Q: We recently moved out to the country south of Calgary. The house is four years old and the well is about five years old.
We had the well tested before moving in and it had high sodium at 233 milligrams per litre, fluoride at 1.74 mg per L and total dissolved solids of 635 mg per L. The other elements were within normal range.
It was suggested that we shock chlorinate our well because the bacteria results on the microbiology report had a coliform count of less than one.
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So, one month after we moved in, we had a contractor shock the well.
Our water has never come clean again. It was murky for a couple of days and then went cloudy. We told the contractor and he suggested we wait one week to see if it would clear. It would clear up a bit but the water never came completely clear.
The contractor didn’t know what could have caused this. He took a sample of the water to see what was in it. It was high in iron bacteria (and maybe iron) and he thought he should shock the well again.
We did it again, waited 24 hours, and flushed it out until we couldn’t smell chlorine again. It had cleared up a little but was still cloudy. Then all of a sudden it was murky again, so we ran the outside hose for a couple of hours and it cleared from muddy to cloudy.
It has been two weeks since the last chlorination and tonight it got muddy murky again, after being not too bad today. It leaves silt in the toilet tanks, bathtubs and sinks. What the heck is going on?
Sometimes there are air bubbles in it, like it is carbonated. It doesn’t smell bad and apparently doesn’t taste bad.
We have reverse osmosis for drinking, which seems to have some air in it too now. Our well yields five to six gallons per minute.
A: As usual, I suggest testing the water completely.
Once the water is chlorinated, it will oxidize any iron or manganese that is present. In order for you to have clean clear water after chlorination, it must be followed by a multimedia filter.
This filter will remove all dead bacteria, oxidized iron, manganese and chlorine odour.
It also seems that your pump may be drawing air somewhere. This is where the air bubbles are coming from.
I also suggest your local well driller do an on-site inspection to determine the recovery rate of your well and to examine the pump’s efficiency.
You may require a storage tank with continuous chlorination followed by a properly sized filtration system to eliminate the water problems totally.
Q: I bought a cabin with a well in October 2002. The well was not capped. It had a plastic well pipe down to pump.
I removed everything and used a pipe bailer to remove dead mice and such.
It has been treated with chlorine tablets over the last year, with repeated running water and rechlorination. There is no indoor plumbing, just the well pipe. The water still has an odour, not sulfur but musty. What should I do next?
A: Anytime you have dead mice or any type of animal in the well, it can pose a great risk of extremely high levels of nitrates in your supply.
Strong shock chlorination will kill the bacteria, but not correctly remove the nitrates.
I suggest you chlorinate the well on an automatic, continuous basis to effectively kill the bacteria. I also recommend you install a multi media filter to remove dead bacteria and possibly oxidized iron and manganese.
To ensure your water is safe for human consumption, I suggest you either install a reverse osmosis system or distillation for drinking and cooking purposes only.
If you use your cabin only on a temporarily basis, manually chlorinate the well to a 1.5 parts per million level and haul your drinking and cooking water.
You should have the water tested for nitrates. Extremely high levels can cause serious health problems in humans, especially babies.
You also must remember that when bathing or showering, your skin can absorb water. You have the option of installing a commercial reverse osmosis system to service the entire cabin.
If you have a swater problem and would like advice, write to the Water Clinic, attention Philip Stadnyk, 850-47th St. E. Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 0X4, e-mail philip@thewaterclinic.com or call 800-664-2561. Stadnyk is president of the Water Clinic and a member of the Canadian Water Quality Association. His views do not necessarily reflect those of The Western Producer.
