the water yet. I don't need someone to tell me my water is bad when I can already clearly see that fact. We won't be moving in for another month still, and I can run the water continuously until then. Surely all the purex would be out by then. Then I will test and hopefully it will pass. If not, I'll have to take it from there. I'm just the type who always trys to fix problems myself rather than paying a "professional". (sometimes I wonder) Obviously I'll have to use professionals for the test itself, but I never intended to have someone else fix the water when I can do it myself. That's the whole reason I asked about it on this forum in the first place. P.S. The fact that the water cleared up almost instantly leads me to believe that the stagnant water was in fact only in the tank and lines, and not the well itself. However, this whole experience has instilled just enough paranoia in me, that I will probably continue to have the water tested twice a year instead of annually, just to be safe.

[BlueRidge]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
<font color="red">There's no sense in testing when I've done nothing to clear the water yet. </font color> I don't need someone to tell me my water is bad when I can already clearly see that fact.

[/ QUOTE ]

YES THERE IS!!! If you don't test it to see what is wrong with it, how will you know what problem you are trying to solve? Shotguns are great for intruders, but even shotguns need to be aimed. KNOW YOUR TARGET!

The shotgun approach to problem solving can be an expensive way to live, and sometimes even dangerous.


Listen to Pat - he's a very knowledgeable person. And TAKE HIS ADVICE. Would you 'listen' carefully to Massad Ayoob or John Farnam and then do the opposite of what he tells you?

[img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Oh, and 3 lbs is way too light for a combat trigger.

[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[GaryQWA]

Stagnant water without bacteria in it won't stink unless there chemicals in it; your test showed bacteria present and they didn't get into pressurized pipes by magic.... So tell the real estate guys they don't know what they are talking about.

Bacteria produce gas, as you and I do as part of the digestion process; that's the stink. Without bacteria in the water, the water could sit in the pipes for a long time and still not stink.

Shocking a well, pouring bleach or other liquid chlorine down the well can and does cause serious problems with water quality, pumps, plumbing, the neighbors etc.. Some of those problems are expensive to fix. Chlorine/bleach raises the pH of the water it is mixed with. As the pH is raised, chlorine loses its disinfection quality and becomes a better oxidizer.

Many types of bacteria found in groundwater produce slime when disturbed and that slime and the encrustations it causes, can not be penetrated by chlorine, hence shocking a well can make a bacteria problem worse and eventually require mechanical and/or chemical cleaning of the well a necessity. Finding someone to do that is usually a problem and that leads to a new well. A new well has no guarantee that the water quality will be any better than what was produced by the old well.

Be prepared for the shocking to produce a bacteria free test result a week or so after the shocking (with bleach, not detergent!!) and then come back in anywhere from a few days, weeks or months.

Gary Slusser (18 years in private well water treatment)

[3_lb_trigger]

OK, here's the part where I look like a total dumb @$$. Keep in mind that I have never lived on anything but city utilities until now, know NOTHING WHATSOEVER about wells, or water purification, and am learning how to live in my new country environment by trial and error. (Emphasis on error) so be kind in your replies. Before reading the last two posts, I took the advice of the real estate agent and others that confirmed his advice. I figured that three people wouldn't give the same advice if it was wrong, so against my own gut feeling, I poured a gallon of Purex (thick blue soap) down the well. Then, after I had done it, was told it should have been Purex bleach, not detergent. So I went back and poured a gallon of bleach down the well too. (Stop laughing at me!) I went in and turned on all the sinks and tubs to run it through, and now I have a bunch of sinks and tubs full of suds! I guess all I can do at this point is keep running the water for as long as it takes to clear everything out so I can start over.

[egon]

Ohh - You are a brave man telling us about the suds. Did that with a dishwasher once. Great fun.

Then there was the camping trip I mistook a small container of detergent for olive oil. The pancakes did taste strange and found their way into the garbage very quickly.

Never fear, you will survive. All of us have made errors.

