sulphur smell from sump hole

I have this recurring sulphur smell from my sump hole. It lasts for about a day and a half and shows up at random. The last time it started smelling was over a month ago, maybe closer to two months.

Is it possible that the ground water contains a lot of sulphur and this is causing the smell?

The only other thing I can think of is that the discharge line for my water softner drains into this sump hole. It normally runs in the middle of the night, so I ran it a few minutes ago while I was awake so that I could smell the water that comes out of the discharge line. As far as I can tell it is normal water (no smell). I smelled inside the unit that accepts the salt and it does not have that smell.

Currently, the sump hole is not covered properly and I will be building a sealed box around it. It will contain an access door so I can access the sump pump if needed, but for the most part it will be 'air tight' (well, as best as I can). This should stop the smell from occupying my entire house for a day at a time, but I would like to know what could be causing it.

I have a septic system that was recently drained and the smell is definately sulphur and not septic odours.

If anyone has experienced this in the past or knows someone who has, I would appreciate any feedback.

Just as a point of reference, I read this http://www.wellowner.org/awaterquality/hydrogensulfide.shtml

and this is where I got the idea that there might be hydrogen sulfide in my ground water that is causing this problem.

Do you have a battery back-up sump pump system installed as well?

No, I don't have a battery backup

To Answer your question, no, I don't have a battery backup pump. I have a regular sump pump which I will be replacing with a submersible pump once I build a box to seal the sump hole.

As well, I have a natural drain for my sump hole. There is always water in the sump hole and it uses gravity to flow out to my ditch via a 4" drain/big O (There has to be at least 3-4 inches of water in the sump pit before it will drain out the natural drain as it is not flush with the bottom of the pit; therefore, water has the potential to sit in the bottom of the pit if there is no new water introduced to the pit. I actually thought it was this stagnent water that was smelling, but I have never smelled stagnent water that smell like sulphur)

This runs about 95 feet from the house to the ditch. Because of this natural drain, the sump pump is rarely used. In fact, in the two years that I have owned the house, I have only heard the pump come on once and it only lasted for one cycle.

I am not sure what a sump pump or even a battery back up sump pump would have to do with my original issue of having a sulphur smell coming from my sump pit, but I would be interested in hearing what you have to say if it does.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks,

If you had a battery back up pump system and the battery is over charging, the battery will produce a sulphur smell when ever it starts to over charge!

That is why the question was asked!

Sulphur Smell continued

Hey Zoellerpump, thanks for the update. Now that you have elaborated on your initial question about the battery operated sump pump, it now makes sense. I WISH that was my problem as it would be easy to resolve.

After doing more research about the problem, I think the odour may be coming from "Soil Gases". I have found numorous articles on various US and Canadian government websites about the need to seal and control 'soil gases'. These are naturally occuring gases and they sometimes enter a residence through open sump pits and/or dirt floors.

This bit of research is sort of reassuring, because now I am getting to the bottom of the problem and hopefully well on the way to finding a resolution; however, I am not 100% sure IF this is actually the problem or not.

I have called our local health unit to get some advice about obtaining indoor air quality samples as I am concernced about what is in the air when we can't smell it.

I will be sealing this sump hole off and possibly installing a vent to the outdoors as well to let any of the potential 'soil gases' escape. This should solve our problems.

All this being said, I would still appreciate any other feedback that anyone else has as it should assist me in solving this smelly / potentially unhealthly problem.


Thanks,