Well Water

[ShantyBranch]

Just recently did some land swapping with a neighbor. I ended up with an old farm house that I am going to use as weekend and hunting cabin.
I had the water tested and it wasn't pretty. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif
Tested positive for E-coli and fecal coliform. sp?
My neighbor has a large cattle operation so that might have some impact on it. ??
I am willing to live with it as is. By just bringing/ buying bottled water to drink and cook with.
But my wife is worried that it still a hazard, especially if the kids forgot and drank some. Anybody dealt with this before?
I really don't want to go to the expense of drilling a new well, especially since that is not a guarantee of finding good water. And county water is not available.

 

[TerryinMD]

What does the county health department suggest?

I know that you can add an inline UV filter that kills off some of the nasty stuff (don't know if it works on both of those). Some friends of ours had to do that on their old and new wells.

The simplest would be to shut down the taps in the house to prevent anyone from using the water for drinking.

Good luck.

 

[ShantyBranch]

Well they are not a whole lot of help actually. They suggest calling water treat outfit - like Culligan$$$ or somebody. I tried but it was too $$ for me for my limited use. Some others suggested adding in line chlorinator ?

I am not that scared of it. The guy was living there and using it himself. I guess it just what you get used to. ?? But don't want anybodt to get sick.

 

[GlueGuy]

That's not an uncommon occurance. Sort of depends on the depth of the well, source of the aquafer, etc. However, I've been reading some scary stuff about e coli mutations, and I wouldn't mess with it.

If you're only going to use it on a occasional basis, you might just want to shut off the taps where people might be inclined to drink, and make sure bottled water is available nearby.

Did anyone suggest shocking the well? That might only be a temporary fix, but it's probably worth ashot.

The GlueGuy

 

[Alan L.]

Like glueguy said, you might try shocking the well, that is putting chlorine bleach in it to kill the varmints. Turn on all the faucets until the water smells like bleach and the shut them off overnight. Then run the water til the smell is gone and retest. Could have been a one-time contamination that can be fixed.

Alan L., TX

 

[ERNIEB]

Your spelling was close enough. Where is CowboyDoc when we need him? There are a couple of Docs that visit this board and for sure they know more about it. I would guess that the source is the cattle operation you mention. E. coli is a bacteria that is normally found in feces, but can cause serious problems if it gets into the blood stream.
I think any treatment would be futile, because it would only be reinfected. A new well would also be infected, because it's getting in thru the water table.
I would call this a dangerous situation, and would make double sure no one could use this water.
here is a website with infohttp://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap15.html
Ernie
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by ERNIEB on 08/23/01 07:42 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[ShantyBranch]

I have done some reading online about e-coli and most sources seem to say that it is okay to shower with and we do, 4 or 5 times. I have also been using it to wash dishes - but I add a bit of chlorine bleach to the basin.
As I said before, the guy that lived there for 5 years prior drank the water, and no problems for him. At first his new wife was drinking it but she was having stomach problems and that is when they found problem with the water. I guess it is like going South of the Border, we drink the water - get sick, they seem they be used to it.

 

[Hillbilly]

If you have electric at the house and drinking water is your need check out a water distiller, it will clean the water the best way,it boils it. I have 2 I use all the time,Sears has a unit(Kenmore) that sets on your counter/table floor whatever and runs off of 110 voltage.Guaranteed for a year costs about $120,it will clean the water better than anyother way that I know of.I have used them for years.They are small in size and shut off automatically.

 

[ShantyBranch]

How do you plumb one of those up?

 

[Phred]

Keep in mind that most city and county water comes from a open water source like a lake. Do you think that your local lake does not have any bacteria? The answer is of course it does. Your county / city uses chlorine to kill the bugs.

If shocking the well does not work, you need a chlorinator.
http://www.krudico.com/sentry_chlorinator.htm
http://www.osmonics.com/products/Page588.htm
http://www.bsclab.com/water.htm
http://www.metrokc.gov/health/env_hlth/dwp/wellbact.htm

Are you willing to brush your teeth with bottled water?

Fred