Discolored Well Water
What to Do About Discolored Well Water After Heavy Rain
Elizabeth Ward
In
Virginia where I volunteer with VAMWON as part of the rural household water quality program run by Virginia Tech, it is estimated
that 34% of the population obtains their drinking water from private
groundwater wells, more than twice the national average.
The
most frequent call I get is for well water that turns suddenly brownish or
discolored after a heavy rain.
If
you own a well, then the responsibility for ensuring that your family and
friends are drinking safe water rests with you.
While
you cannot taste bacterial contamination from human and animal waste, nor
nitrate/ nitrite contamination, brownish water after a heavy rain storm is an
indication that you likely have one of two contamination problems with your
well.
Brownish
or “dirty” water always associated with rain, is likely the fast infiltration
of rainwater from the surface, but could also be caused by a nearby failing
septic system that is overwhelmed by the rain.
After
rust in the household fixtures there are five causes for well water to be discolored
or brownish: surface infiltration, well collapsing or water level dropping,
iron – iron bacteria and/or manganese in the water, pump system or well casing
rusting and worst of all contamination from a nearby septic system.
The
likely causes of dirty looking water after heavy rains is surface infiltration,
but contamination from a failing septic system is also possible and should be
investigated. A bacterial test will confirm what your problem is.
I
would recommend taking a water sample to a local certified laboratory, and have
the water tested for coliform bacteria and if positive e-coli and fecal
coliform bacteria.
However,
there might not be a laboratory near your home in which case you could consider
a home test. If your water is discolored after a heavy rain, take your sample
while the water is discolored.
If
this is a local infiltration problem, the water will clear after several hours
and could be bacteria free (but the bacteria could have infected the plumbing
system and if you have it the water treatment system in the house.
Event
caused coliform bacteria do not always show up in every sample. They can be
sporadic and sometimes seasonal when they occur in a water supply. Be concerned
but do not panic if coliform bacteria are detected.
Coliform
bacteria are commonly found in soil, on vegetation, and in surface water.
Coliform bacteria also live in the intestines of warm-blooded animals and
humans.
Some
coliform bacteria strains can survive in soil and water for long periods of
time. Most coliform bacteria will not cause illness.
However,
because coliform bacteria are associated with sewage or surface waters, the
presence of coliform bacteria in drinking water may indicate that other
disease-causing organisms (pathogens) may be present in the water and the water
supply is not sanitary.
There
are three different groups of coliform bacteria; total coliform, fecal coliform
and Escherichia coli (E. coli) each has a different level of risk.
Coliform
bacteria do not occur naturally in most aquifers, but are mostly harmless.
Fractured or creviced bedrock aquifers in Karst terrain that are close to the
surface are the possible exception.
Testing
for e. coli and fecal coliform and nitrogen will differentiate the harmless
coliform from contamination that is from surface infiltration of water from
bacteria contamination that might impact your health and is from sewage or
animal feces.
If
your well tests positive for coliform bacteria and negative for fecal coliform
and E. coli bacteria, you have an infiltration problem that may be persistent,
but can be addressed and dealt with by the suggestions below.
If
your well tests positive for fecal coliform or E. coli your water is not safe
to drink. Boiling the water will concentrate nitrogen that is commonly present
with fecal contamination and can be lethal to infants. Call the Health
Department.
You
are drinking water impacted from a septic system and the water is unsafe
especially for children and the elderly.
To
make this drinking water safe the septic system must be repaired and/or a new
well drilled. Public water systems routinely recycle water, but they have
entire water treatment plants and constant water testing to address the
problem.
Occasional impact from
surface infiltration is a much more pedestrian problem. Bacteria washed into
the ground by rainfall or snowmelt are usually filtered out as water seeps
through the soil, so properly constructed water wells do not typically harbor
Coliform bacteria.
Surface infiltration of
water is due to impaired pump, casing or well seal system. Often what fails in
the typical 6 inch diameter pipe well with immersion pump is the grouting.
Look at your well. A properly built and functioning well should not be impacted by rain, but wells get old and systems deteriorate. Items to look for and fix are:
· A missing or damaged well cap would allow rain to enter
the well. Make sure to check seals around wires, pipes, and where the cap meets
the casing may be cracked, letting in contaminants. A new sanitary sealing well
cap can be purchased on-line or from a well driller.
· Contaminant may be seeping through the well casing.
Cracks or holes in the well casing allow water that has not been filtered
through the soil to enter the well. This seepage is common in the wells made of
concrete, clay tile, or brick. This can also happen to a steel pipe well that was
hit by a piece of equipment such as a car, snow blower, lawn tractor or mower
or that has rusted.
