Water quality/well treatment?

Tracy Rimmer · #1 10/09/07, 08:44 PM

I have a sandpoint well in my basement. The entire area sits on a huge underground aquifer, and the community enjoys an overabundance of water.

However, being the new (and slight paranoid) member of the community that I am, I smilingly accepted everyone telling me what wonderful water there is here, and had my well tested anyhow. My brand new sandpoint well that I just had put in.

I got the results back today. My well was tested as a private, untreated well, and passed for the e.coli test (0 MPN/100ml), but failed on "total coliform". Apparently we have tested out at 1 mpn/100ml on this test -- I don't even know what this means.

What the heck does it mean? We've been drinking this water for six months, with a Brita on-tap filter. No one has gotten sick. Am I killing my kids?

What do I do about this? I can't put in another well right now, especially if it's just going to test positive, too. What do I do?

Help!

cfabe · #2 10/09/07, 08:55 PM

Don't worry about it. Coliform is just a general classification of bacteria. The water has some bacteria in it. If you're not getting sick, it's not a problem. If you want to you can treat the well with bleach and flush it through your pipes, search on here for the procedure. But I don't think that's necessary.

ChoochCharlie · #3 10/09/07, 09:14 PM

I second that. As a Home Inspector I run into that question often.
cfabe is referring to shocking your well.
In our area we dump a gallon of bleach down the well head (deep drilled wells here. Call a local well plumber for local knowledge) Run the water at each source in your house until you smell bleach and shut off the water. Let it go overnight with the bleach in the pipes to treat the pipes along with your well. Then, in the morning run the hose back down your well. Option is to just turn on the taps and run the water till no bleach is smelled. Running the hose back down the well will aerate the water and release the chlorine and not overtax your septic. Diluted, the bleach will not harm you or your family.

I run a UV light treatment system on my water. Tests zeros every year.

tamsam · #4 10/09/07, 09:20 PM

If you shoch your well use an outside hose to pump all the bleach out if you pump it.We did one once and pumped it into the septic and had to have it pumped. Sam

cindyc · #5 10/09/07, 10:04 PM

We have a RO water filter attached to water coming into the kitchen from the well. Works well, but it was here when we moved in. I hear they can be expensive.

Dh grew up over seas. If you are REALLY worried, you can always boil your drinking water the night before and put it in the fridge.

Its a pain, but it works.

Cindyc.

annie-123 · #6 10/10/07, 12:05 AM

Hi Tracy. I agree with your concern. You didn't say if you have a septic-waste system or city managed waste utility. It does sound like something's leaching in that shouldn't be. Here's a site on wells that should help. http://www.wellowner.org/awaterquali...ormindex.shtml

annie

**Cabin Fever** · #7 10/10/07, 08:05 AM

I agree with some of the others, "total coliform" is just a test that counts a broad range of bacteria all of which are naturally occurring. A positive test result should never be interpreted to infer that your well water is contaminated by pollution. A postive test result means that the well and plumbing systen should be shocked as others have said. Shocking a well kills the natural bacteria growing in your well casing and in your home's plumbing system.

If your well water was polluted by harmful bacteria, shocking your well would not solve the pollution problem nor would it make your well water fit for consumption.

Tracy Rimmer · #8 10/10/07, 08:22 AM

Okay, so I have a sandpoint pipe well -- how do I shock it? How much bleach, and where do I put it? I understand the pulling it through the system and then letting it sit overnight part, but I don't know how to get that far. Someone give me directions?

BTW, I'd call the local plumber, but the last time I called there was a three week waiting list to get him out, and DH is out of town for the next few weeks, so it's down to me to do this, and while I'm CAPABLE of anything, I've never done this before -- we always had dug wells at home, and I remember Dad shocking the well, but I never did it with him -- that was "boy's work"

Help? :blush:

Michael Kawalek · #9 10/10/07, 08:24 AM

Hello Tracy
A coliform is defined as a enteric (gut living) bacteria that can ferment lactose (milk sugar). E. coli is the most common coliform bacteria, but others include Salmonella, Shigella, and Proteous.

The term "MPN" refers to the statistical term "Most Probable Number". Your water sample is divided amoungst 10 tubes of liquid growth media that contains the milk sugar lactose. By counting the number of tubes that have bacterial growth, you can estimate what the population of bacteria is. Using a form of statistical analysis, you can estimate what the most likely number of bacteria is (its most probable number). By further counting how many of those growing tubes have fermented lactose, you can estimate how many of those bacterial cells are coliforms. With futher analysis, you can determine how many of those coliforms are E. coli.