Egon
[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[3_lb_trigger]

Not brave, just honest. That's funny about the pancakes. Try mistaking your wife's can of hairspray for deoderant. That wasn't fun! [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[BlueRidge]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
hairspray for deoderant

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]




3lb, some day you will look back on this and laugh. The rest of us can laugh NOW! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]


Take it a bit slower the next time. No sense clearing leather faster than the other guy if you put six rounds into the dirt. Or, to use another metaphor, measure twice, cut once. Some things are hard to undo, so get advice from MULTIPLE sources before you get to the DOING part. (This forum is a good place to get some of that info. Good folks here.) Life in the country is not only different, it can sometimes be less forgiving of errors.


Now the question for Gary is, has 3lb done permanent harm to his well? Or is there hope for it to recover?

Or is there no way to tell at this point?

[Pat]

3lb, By now you have probably surmised that I am trying to help, not harrass. I did get a funny image in my mind when you first mentioned detergent and again when you mentioned suds. (Egon, I did the sudsy detergent in the dish washer thing too!)

Consider that for generations the Romans ( a very enlightened group for their time) used lead lined pipes for their water supply. Plumbing, plumbers, plumb bob etc are all based on the Latin word Plumbum which translates as the metal lead. Lead was NOT A GOOD THING to run your water in. More recently there was a program to replace all the old drinking fountains (lead based solder) with new lead free drinking fountains. For decades we drank from lead poluted drinkiing fountains and thought it was OK. It wasn't. Folks who have been doing something for years all the while believing it to be OK will spread their ignorance to you if you let them. You need to qualify your sources.

I listen to nearly everyone but I qualify the sources. You have sources available to you HERE that can help you help yourself far better than the sales agent (whose primary interest is in the sale going through and apparently better than your local good ole boy group). I don't claim to be an expert but have already made enough mistakes to have learned a few things. Others here have bona fides that demand your attention on this topic.

In the words of a past president, let me make one thing perfectly clear... My good ole boy and poll references were NOT aimed at the denizens of this forum.

Ohh, I almost forgot... Even betteer than the sudsy detergent in the dishwasher was the time I got up early and didn't want to turn the lights on in the head (bathroom on a boat) which might disturb my wife (louvered door.) I squeezed a little paste out on my toothbrush and got right into my rigidly choreographed routine only to notice after a couple seconds that the toothpaste didn't have that minty fresh taste/tingle but instead was sort of dull and yucky. Needless to say even till this very day (decades later) I still don't have dandruff in my mouth thanks to a tube of paste style Head and Shoulders shampoo.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GaryQWA]

We all make mistakes, the thing is we have to be able to survive them and learn from them. So yer still alive and should remain that way as long as you don't ingest any of this water until all the detergent and bleach is proved to be gone by at least a chlorine test.

I'm not a fan of shocking a well, or real estate agents and other gossip peddlers telling folks what to do with their wells. About 100% of them don't know anything other than what they have heard and when it goes wrong they won't admit it to anyone so others never learn of the problems it can cause.

Run your well off with a garden hose, not into any sewage system and not on vegetation you don't want to kill. When the smell of chlorine and the suds are gone, get a chlorine test done and be aware that chlorine escapes as you draw the sample slowly as drawing a draft beer, keep aeration to a minimum and overfill the container and cap it tight.

I've heard of some suggesting the use of detergent (Dawn) to remove oil from a well. I've never heard of the outcome other than they say it works, which oil/crease cutting Dawn should but I have no idea of the problems if any that it might cause. I'd think minimal problems as long as you get it out and don't ingest the water until then. By just running water, that may take a long time because the heavier liquid detergent probably is laying on the bottom of the well and your pump inlet is much higher so there is no agitation to mix it into the water below the pump inlet. The best way to remove it would be to pull the pump and air lift the sediment and detergent. You use a large air compressor and pipe the air to the bottom and turn on it on and the water in the well comes up out of the top of the casing. Repeat as needed until the water is suds and dirt free. Otherwise you bail the well.

I wouldn't tell too many people, especially any 'official' types or 'journalists', what you've done. They'll be calling for the well to be condemned, someone will want your kids, pets and all livestock removed and all produce buried in plastic bags and have guys in white contaminate suits swarming all over the place as they drill test wells to track the plume of 'contamination'. LOL

Gary Slusser