For the last few weeks our well water has been really bad. I don’t know why. It tastes awful. It has black residue in it that clogs the filters straight away the black particles can be clearly seen in the bath and stuck to the porcelain.
We live above an ancient swamp where there is a lot of coal and natural gasses in the earth, water travels through the rock in the ground dissolving some of the natural mineral deposits and carrying them along and this mix ends up captured in our well so our water smells like sulfur on a good day. Any silver worn around the house goes instantly black. But the water is filtered twice before we drink it. They tell me the sulfurous bacteria is organic and occurs naturally and is not harmful to health.
But lately the water has worsened and the taps are delivering this salty, brackish blackened water.
But the water heater could be the problem, or the water softener that filters the water could be the problem or the well could be the problem or the pipes could be the problem. All of these things deteriorate over time especially in water that can contain the naturally occuring hydrogen sulfide or sulfur bacteria from the well water.
The last time we had this blackened water the well was running dry and we had to dig deeper, but we have had so much rain in the last season that this cannot possibly be the problem.
But now the quality has deteriorated to the point where I do not trust it and have begun to buy drinking water.
I have never bought drinking water before. And water is a dollar a gallon. Bottled tap water is big business.
Of course there are moves afoot to find the problem with our water and clean it up but this period of undrinkable water has really made me think of the value of good water. Having unreliable drinking water has made me truly appreciate water like never before. I used to drink piles of water but not so much now that I am buying it. I never waste it. Anything left over in my glass is poured into the kettle to be boiled for tea. The water I cook with is strained into the pig bucket. If I run out I have to get in the car and go off to obtain more so I am careful with its use.
I save the containers and carry them into town and fill them there carrying my precious clean water home in the company of women down the ages.
There are many countries in the world that have dubious water quality -some people have no water at all.
If I were a woman in a refugee camp in semi-arid Dadaab I would be grateful for my smelly dirty water. Many peoples walk miles to get good water.
In fact there are some towns and cities in America who have frequent scares due to scary drinking water pollution – being told to boil the water before drinking or simply not drink it for a period. Flint being the most publicised. Many large cities have water with terribly high levels of harmful chemicals.
And this problem is world wide.
I remember when I lived in Portugal for a time, every weekend the family would drive up into the hills to an ancient water gathering spring with an old tap in a field, we would park by the road, walk up the track then sit on a rock and fill many jugs with the sweet mountain water then take the weeks-supply of drinking water back down to the city.
So, my little problem with my own little well pales in comparison, however it has made me truly appreciate having the ability to control the quality of my own ample supply of water. (And hopefully soon we can regain that control). And the value of it. no more wasting water.
So I am loading up the empties in the car this afternoon and going off in search of good drinking water.
Boo can come for a ride.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
78 responses to “How good is your water”
Good Morning! I live in a small town in western New York and the severe drought conditions during the summer and fall caused many people’s wells to go dry. I am on the Town Board and live on a farm with a well. We are currently trying to figure out a way to get grants to extend the water lines and this is going to take some time. It’s also a very expensive proposition for each household as they have to pay back the bond required to put in the lines. In the meantime, those who still have water may have coliform…several have had e-coli….others have sediment. We have not run out of water yet (68 ft. well) and had a reverse osmosis system installed almost two years ago. Even tho we have had some rain, our water also started tasting weird. We ended up needing a stronger filter to keep out the dissolved particles (had doubled) that were getting through the other filter (creating the weird taste). We have no other systems…just RO. This situation has gotten the attention of this community in a very big way. I can understand what you are going through. I’m so glad we don’t have sulfur or black water. Having access to clean, safe water is going to become a serious problem in this country. At the moment, so much is being wasted. I hope things improve for you (and the animals). Your posts have been terrific, as are your photos. Thank you for sharing. I have kept an online Journal for almost 9 years and have not missed a day…it has been such a pleasure to meet people from around the world.
