Well water cleansing - Simple methods

[jeremytl]

Greetings friends.

I have posted here more than once in the past couple years regarding bacteria in my well. Since we have moved in, I have had the well tested several times. It always tests positive for "Total Bacteria" and negative for E. Coli. We have been drinking the water the whole time (3.5 years) with no problems. But now there is a baby on the way. We were told to test for Nitrate and will do so immediately.

I have learned from you guys to stop using the Brita filter b/c it breeds bacteria. I have also learned that shocking the well is just a temporary fix so I’ve never done it.

Someone in a previous post last year mentioned adding a few drops of unscented bleach to the water.

My questions are, how much bleach would I have to add to a gallon of water to kill the bacteria?

And could I add the bleach, and then run it through the brita pitcher filter?

I like to use the Brita pitcher to remove the chlorine taste and the iron in the water. Any advice is much appreciated. Many thanks,

Jeremy

[Gary Slusser]

You need to do this right and that is to treat all the water as it exits your pressure tank.

What type of equipment you use depends on what and how much of it is in the water like, hardness, iron, manganese, any H2S etc.. So you need a current test for those things, minus the H2S if there is no odor to the water, and then you can post the results and go from there.

Nitrates and nitrites should be tested also.

You could shock the well too but then if a test shows no Coliform, I would never trust it to not have bacteria contamination at least from time to time. Bacteria and nitrates an nitrites come and go increase and decrease from time to time due to precipitation.

[99k]

Get the water tested as Gary suggested, shock the well, but then I would install a UV light to treat the water so your family is protected.

[Gary Slusser]

He may not be able to use a UV light because of hardness, iron etc..

[99k]

He may not be able to use a UV light because of hardness, iron etc..

Good point ... presuming all is ok. Otherwise, you can sell him a softener

[jeremytl]

I'm not buying anything extravagant. We've been drinking the water for 3.5 years now. No belly aches, nothing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I can shock it like you mentioned but I'd really just like to know if I can add 8 drops of bleach per gallon tap water and run it through a brita pitcher for drinking water purposes. It would strictly be a precautionary measure.

[cacher_chick]

For drinking and cooking water, why not just boil it? It certainly would be better for you than drinking bleach.

[Gary Slusser]

If you are going to add drops, after 20 minutes you need .2-1.5 ppm of FREE chlorine (residual), not total chlorine, that is a different type of chlorine test.

[jeremytl]

my theory is that the drops of chlorine bleach kill and bacteria and the brita filter then removes the chlorine.

[cacher_chick]

my theory is that the drops of chlorine bleach kill and bacteria and the brita filter then removes the chlorine.

If that were true you could pour straight bleach into a Brita filter and only the water would come out.

A brita filter will not remove all of the chemicals used in making bleach, chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) is only 1 of the ingredients.

For the small amount you would be using, I think it would be wiser to buy water or boil what you need.