Piff Poff

We have not long moved into our new home on a acreage. We have had smelly water - I know we need to shock the well. I have been away for a week, when I got home yesterday my husband said the water was now coming out black and I just oh OK, we need to get it tested, having just flown from England and being tired that's all I thought on it.

It really is black and it's really really smelly, can anyone advise? Going to try and get a testing kit this afternoon.

Alan2005

Do you need a testing kit? If it's black and smelly then it's obviously dodgy.

Did you get the septic inspected before you moved in? Black and smelly sounds like the kind of stuff you get if your septic fields is buggered.

Simon Legree

http://inspectapedia.com/water/Well_Shock_Procedure.htm

Take a look there for shocking the well. It's a pretty good guide. I just did mine as I do every year. Black smelly water does not sound as if shocking will solve the problem but it depends on the bacteria or whatever is in it.

Piff Poff

Why would the septic have anything to do with it? It's coming out the taps.

And no we still have to get the septic emptied and inspected. It was a foreclosure.

Piff Poff

Thanks for the link, OH and it will read over it tonight and decide on a day I suppose.

iaink

Run Off, but its unlikely.

Does it smell sulphury? (Bad Eggs) Theres a bacterial that feeds on sulphur thats one cause of smelly black water...


Colour could also potentially be sediment stirred up now someone is using the well again?

Does the system have Filters, UV, etc?

Alan2005

If you are getting run off into the well. It might not be very likely, but if your well isn't that deep and it's close-ish to the septic system then it's possible (as crazy as it sounds there are houses near me that have just such setups - presumably this was ok with the building code at the time).

Piff Poff

Very sulphury so that sounds like the problem, the black water is a recent addition, good to know it's most likely linked and not another problem in the house of problems. The well wasn't used for probably 11 months so we expected something, it's just a bit alarming when we've never dealt with wells and such like. I guess we'll be shocking in the next few days.

The well and Septic are at different sides of the property, so it seems something was done sensibly. The well is 224ft deep, don't know if it's a deep well as I know nothing about them always thinking wishing well and bucket etc

It appears the structure of the house and the well and septic were done very well when the house was built, it's successive owners and DIY attempts that are very questionable at times. Saying that we did buy a property inspection that doesn't question what we would

Alan2005

Then it's probably not that. Just as well as septic problems mean $$$$.

The thing about well water that people don't tell you is that it always tastes funny. I said this to one of my neighbours who, in all seriousness, responded with "no, that's not true, it's fine; but then we don't use it for drinking".

iaink

My well water tastes perfectly fine, Im drinking a bottle of it now in fact. They bottle and sell 450 000 liters of water a day just down the road from me.

But it pays to have some protection, ours goes through a filter and UV system.

What they dont tell you about wells is its no cheaper than municipal water by the time you get into installing and replacing filters and UV lights.

Atlantic Xpat

224ft is deepish. You'd need to check data from the provincial govt (in Newfoundland there is a groundwater dept) as to whether it's near the norm for your area. You are tapping into groundwater aquifers not surface water, or at least that's the objective. If there is any problem with the well casing, it's possible to get surface water contamination from septic, fertiliser runoff etc. This is all a bad thing.

The thing about water wells is that fixing any problem tends to be expensive. As an example, we have a low yield well that runs dry once every 12-18months. To rectify the problem we're having it drilled deeper to a) try and find more water and b) give us more storage. That's going to be a $5k+ evolution easily. Our well is 280ft deep by the way.

We get iron sulphide bacteria which smells a bit but doesn't discolour the water. The water softener sorts it out. It is neccessary to shock chlorinate the well once a year. That's not a difficult thing to do but is a bit of a faff, especially getting the last bits of the chlorine taint out of the system.

All part of the joys of living off the municipal water system!

MB-Realtor

Have a talk with the neighbors, they most probably get their water from the same source as yours, so understand the problems, and know the best person to goto for servicing your existing water purification equipment,or buying new.

Mr Bean

Is it out of both hot and cold taps?

Piff Poff

Next door is having the same problem, they have just shocked their well, they are trying to sell the house at the moment - I know this from their realtor, who happens to be our realtor too Our Realtor has told us the best place to go to get equipment, she is also on well water.

Nice to see you btw.

Yes.

Inse

Can you set light to it when you turn on the taps?