There was a great thread on private water wells some months ago. I've tried using the search facility and typed in "private well" and got back over 500 results from the whole site!

So I'm sorry about this, but I could do with some advice.... in a nutshell:

We bought a house in May. Water tested fine, in fact so fine that the tester was suspicious!! No chlorine was found in the tests, but he thought maybe they'd "shocked" the well to get water so pure.

So, we had it tested about two months after we lived there, and it came back almost perfect again! Much back-slapping and self-congratulations for getting a house with a Volvic-type spring!!

As another 3 months had gone by, I got it tested again, just to be sure (young kids you see).

I got a call from him this morning.... the results showed that the water was "un-potable".... we shouldn't drink without boiling.

I asked why and he said he was still waiting for the full report, but I'm sure the word 'fecal' was mentioned.... eek!

Now, I don't really trust the guy... he spent both his earlier visits trying to get me to upgrade my water softener... which is only 2 years old! He wanted 3k dollars!

He's already talking about putting in a UV system, which will necessitate upgrading my water softener, for 5.5k plus installation! And he hasn't even got the lab report yet!

Something's not right. I can't for the life of me see how water can go from perfect to undrinkable in 3 months.... fair enough, it's rained a lot, but still! And the well is 350 feet down.

Has anyone got any ideas / experience? We've got enough expenses going on at the moment (but that's another thread!) and can ill afford 5.5k for nothing.

Thanks.

I would start by getting someone else out to test the water - can the Realtor you used to buy the house do it for you? - and then go from there. If you don't trust the man - he may think ahh English without a clue about Wells...or he may be being honest!

This is a test from a company or individual that wants to sell you purification equipment, yes?

I'd suggest that you contact the local municipality or provincial groundwater/environment department. Usually they will offer free testing for water quality. Here in NL I can go take a sample to the public health laboratory and get the results in a week or so. For free.

The test has two results. Total coliforms and fecal coliforms. I think less than 10 ppm is the required result. Anyway its well worth checking out the local free resources before parting with your hard earned for purification systems!

The test should be done by an independent laboratory. Contact a Provincially approved lab, and follow their instruction to take a sample and get it tested.

Fecal matter in wells normally come from 2 areas, Cattle in the vicinity, or your own, or a neighbors, faulty septic field.

To be on the safe side, do not drink the water without boiling first.

Contact one or two more water purification companies for quotes.

UV is a good option to kill bacteria, make sure the UV system has an audible alarm in case of malfunctions, and is rated to your maximum water flow. The UV light source its self will require changing every 12 months.

UV will only kill bacteria it does nothing else to purify the water.

If the water softener is working OK it wont need changing, they are not complicated, the only mechanical part is the timer for flushes, so as long as it can cope with the hardness of your water, it should be fine. If you are getting discolouration in bathroom fittings then that is due to iron in the water, a separate iron remover is called for.

Stewart (who owned a water purification company a few years ago).

Thanks all. To be fair, the bloke runs a water purification business, but the reports come from a lab, not his company.

His main gripe about our (European) water softener is that it has a mechanical thingy on top instead of a digital one.

He mentioned we had to change the softener to make the water filtered enough for UV (????).

The water looks and smells fine, and none of us have "tummy upsets" (I can't spell dia....).

He did say, on the second call, that it might be related to pets (we have now got a puppy, the only thing that changed since the earlier test).... and maybe we should test from another tap.

Luckily we have a water fountain from the last house, but we stopped drinking the bottled water because the tap water tasted "fresher"!!

We have no cattle around here (well, not for several kilometres), but do have neighbors on two sides. Maybe their septic fields border our well? And we have had a lot of rain....

Finally, can I bl00dy well sue someone about this??

Good Luck, Stewart.

Thanks Stewart. I'll keep you posted. It is probably an issue that concerns many on the board.

The real question on my part is how can Volvic / Evian water suddenly turn to toilet water in such a short time???

My wife thinks that because the well is 350', and they drilled through a lot of rock to get to it, it could be dinosaur poo!!

Sorry all for resurrecting an old thread, but this info may be useful to some.