Your journal is lovely – I love your dogs! I am especially pleased to hear that you are on The Board. So many of us complain but very few push your sleeves up and get about the solution. Well Done you! c
Now there is a kettle of worms that can bring on a storm. They say the next wars won’t be over oil, but water. Even here they are trying to make it illegal for the average citizen to store rain water from their roof. I’m not allowed to install rain barrels and my water must be filtered. It looks fine but you can smell the chlorine in it. My son’s water in Calif always smelled of sulfur. Back in the late 60’s I spent 1 1/2 years in Taiwan. There I learned the true value of clean water which was brought down to us in containers. Not a drop was wasted. Growing up in Germany, we had to pump our water and use an outhouse for many of my early years. We have an abundance of rain here in Oregon in the winter with not a drop in the summer months. A lot of our water is sold to other states so it’s getting a bit tight here too. I so hope you find a cost effective way to fix the water problem. I know how dire it can be. I’ll be watching and hoping you find an easy solution. You have so many lives depending on that water. I’ve heard from other bloggers that the fracking in their area has contaminated the water so badly that they must buy now water. Yay for a ride for Boo. 🙂
Yes – fracking is quite the can of worms too – nasty.. c
Like Pat, above, I was thinking how forlorn Boo appeared as he longingly stared out the glass doors. It’s great he’ll get a car ride to make him feel special again. Many years ago at one spot I lived in the country our water was heavy with iron and the colour was anything from pale yellow to dark yellow, depending. It was tested regularly and we were told it was just fine to drink but you couldn’t wash most of your clothes in it; they all turned yellow. It too was in an area of reclaimed swamp, which meant everything grew like gang busters but the water wasn’t drinkable in my mind. We had filters put in, two ceramic and two charcoal, and it did help but the water was still yellow. Does the Matriarch live in town? Was thinking you could perhaps go to her home to refill your containers, instead of having to purchase water….. just a thought. Hope your day improves. ~ Mame 🙂
We have exactly that problem TOO. The iron is so bad it stains the porcelain yellow unless it is cleaned with very strong products every day. We a big have a big household water filter (they call it a softener) and water filters in the kitchen and filtered jugs for drinking.
We just went through some issues with our water. Long story short, my husband did some plumbing work so we can use our softener again. Only to find the resin in our softener tank had gone bad – t had sat for so long it had essentially disintegrated into a sludge. Our water was coming out of the tap orange, and there were chunks of what we thought was iron in it. We got the resin repacked and actually added a pH neutralizer to our system because we found out pH was 5.5 and that could ultimately corrode our pipes (and may be why our water heater failed). We also have a lot of iron in our water and the neutralizer also acts as a filter. I actually never drank water straight from our tap until now… and scrubbing the orange out of our bathroom fixtures knowing it wouldn’t come back was the most satisfying thing ever!
Hmm – I have asked about the hot water cylinder too – it can accumulate sludge – we may be going down a similar road to you! Thank you for the input.. c
I feel like I’ve had a crash course on our plumbing over the last month. Perhaps set the softener to bypass mode and see if that makes a difference in what comes out of the cold tap – if the issue ‘resolves’ your problem is with the softener (this was our case… the backwash that came out when it was regenerating was also pretty telltale). Another place to look is if you have a bladder/pressure tank (which I imagine you do if you have a well pump). Ours had a LOT of iron built up and my husband was able to flush that out by letting it fill, blowing air into it to disturb the sediment, then draining it… repeatedly.
Thank you – I will pass these on! c
Did you find a way to break down the build up in the pipes? We have mineral build up in our pipes (white, not orange) and I’m not sure that adding a new softener will help due to the build up already in the pipes.
We didn’t have mineral buildup of that type. We had the opposite problem where the acidic water would potentially corrode the pipes. Sorry I couldn’t be of help.
So many things to learn about house to house!
Here, most homes further than 5km out of town collect their own rainwater as they are not on reticulated water. I can’t imagine being in Marlene’s situation, where it’s actually illegal to store your own rainwater… The government is encouraging everyone to do it here, new houses are all built to recover and use what falls from the sky, and people are increasingly recovering, treating and reusing their grey water too. In times of low supply, it’s 3 minute showers standing in a tub to catch the runoff, a tap is never left running for any reason, the toilet flushing is restricted and you wait anxiously for the next rain to come along and top you up. I’m lucky to be on retuculated town water where I live now, but I filter all our drinking water with a ceramic filter, which greatly improves smell, flavour and hardness. It’s scary how much yellow/brown gunk I have to scrub off the ceramic filter every so often…
Yes, in NZ the farms collect the rain water too – I cannot imagine Not being allowed to do that – I have rain barrels everywhere! I have never seen a ceramic filter – I will investigate. Oh, those are the under sink filters? I gotcha.. c
No, it’s a unit that stands on the bench; here’s the link to where I bought mine:
http://www.southerncrosspottery.com.au/
I believe charcoal is used in the under-sink ones — at least that’s what ours was. The ceramic ones were all integrated as part of the water softener equipment.
My parents had sulphur smelling water. You got used to the smell and taste but a refreshing cold drink from a mountain spring is the best tasting water. I think if we sustain clean water we also sustain our respect for our environment. It has a huge impact. Clean water is our treasure.
I hope you can problem solve this quickly. Boo will be good company on your water gathering jaunt.
Ditto to all you said. Same prob but I bought a Kinetico water filter for the house (which cost is reasonable ) and it fixed the problem. It does not filter the outside water for my stock but it does make drinking water and cooking and bathing in my home a lot better. I really love the Kinetico.
“And up from the ground comes a bubbling crude” You may be hitting oil!! All the farmy animals will be drinking from gold plated water and food bowls,. Sheila may buy her own Truck with chauffer to drive her to local farmers markets to get treats. Knowing Sheila, she would share her wealth with all her stable mates. No ill wind blows, that doesn’t blow some good.
