Well Water Filtration?

[davrow]

It's amazing the different approaches everyone takes.

We pump our water up and use it. Drinking, cooking, washing...

 

[KiotiKowboy]

It's amazing the different approaches everyone takes.

We pump our water up and use it. Drinking, cooking, washing...

Consider yourself blessed! Ours is flavored with sulphur and shale gas - lol.

 

[AndyBees]

Our well water is extremely soft, clear and loaded with shale gas. The well was drilled in 1975 which was 8 years prior to the first gas well drilling in this neck of the woods in Southeast Kentucky. Although there are several water wells in the same aquifer in this valley, our well is the only one with the shale gas. Our well is 236 feet deep. I have the pump about 10 feet off the bottom. The water level stays at approximately 125 feet. I've had a meter on the well since September 1996. We have pumped over 850,000 gallons out of it. For the last 6 months, it has been supplying two households at about 300 gallons per day usage.

We do not filter it. We do not drink it. We do use it for clothes washing, cooking, bathing and general household cleaning. We do not waste the water on the lawn, etc.

There are pros and cons about dumping chlorine down a well bore! At best, it is a temporary measure in killing bugs. Also, if the well is not pumped basically dry rather soon, there's going to be lots of smelly stuff come out ..........mainly dead rotten white algae! A few years ago, the Kentucky Rural Water Association had an article in their periodical about chlorine treatment of water wells.

We also have a 100' deep well which as some iron/magnesium in it. Although rather shallow for local averages, it can produce about 150 -175 gallons per hour day after day without stopping. We do use it to water our vegetable garden. My son has a well nearby that's 390 feet deep with the same quality of water as the well with the gas, but it's capacity is very low.

So much for wells ........... public water is available on our rural road but it's not mandatory to tap on!

 

[Beltzington]

Appreciate everyone's comments, some very specific ideas I need to think about. I grew up on a farm with a well and no filtration, other then some minor white spotting on my teeth caused by excessive fluoride in the water I suffered no harm. That was 40 years ago and I am afraid the ground water is much more suspect. Adding chemicals to solve the problem doesn't set well with me although I am sure my county supplied water has been through the ringer.

AndyBees - So based on your post you are drinking bottled water or going thirsty?

 

[POC]

I grew up on well water. Straight from the ground, no filters. I now get my water from a spring, I use 2 sediment filters inline. No problems.

 

[Sysop]

Adding chemicals to solve the problem doesn't set well with me although I am sure my county supplied water has been through the ringer.

Most municipal water systems are a closed loop. You pee, you poo, you pipe it to them, they clean it, and pipe it back to you again to start all over...

 

[AndyBees]

Yep! We drink bottled water ........ However, we have used a filter on the counter for filtering and bottling drinking water from the well!

 

[Sysop]

I won't try to filter anything that hasn't been chlorinated. Filters can easily act as breeding grounds for all sorts of bacteria. It doesn't take much for bacteria to take hold in a filter and no amount of backwashing will knock it loose. At best it will clog the filter once the bacteria takes over; at worst it can make you deathly ill.

There are also many things that can be dissolved in the water that will pass right through a filter and the only way to separate these things from the water is to highly oxygenate the water. Doing so will cause these dissolved items to solidify so they can be filtered.

Chlorine is really the only way to get both reactions, oxygenation and antibacterial disinfection, at levels that are sufficient for a high use home. Municipal systems feed chlorine into the water before filtering and again before it leaves the treatment facility to keep the city pipes free of bacterial sludge.

UV was mentioned as an antibacterial solution, and it is to a point. While it is true UV kills bacteria, it's not an instant "zap" and it's dead. The intensity of the UV matters a lot, and all lights lose intensity with age. Last I investigated a top notch UV light in water systems have their effectiveness reduced by nearly 50% after 6 months of usage. Beyond that, UV systems generally only treat a small amount of water at a time so are most effective as a point of use solution (under the sink or at the tap delivering the water); because at the point of use you generally do not exceed a couple gallons of flow per minute and that allows the best "contact time" between the light and water. A whole house UV system really loses it's effectiveness a lot once you have several taps open and are flowing several gallons per minute.

Chlorine isn't a "zap" and it's dead solution either, but a strong solution in a 120 gallon contact tank provides plenty of contact time between the chlorine and water for the desired results in the typical high-use household.

I add 14oz of chlorine to my system every two to three weeks. My conditioning filter removes 100% of the chlorine before it enters the household plumbing. Two or three times a year I bypass the conditioning filter (turn two valves) and go around and flush all the toilets several times and turn on all the taps until I smell the chlorine and I shut everything down and leave it set over night. Next day I'll route the water back through the conditioning filter and flush all the pipes and toilets of their chlorine.

As a test, go lift the lid off the tank on the back of your toilet and look inside. Would you drink it? Whatever you see inside that tank is the same sort of stuff that is inside your pipes (everything inside that tank came out of your pipes). Feel the inside under the water level, does it feel slick or slimy? If so that is bacteria growing on the surfaces, the same stuff is growing inside your pipes and will also grow inside any filters you add...

 

[AndyBees]

Sysop, I agree with your assessment and procedures to treat and filter well water. And, I do understand the filter contamination 100% .... in a matter of days they can get pretty stinky. Several years ago, I tried the "whole" house filter and learned right off that I'd rather the water to flow in untreated.

Although we live far out in the rural in a sparsely populated area, I know contamination can move through an aquifer for miles. And, we all know installing the pump, pipe, wiring, etc., is never done ideally to eliminate contamination.

Anyway, we now only drink bottled water. But, when we were filtering (Beretta), we sourced the water from the hot water side of the faucet. Also, we have had our well tested for contamination, however that has not been done in a long time.

Yep! The commode tank is a good place to see what's going on with the water source!

Last week, we filled the grand kid's 5000 gallon above ground pool with water from the well that has lots of iron and magnesium. We are on the 2 shock and about the 6h filter. The water is beginning to look like "pool" water.

 

[Sysop]

I can make about 2400 gallons of bottled water quality water per day at a cost of about $50 a year. I'll never buy bottled water again.