We remain drinking bottled water, or boiling water from the tap for coffee. It still looks cleaner than the water in friends houses on municipal water. The kids have lapsed and drunk from the tap on occasion with no ill effects, and our dog / cats seem to think it's fine.

I'm loathe to chuck away another 300 bucks on a test (which would be the fourth.... a tidy sum of money) but feel that after all this time I should do something. Hello google!

I found this:

http://www.canadamoldtestkits.com/ca...products_id=39


A test kit, available in Canada, for 21 bucks!

If any of you have experience of the product, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise I will go ahead and buy it and let you know how I get on. At that price it has to be worth it....

Fecal Coliform...not uncommon.

I dont understand why you are having some guy do the testing rather than getting sample bottles from the local health unit and doing it yourself?

Quite often its possible to contaminate the sample yourself if you dont take precautions while gathering it, but its equally possible that some coli is now entering the well from the top in the spring run off season. Our well unfortunately has a hole in the casing about ten feet down, so we are affected by this sort of thing, not all our water is "ground water"(cows up the hill in the field behind us),

With young kids your best bet it to install a UV system anyway...there are NO guarantees with wells, a good well can go bad. The unit itself costs about $400 at Home Depot, and bulbs once a year are about $100. Installation costs shouldn't be too bad, its not rocket science.

Put is on the soft side of the softener so it doesnt furr up and lose efficiency. Whats wrong with your existing softener? If it was good before it should be good now, unless you are now using a lot more water and it cant keep up.


First thing though is to start using the municipal test facilities that you are already paying for and do your own testing! If you dont have a couple of simple particulate filter units on the input side it it worth the $40 or so each (plus basic plumbing) to have them installed...Im surprised its not done already as it will prolong the life of your two year old softener anyway. The concern regarding Particulates and UV is the bugs could be in the shadow of the particles and survive the UV dose. The soften will filter some stuff out, but that's not good for the softeners life expectancy anyway, so better to filter before the softener.

Our system has 30, 10 and 1µm filters before the softener, then UV after it that cleans all water entering the household supply, we've had nothing but 0/0 tests since the UV was installed. Its a nasty feeling when you get that dirty test back that spurs you into action. Frankly I'M surprised UV or similar treatment has not been mandated for all primary residences using private wells.

I though ALL minicipalities in Canada were obliged to supply basic bacterial water testing for FREE through the local health unit?

Thanks for all your advice! I did phone the municipality and they told me they don't have a water testing unit. We had to pay to get the water tested before we bought the house and used a company recommended by the EA.

As I say, they went onto suggest mods that they say will cost more than 5,000 dollars! I think I'll nip down to home depot....

Thanks again.

Here its done by the health unit. Maybe quebec is different anyway.

Minimum you should get is the Trojan UV unit, a couple of filter housings and some shut off valves to make changing filters / bulbs etc easier. $500 maybe? If you are comfortable with soldering etc it can be done yourself, otherwise a plumber shouldnt take more than a couple of hours. You will need a nearby electrical outlet to plug the UV into of course.


You have to remember that you have no UV in a power outage, so if you flush, the pressure tank will push dirty water past the UV into the clean part of the system.... this is not necessarily a good thing as that bacteria could then linger long enough to get into the "clean" water after the power comes back on.

After you install the UV you should shock the well to be on the safe side, but if you are getting dirty tests back I expect you are familiar with that process.

when we bought we got a sample from the tap oursleves took it to the local hosptial lab paid $20 and that was it
result back 48 hours later

can you do this you will then get an unbiased water test instead of one from someone trying to sell you something

good luck

good on you for testing we havent bothered since we moved in a year ago nobody bothers around here perhaps we should

cant see how it go bad so qucik sounds dodgy to me something I have never given a seconds thought to to be honest

A basic potability, (bacteria count, fecal bacteria count) should cost around $25 from a lab, not $300.

A good whole house UV with a pre-filter and alarm should cost no more than $2000, back in my day in the business they sold for around $1250.

Am I missing something here re wells and softner...??