In Spain we don’t drink the tap water as the village machine that supposedly filters it rarely works and there are some very suspect sources that run into it. Luckily bottled water is very cheap (I think Mad mentioned it) or we have a couple of local springs we can go to. Like your time in Portugal, there’s often a queue as the city folk from Malaga come up the mountain to fill up their containers for the week!
Oh dear! We take clean water for granted here in Australia. Our place in Italy has its own spring. It gushes most of the year but slows down a lot by the end of summer. I hope it never stops completely.
This reminds me that we need to have our well water tested. We have never done so in the 9 years we’ve lived on the place… and now that I’ve read the comments here I wonder if that is about the time I started having big time fatigue issues. Any physical I’ve had done and blood work shows me to be the epitome of health! I wonder if it could be the water? I am very conservative with water too. It’s sad to see most guests here – especially young kids, take really long showers or just let the water run while they wait for it to get hot enough or run while they brush their teeth. 😦
Having bad water is one of my fears. As a kid on my grandparents’ dairy farm the tank water was sometimes iffy, and one town we lived in the water came from the river and regularly was brown & unusable.
We do have generally have good water supply in populated areas of Australia that we are told is safe to drink but public water supplies are treated with chemicals and occasionally are contaminated by algae usually in drier weather periods, when users are told to boil or not drink tap water. So when I lived in the city just to be on tne safe side I boiled & filtered our drinking water. Now one of our move to the country bonuses is the water supply from our own 3 rainwater tanks. It is liquid gold, drinkable straight from the tap, and washes clothes, skin & hair, cars etc so beautifully clean. The G.O. puts in the effort maintaining the quality of our gutters, clearing leaves, lopping limbs. Sometimes the water is a little discoloured from the bottlebrush leaves but even that is a healthy natural additive!
All this is leading me to ask if you can you put in some big rainwater tanks for your house supply? I’m not even sure if it would suit because of possible effects of the nearby cropping but maybe worth a thought.
Yes it is the same in NZ and I have advanced that idea but it is SO completely foreign that he will not entertain the idea at all. No-one has rain water tanks for the house. I cannot understand why they will not drink rain water. At home we drink it all the time. Ah well. I put my pots out in the rain for my cups of tea and just don’t tell him.
Good’on’ya! Make ’em larger if needed – you seem to have enough downpours! Where the bloody hell does most of the drinking water come from: rain!!!
It’s probably worth while to get some water samples tested – particularly if you can pull a sample before it goes thru any filter or water softener (which aren’t actually the same thing). If you have the same water problem straight from the well, then the problem is there. I remember a time as a kid when we had an overgrowth of iron-producing bacteria in our well. It was confirmed by a state lab (the health department offered the testing, so we went that route).
On the other hand, if what comes out of the well looks OK, then you can pin it down to somewhere in your system (softener, water heater, pipes, etc).
The house I lived in for most of my growing up years in NZ had absolutely beautiful water, clear and tasty like spring water. After we shifted I have never had such nice water again, which is odd, considering all the town is theoretically coming from the same supply! It’s still perfectly drinkable, just slightly soapy tasting. Or something. Just not as nice to drink! I filter my drinking water with a little fridge filter. I don’t know if you can buy Brita filters in the US, but they are very good. I’m so glad I don’t have the same problem as my sister – she lives in an area with a very high limestone content. Even though they have filters and softeners, they still need to throw out irons and kettles after a couple of years, because of the buildup inside. It makes you wonder what it does to your insides. I take my own water when I visit, they don’t seem to worry about the water and think I’m quite crazy! Even when you wash your hair you can feel the residue left in it – it leaves it feeling like straw.
[J] In the UK the vast majority of buildings – including rural – are connected to a public water supply of potable water of top quality. They take it for granted, whether metered or not, but especially if un-metered. In more remote areas – especially in N England, Wales and Scotland, private wells or springs are more common – but are tightly regulated by abstraction licenses issued (on receipt of fees!) by public authorities – who have no responsibility for the quality. If you intend to sell the water (in which case you’re in a completely differrent situation!!!) All those with private wells/springs really do value every drop!! Believe it or not, in the Outer Hebrides, remote though they are and the population very sparse, almost every home has top quality water from the public distribution mains. And it’s cheap and unmetered. These islands do three things in abundance: grass, water, wind. I’m an avid Nat Geo reader, and in the August issue there was a very very interesting feature on the use of water from the High Plains Aquifer, running south-north somewhat west of you. It was interesting that water rights vary from state to state, but it was where (in the south) private water rights are virtually unregulated that the aquifers is lowering and shrinking hugely, with entire settlements running out of water!! I seem to recall reading that further north – in S Dakota I think it was, the situation under control and in some areas the aquifer was recovering.