Help! New well has poison smelling water

[captaincrab55]

Not intending to thread-jack... but ... (as he thread-jacks )

I would have thought a well sufficient for geothermal use would mean it would be a high volume well?

OK, back to the topic at hand.

It was les than 1 GPM and can be used as a Geothermal well and not Potable water.. PM if you have any questions.. Back on topic....

 

[DANOCHEESE]

Natural gas in the pipeline will not have any odorant injected. The gas will not smell like the gas in your house. The oderant is injected at the distribution station. Get the water tested. I have seen water that will ignite. Old gas station leaked for years and the water at the tavern next door would spread the flame on a shot glass. Nobody drank the water anyway.

 

[amaxwell]

Originally Posted by Richard
Not intending to thread-jack... but ... (as he thread-jacks )

I would have thought a well sufficient for geothermal use would mean it would be a high volume well?

OK, back to the topic at hand.


I have 2 geothermal wells no water in either. I use closed loop system. (small pump pumps antifreeze solution thru heat pump and both wells )

amaxwell

 

[valley]

Greetings, If you well was drilled with a rotary rigg there may have been something used as a lubricant even if they don't admit it. More so if the drill head had been worked on or needed work!
I would run the water, set up a sprinkler a few hours and check it, it may clear out.

Richard

 

[captaincrab55]

What would you do?!? Any solutions?!? You'd have to be crazy to drink this water with the way it smells. It was all I could do to taste it & then spit it out.

Was the water ever tested for Bacteria? I know that you said the water tasted like Pesticide, but can you narrow that down some?? Does it have a rotten egg smell??

Check out this link:

What Causes the Rotten Egg Smell in my Well Water? Is it Harmful?


If you decide on a water softener and wish to install it, I can provide a link for that... They will help you with trouble-shooting and can provide parts for most softeners....

 

[beppington]

Was the water ever tested for Bacteria?

No, the well installer just installed it, called me & said "It's done", & left a plastic water bottle full of the new well water. Later that day I went out, turned it on, noted the dark color but no real odor, & thought, "OK, we have well water with iron in it. No big deal to filter out."

I know that you said the water tasted like Pesticide, but can you narrow that down some??

I don't know how else to describe it. "Pesticide" is the best word.

Does it have a rotten egg smell??

No, not at all. I think of sulfur as smelling like rotten eggs, & this is nothing like that.

 

[charlz]

For water testing here you just go down to the lab, pick up the sample container, price/order sheet and a pamphlet on how to take the sample. Take the sample, check off what you want, total it up and pay them when you drop off the sample. Results come in the mail about 2 weeks later.

If it smells that bad I would definitely get it tested, maybe ask them what additional tests you should run. They see lots of water samples and probably have a pretty good idea what to test for based on the smell.

 

[beppington]

Update: The guy that installed the well said he'd never heard of a "pesticide" odor before, but suggested I pour a gallon of bleach down the well casing, followed by 5 or 10 gallons of water, let that sit overnight, & then let the well run wide open out the 1-1/4" main pipe (rather than out my hose) for an hour or so.

He said the bleach thing is what our local health dept does.

I'll do that & will probably also get the health dept to test it, too.

(I'm wondering if new steel casing pipes might have a protective petroleum-based chemical on it to protect it from rusting, like when you buy new pieces of steel, & maybe that's what I'm smelling. It sure doesn't smell like that (I actually have two brand new 1.5"x1.5"x4' pieces of square tubing steel I ordered thru the mail in my office right now; They're kind of greasy/ slick/ dirty, but don't smell like pesticides), but maybe what they use on casing steel is different?)

 

[captaincrab55]

Update:
He said the bleach thing is what our local health dept does.

I'll do that & will probably also get the health dept to test it, too.

They make tablets that can be purchased @ the Plumbing Supply, I've used chlorine bleach or chlorine (for pools)... With 300' & 500' wells, I needed to circulate the treated water from the house back to the well... Then one needs to get rid of the chlorine before the Bacteria Water Test... I purchased some chlorine test strips from a pool store to check that the chlorine was gone...... Otherwise one may need to redo the test @ an extra cost..

 

[mrmikey]

Steel pipe is coated with a varnish, fish oil based I think.
My daughter just had a well drilled next door and her water tasted oily....not really oily but a metallic taste.
Ended up it was due to a high concentration of manganese. She could have went with one of two systems, one that uses potassium permanganate or a system that injects air into the water and then goes thru a three media filter, she chose the latter.
It works great, the water was undrinkable before, stained the toilet, clothes, bathtub, stunk etc, now nuttin'.
On another note, bleach apparently makes the effects of iron or manganese worse, I can't remember which so be aware.....Mike