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Homeowner Forum / Construction / November 2006Well Mystery
I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions, and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts? > I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable > but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the > kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts? Try a double blind trial :-) My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control your well and see it the problem really comes from the water. Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to bother you). Good luck finding an answer. Pat. > I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable > but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the > kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts? > My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You > installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] >>installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the >>kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts? My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival of water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level... AL >> My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You >> installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses > of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level... All farts are methane. >>> My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You >>> installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > All farts are methane. Maybe yours, but everyone elses are pretty much swallowed air. easy solution:) Use old well water for drinking and cooking new well for everything else! Just plumb the old well water to the kitchen cold water faucet, low production well will have no trouble with this demand. whatever the cause its a sure cure:) when I post something like this it feels so great to be helpful. >>>>My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You >>>>installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > > Maybe yours, but everyone elses are pretty much swallowed air. Well, as much as there can be a point to a discussion like this, my point was farts contain enough methane to be ignited but the fortification of natural fart methane with methane saturated water would yield a most impressive payload. Le Pétomane could have performed near miracles with that water. AL Oh course your burbs would also be flamable. Hope you don't smoke. > >>>>My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You > >>>>installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > AL Thank you all for your highly entertaining discussion which no doubt will be reprinted the Annals of Scatology (or should that be Anals?). The problem with separate plumbing for the 2 wells is it would require 500' of trenching, so I view that as a solution of last resort. The reason to try sterilizing the water, even though the bacterial testing came up negative, is that there is such a thing as fastidious bacteria that are not easily detected or cultured. I do not believe this problem is "nerves" because this was never a high stress situation, and I certainly did not expect this problem to occur when I first hooked up the well. I have repeated the experiment of drinking the water from this well several times and the irritation is definitely correlated with that. After the chlorine shock, I ran the well pump for several hours just flushing the output onto the ground, so I doubt the problem is residual chlorine or pump oil. The substances found in the water were calcium, magnesium, zinc, and a trace of copper, all of which are in my multivitamin supplement in greater qunatities, sodium, and chloride, nitrate and sulfate at no more than around 10% of their maximum allowable levels. It seems unlikely, but I suppose it is possible the nitrate or sulfate could be irritants. The other possiblity would be some chemical species not tested for. Oh you're no fun. Just out of curiosity, have you had anyone else drink it so see if it bothered them? Using 2 wells shouldn't require any trenching. Both wells are working and both go into your house, no? Just a little re-plumbing in the basement. Call your local health dept. or cooperative extension agent and see if they can recommend a lab to test for "everything". Something like a gas might evaporate by the time it is tested. Personally, I think I would run the well for a few days and see if it clears anything out. also, then having the water tested, test from both wells and see what the difference is. wrkg_o...@yahoo.com wrote: > Thank you all for your highly entertaining discussion which no doubt > will be reprinted the Annals of Scatology (or should that be Anals?). [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > irritants. The other possiblity would be some chemical species not > tested for. > After the chlorine shock, I ran the well pump for several hours just > flushing the output onto the ground, so I doubt the problem is residual > chlorine or pump oil. I doubt that a proper shock treatment would clear with several hours of flushing. I know of many shocked wells that took several days or more of occasional flushing to get rid of the chlorine. Did you pump the chlorinated water back into the well for several hours to get a good recycle cleaning? Did you use specified well chlorine or cheap clorox? Many times clorox doesn't get the job done. Bob >> My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival >> of water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 >> glasses of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level... > > All farts are methane. All farts may be Methane but not ALL Methane. Methane is odorless. >> I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable >> but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >> installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the >> kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts? 1: Way below permissible levels doesn't mean there's nothing that can trigger sensitivities, it just means there's nothing wrong with it that should cause illness in normal people. 2: Did you get all the bleach out of the system after shocking it? 3: Do you drink water from any other source except the old well? You could just be reacting to the change, or to the absence of something in the old well. 4: Boiling won't help. Boiling is for killing microbes, and you aren't seeing any. I say you plumb from both wells, and save the output from the old one for drinking water, and feed the other one to the bathrooms, laundry, and outside taps. or buy bottled water for drinking only, the polar water route > and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and > anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have My guess is you're sensitive to one or more of the minerals in the water at levels less than max permissible. My grandparents had to haul water from a county park for me -- I was the only one of the grandkids who suffered major GI distress from their town water. All of that went away when the town drilled a new well into a different aquifer, which was less rich in Fe and Mg. My guess is you're sensitive to one or more of the minerals in the water > at levels less than max permissible. My grandparents had to haul water > from a county park for me -- I was the only one of the grandkids who > suffered major GI distress from their town water. All of that went > away when the town drilled a new well into a different aquifer, which was > less rich in Fe and Mg. OP may be able to desenitize themselves to the new water source. first 90% old water with 10% new water, over time increase gradulally the new water percentage. this approach is gow allergies are treated continious increasing exposure often desensitives the person over long ewnough of a time Kay, thanks for the first person account - at least I'm not the only one. Haller, the desensitization idea is interesting, might be worth a try. Pat, no I haven't cared to use my friends as guinea pigs, but I'll send you 1 gallon free of charge and you can report to us your findings. >Using 2 wells shouldn't require any trenching. >Both wells are working and both go into your house, no? NO. > I have > installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the > kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts? Put in a reverse osmosis filter maybe? Most of them also use an activated charcoal filter as part of their system, too. |
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