So, what they did in their report is estimate that most probubly your water contains about 1 viable coliform bacteria cell in each 100ml, or about 10 in a liter, and 38 in a gallon. I don't know what level your county considers its "take action" level, but that number strikes me as being insignificant. Did your analysis also include heavy metal contamination, and pesticides?
Michael

Tracy Rimmer · #10 10/10/07, 08:40 AM

The test was a standard drinking water safety test provided by our municipality, so I don't know exactly what they tested for, but the only thing that came up was this 1 mpn/100ml on the coliform. E.coli came up as a separate test at 0 mpn/100ml. There was no indication that they tested anything else (there was nothing showing on the report as "this was tested and it passed") -- I do know that we have iron in our water.

So the 1 is something relatively insignificant? The report they sent me didn't tell me what was significant or not, simply said my water test FAILED based on this, and gave us a "boil water" advisory. It didn't even identify what KIND of bacteria -- I don't know if they can tell or not???

It's a REALLY old house, but all of the piping, etc., is new. We replaced all plumbing and electrical (closed radiator system -- now with "glycol"

), and we do have a septic field -- which is about 50 feet behind the house. The sandpoint *IS* on the side of the house (in the basement) that is toward the septic. The guy who put in the septic told me that this is well enough away to not be an issue.

The property used to run cattle, though -- lots of cattle (I have the best garden soil I've ever seen

) forty years ago, maybe that's it? We've lived here since spring, and have been drinking the water, mostly through a Brita on tap filter -- will that take care of the problem? DH prefers the unfiltered water, but I don't like the taste of it until it's been through the filter, and insist that the kids drink it filtered, too.

**fordson major** · #11 10/10/07, 10:43 AM

who did the sample and who did the testing? if improperly done, they can both lead to false postitives. water treatment co,s around here were using flawed testing and sampling techniques to sell water teatment systems. if i read your post right the well is below grade in a basement and could possibly be exposed to surface water infiltration.

Tracy Rimmer · #12 10/10/07, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ford major

who did the sample and who did the testing? if improperly done, they can both lead to false postitives. water treatment co,s around here were using flawed testing and sampling techniques to sell water teatment systems. if i read your post right the well is below grade in a basement and could possibly be exposed to surface water infiltration.

Yes, it's in our basement, below grade. We have a 8' basement, and it's in the floor on the north side of the house. No source of contamination there, that I know of. It is, however, a very old basement, original to the house, and the contractor tells me that it doesn't have proper footings. The basement is damp (humid), but not wet. The septic field is about 50 feet north of the house. It is new this spring. To get approval we had to have it plotted out with accurate measurements on the application to the municipality. It passed, no problem, so far as I know, because the paperwork went to the plumbing contractor who did it. The contractor is a local, well-respected man, whose inlaws own the place on the NE quarter of our section.

I took the sample, as the instructions told me to, in a vial the municipality provided. The vial had some white powder in it and was sealed -- the guy at the municipal office told me that the powder was important, and not to shake it out. The vial was sealed until I broke the seal to take the sample, and immediately taken in for testing. The one inconsistency is that it was stressed to me how important it is to have the test done within 24 hours of the sample being taken, and the sample was delivered to them well within that time frame, but the date on the report shows that the test was done three days after the sample was taken. I don't know if this is just the date that the report was filled out, or the date that the sample finally was dealt with. I have no idea if this would affect the test results.

The testing was done by a place called ALS out of Winnipeg. I called them to verify the process, and the person I spoke to told me exactly how to do it --- exactly as the paperwork said.

Should I have it tested differently? We're two hours from Winnipeg, which is the closest lab I know of -- I don't know how else to get this done.

**Cabin Fever** · #13 10/10/07, 12:13 PM

Tracy, please do not get bent out of shape over the positive total coliform test result. I would venture to say that everyone at this forum would also get a positive result if they haven't disinfected their well within the last four to five years. Just follow the simple directions from this webpage to disinfect (or "shock") your well and plumbing system: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/e...sinfection.pdf

Once you've disinfected your system, have another water sample tested. If that comes back positive for total coliform, dsiinfect your system again. Take another sample for analysis. If that sample comes back positive, then there may be some groundwater contamination in your area. 90% of the time, a single water system disinfection will result in a negative coliform result.

Jim S. · #14 10/10/07, 01:13 PM

What Cabin Fever said! Your well is cleaner than most city tap water.

I understand the paranoia, though. DW is not satisified with just the cheapo bacteria test, she wants a full chemical assay (like $700-900). I told her, so what are we gonna do if it comes up bad? Connect to the county water system? And how will we know that is not bad?

Atrazine is in 98% of the nation's water suppliers, including at Yellowstone Park, so there ya go on the chemicals, anywho.

OK, rant and highjack over. But do listen to cfabe and Cabin Fever. Your water is fine.

Oh yeah...here...

http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/programs/coliform.htm