cilcil
New Member
Well: dug well, poor construction (close to house, cap has obvious holes in it, and downhill of a sloped driveway that quickly gets covered in muddy runoff during rains), approx 4' wide, perhaps 40' deep (dont see how to take off cap, but it has a rope that you can pull out to test depth?).
House: 2 bathrooms, just a couple people. Not a lot of insane pressure, so gpm cant be that great.
Bought house 2 mos ago. The house had a water softener, pressure tank, zero filtration. It was left with a filtration system that wasnt hooked up. Water tested positive for coliform and e coli. Started buying drinnking water.
Shocked well 1 mos ago: poured 3 gallons bleach down well. By my rough estimates, this was overkill, but it was hard to smell chlorine. Ran it to the taps, thru hot water heater. Soaked for a day, at least. Attempted to flush the well, let the house continue to be chlorinated. Waited a few days, then retest. Positive coliform, no e-coli. At this time, hooked in the whole-water system after the softener/pressure tank "Pura UV20-3" with brand new cartridges and UV lamp. http://www.purauv.com/purauv20.htm
1 week ago: Removed the carbon/10 micron filter cartridge, filled that blue canister with approx 1 gallon of bleach and ran all taps. This to disinfect the pipes and everything downstream of the UV system. Pool-testing chlorine strips went off the scale at each tap, so had to be way beyond 10 ppm, hopefully beyond 100ppm? Let house lines soak chlorinated for 1 day. Replaced filter cartridge, flushed taps until test strips said no chlorine. Waited another 2 days, retest, back to positive (high!) e-coli and coliform for all that work. This was just after some heavy rains. As they say, "WTF".
Yes, its a bad well, no way can afford a new one. But should the UV be able to work? The Pura guys say it should. Please advise to help decide next step:
1) could the UV lamp be insufficient? Yes, its on, you can see the glow. Water always seemed clear, even before filters were hooked up.
2) if UV lamp should be able to handle the contamination, what is culprit? could the lines require another shocking?
3) if UV lamp could be overloaded, whats better: chlorination injection/treatment, or another UV treatment? Recommendations?
4) testing at the lab for ecoli/coliform is getting expensive and annoying- recommend home-test kits?
Much thanks.
House: 2 bathrooms, just a couple people. Not a lot of insane pressure, so gpm cant be that great.
Bought house 2 mos ago. The house had a water softener, pressure tank, zero filtration. It was left with a filtration system that wasnt hooked up. Water tested positive for coliform and e coli. Started buying drinnking water.
Shocked well 1 mos ago: poured 3 gallons bleach down well. By my rough estimates, this was overkill, but it was hard to smell chlorine. Ran it to the taps, thru hot water heater. Soaked for a day, at least. Attempted to flush the well, let the house continue to be chlorinated. Waited a few days, then retest. Positive coliform, no e-coli. At this time, hooked in the whole-water system after the softener/pressure tank "Pura UV20-3" with brand new cartridges and UV lamp. http://www.purauv.com/purauv20.htm
1 week ago: Removed the carbon/10 micron filter cartridge, filled that blue canister with approx 1 gallon of bleach and ran all taps. This to disinfect the pipes and everything downstream of the UV system. Pool-testing chlorine strips went off the scale at each tap, so had to be way beyond 10 ppm, hopefully beyond 100ppm? Let house lines soak chlorinated for 1 day. Replaced filter cartridge, flushed taps until test strips said no chlorine. Waited another 2 days, retest, back to positive (high!) e-coli and coliform for all that work. This was just after some heavy rains. As they say, "WTF".
Yes, its a bad well, no way can afford a new one. But should the UV be able to work? The Pura guys say it should. Please advise to help decide next step:
1) could the UV lamp be insufficient? Yes, its on, you can see the glow. Water always seemed clear, even before filters were hooked up.
2) if UV lamp should be able to handle the contamination, what is culprit? could the lines require another shocking?
3) if UV lamp could be overloaded, whats better: chlorination injection/treatment, or another UV treatment? Recommendations?
4) testing at the lab for ecoli/coliform is getting expensive and annoying- recommend home-test kits?
Much thanks.