home water treatment

[RenegadeT]

I live in a small subdivision served by a community well. We were all supposed to have our own wells, but about halfway into it, they weren't finding water on a few lots, so they did this shared well deal. We pay a third party (NC Water & Utilities Associates) to manage the water services. Our water is pretty crappy, very high iron content (visibly brown, stains laundry/bathtubs), and from the smell, its obvious that they are dumping lots of chlorine in it. They have been promising that they will be installing an iron filter in the system, but after hearing that too long, I don't see that happening. A Google search shows they are paying quarterly fines for "volatile organic chemical contamination" and "failure to comply with the state regulatory requirements to provide the Consumer Confidence Report"...these google hits have been coming up for a while now, same reports, different dates.
I've already installed a whole house water filter to catch particles, but that's not cutting it. I use a 10 micron filter, and it clogs up every 3 weeks or so. I started with 2 micron, then went to 5, but the filter life was terrible. This has been consistent for about 2 years now. In the kitchen, I have an undersink dual stage carbon filter for drinking water.

We picked someone out of the yellow pages to come look at our system. Turns out, he was the one who worked with the builder in the first place, he claimed he tried to get the iron filter installed at the well pumphouse, but the builder refused. So he tested our water, it was high on the hardness scale, lots of iron, and chlorine was off the scale (the sample turned orange...yellow is very high). His recommendation was a water softener, and that would also address the iron content. To deal with the chlorine, a larger whole house filter with carbon element. Somehow this filter he described would last a long time, it had some backflushing feature in it.

Anyone want to share their water supply experiences?...any recommendations for people to contact in the Triad area?

 

[rokntoy]

Id go dump a bottle of clorox in the builders car and ask him how he liked to drink that all the time and tell him to get the wells fixed or I would call my lawyer.

 

[Yay!Gurrr]

Honestly If the plan was to drill seperate wells, I'd get a competent driller in there and drill your own well.

As far as the filtering, possibly try a few filters in series with various micro levels. Might help preserve the smaller ones and help identify what size particles your seeing most. At some point possible a reusable screen type filter might be better install ahead of the smaller ones.. I would think at 10m you could find a good SS mesh that would be easy to flush out..

 

[GubNi]

Yep, just put in your own well or get with your neighbors and all chip in a pay for it yourself.

 

[RatLabGuy]

Did they also do a pH test? W. all that otehr crap in there, low pH (acidic) would not be surprising either.
Sicne thsi is a newer house, you probbaly don't have too much copper/solder, but the problem there is that it will slowly eat the pipes and disolve any solder joints... meaning lead water :-(. I just went through this when we bought this house, water is fro ma well... it's "clean" but hard and acidic.
Point is, may need to have some kind of neutralizing in there w/ all the other stuff. Typically don't w/ a calcite mix.

Just drilling your own well might really be a better option, it will also get you out from paying the fees for teh community access. Of course, that's assuming you are one of the lucky ones ;-) and the crappy water table dosn't happen to be under your house.

 

[RenegadeT]

The builder is out of the picture. He's actually died during construction, his wife ran the company to finish our subdivision then disbanded the company. The only resentment I have towards them is them not putting up the extra cash for the iron filter in the pumphouse. Dragging the builder back into it is a moot point.

Now I'm not sure exactly why I can't drill a well, and what the original plan was before the pumphouse got built. We had a well guy come out and look. All the good areas are too close to our septic, our designated septic repair area, or our neighbors. I have about 3/4 acre of "useless" wooded property outback, its probably not feasible to get equipment out there and then pipe water up to my house. I'd love to have my own well, and separate from the community well. The builder never tried drilling in my lot; once they built the pump house, every house after it got hooked up.

The latest guy to come says the water softener will take care of the iron. I'm not sure what size iron particles are, or if they're even filterable. He said the filter I currently have installed isn't doing anything; it is catching something though, it clogs up in 3 weeks with an iron looking paste. His proposal with the softener and upgraded whole house filter sounds pretty good. the only maintenance I would have to do is add the softener salt every so often, hopefully not too often.

Teaming up with the 10-15 neighbors, then trying to get this management company to do something would be a PITA. I bet it is cheaper for me to put the treatment in my basement, instead of spearheading a movement....definitely easier.

I'm sure the chlorine in the system isn't good. I had to replace the water heater thermostat a few years ago, the house is now just under 6 years old. As far as lead in the pipes, its all PEX.

Disclaimer: when I say "we", I really mean my wife...she is the one meeting with the people coming to look at our house, while I'm at work. So I'm getting secondhand information and reposting it here.

 

[JoshRountree]

Not sure if this helps any or not, but when I need plumbing or water filter advice I go to the Terry Love forums, try either pump & well, or water softeners. Lots of good advice over there. http://www.terrylove.com/forums/forum.php

 

[RatLabGuy]

I'm sure you know this, but you have to be a little careful about the guys that are testing teh water and selling the equipment - obviously they have an interest in selling you the biggest job they can justify. I'm not saying it isn't needed of course, just be sure to get a few opinions,, and if possible from somebody (liek an inspector) that knows the ytrade but dosn't sell anything.

 

[6BangBronk]

My parents are in the same boat but the company that maintains the well has a decleration in the subdivision plans that city water shall not encroach just so they would get the business. And their filter is black every month.
You can sart out making a free call to your county health department to see if there's any restrictions and then be sure to check if there's any HOA restrictions to attend to. Even pull up your subdivision / land deeds to see if there's any declerations slipped in.
Keep in mind wells are charged by an initial setup, and then by the foot. My 240' well cost just under $3,000. I'm a firm believer in water witches. I work with one that came out and told me exactly where 2 streams crossed. Told me to keep going past the first one to catch the bigger one at the bottom. I painted an "X" and my well company hit water at 30 feet with 1 gallon per minute. After reaching like 120' they were getting 10 gallons per minute and kept going for storage. The county health department sets the well drilling standards. Every county is different. My county has the lowest standard with most people settling with 1 gallon per minute. I've heard other counties can be 2-3. And then there's an amount of storage needed.
2 filters in a row is not a good thing from what I've heard. Kinda like 2 fuel filters. You loose pressure and just twice the work replacing filters.
Another option is designate an easement between you and as many adjoining neighbors as you can get to sign up to drill your own and share but overall maintenance is a large factor. My house was tapped into the neighbor's well and we still have the line in the ground if something happens to one of ours. But I feel I'd have to get something legal before I allowed my neighbor to tap mine just in case a major drought or something and I needed to pull the plug? Seems wierd to fight over water but it's the most essential ingredient to human kind. Nothing to take for granted!
I value my water quality and only chlorinate when needed. If you don't run your water frequently, your pipes form algea that has the same mistaken smell of sulfer. I thought my well was sulfuric from the start but after a couple of shocks, I was good to go. Been 2 years since.

Hope that helps? Good luck!