· Contaminants can enter the well by seeping along the
outside of the well casing. Many older wells were not sealed with grout when
they were constructed or the grouting has failed. Check the grouting carefully
especially if water seems different after severe rains. Also, make sure that
rainfall does not puddle against the well, but drains away. Repacking the soil
might help.
· Well flooding is a common problem for wellheads located
below the ground in frost pits that frequently flood during wet weather. Wells
that are located in pits are commonly impacted by rain water pooling in the pit
and entering the well. This can be corrected by having a well driller install
an extension on the well pipe to raise the top, or create a drain for the
pit.
Hopefully, one of the
simple items above will turn out to be your problem and can be quickly and easily
resolved without need to drill a new well or install disinfection equipment.
To use your well that has
been impacted by coliform bacteria from storm related infiltration you need to
chlorine shock your well after each rainfall until the problem is solved by one
of the above suggestions, or you drill a new well. Yeah, I know what that
costs, so temporary fixes are often necessary.
Look, this is not the best
idea, but it will disinfect your well each time it is impacted by surface
infiltration.
Water that looks dirty
after a storm is a gross infiltration problem - there is a big leak somewhere,
not the invisible coliform problem that is more easily addressed by an in-house
disinfection system using either UV light or chlorine.
Coliform bacteria are
associated with warm-blooded animals, so they are normally found in surface
water and in shallow groundwater (less than 20-40 feet deep). Most bacteria
(with the exception of fecal and e-coli) are not harmful to humans, but are
used as indicators of the safety (sanitary condition of the water.
The instructions below are standard procedure from various state department of health and the US EPA:
Run your hoses (away from
your septic system and down slope from your well) to clear the well. Run it for
an hour or three and see if it runs clear. If not let it rest for 6-12 hours
and run the hoses again. Several cycles should clear the well.
What we are doing is
pumping out any infiltration within the well area and letting the groundwater
carry any contamination away from your well.
In all likelihood the well
will clear of obvious discoloration. Then disinfect your well. This is an
emergency procedure that will kill any bacteria for 7 to 10 days. After 7 to 10
days you need to test your well for bacteria to make sure that it is safe.
Determine what type of
well you have and how to pour the bleach into the well. Some wells have a
sanitary seal which must be unbolted. Some well caps have an air vent or a plug
that can be removed. On bored or dug well, the entire cover can simply be
lifted off to provide a space for pouring the bleach into the well.
Take one gallon of bleach
of non-scented household liquid bleach and carefully pour the bleach down into
the well casing using a funnel if necessary. Wear rubber gloves, old clothes
and protective glasses to protect you from the inevitable splashes.
After the bleach has been
added, run water from an outside hose into the well casing until you smell
chlorine coming from the hose. You can also use chlorine test strips for swimming
pools to test for chlorine, but usually, the smell method works. Then turn off
the outside hose.
Now go into the house and
one bathroom and sink at a time, turn on all cold water faucets, until the
chlorine odor is detected in each faucet, then shut it off and move on to the
next sink, or bathroom (if you have an automatic ice maker and water in your
refrigerator dump the ice and run the water on the refrigerator also.
If you have a water
treatment system, switch it to bypass before turning on the indoor faucets.
Once the inside system has been done, go back to the outside spigots and run
the hoses until you smell chlorine coming out.
Wait 8 to 24 hours before
turning the faucets back on. It is important not to drink, cook, bathe or wash
with this water during the time period it contains high amounts of chlorine
whose by products are a carcinogen.
After at least 8 hours,
run the water into a safe area where it will not kill your lawn, your trees or
plants pollute lakes, streams or septic tanks. Run the water until there is no
longer a chlorine odor. Turn the water off.
The system should now be
disinfected, and you can now use the water for 7 to 10 days when the effects of
the disinfections wear off at that time test your well to make sure it is still
safe to use.
It is important not to run
all the treated water into your septic system because the chlorine will kill
all the bacteria in the septic system and the system will not function.
This is the one time I
might recommend adding bacteria to the septic system to account for any kill
off that might occur from the minor amounts of chlorine treated water that was
run through the plumbing system.
Elizabeth was awarded an MBA from the University of
Pittsburgh and an MS ChE from Polytechnic Institute of NYU, worked as a
chemical engineer for both the US EPA in DC, and at DuPont before working in
finance and then becoming consultant with Washington Advisors and is the author
of "The Lenders Guide to Developing an Environmental Risk Management
Program." Elizabeth retired from Washington Advisors and began her
volunteer career and is currently the Treasurer of the Prince William Soil and
Water Conservation District.
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Multi-Media Filter, Highly-Activated Carbon Filter,
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