Re-Opened an Old Well > Water Test = High Lead!

bbkaren

bbkaren

Veteran Member
At our TN place, the previous owners had city water hooked up 5-7 years ago, and closed off the old well.

Of course, being preppers, we wanted that resource so we installed a Bison pump on the old well and had the water tested. The water we used to test was, I'm sure, sitting in the pipes for years; it was 100 degrees out and we tried to pump out a bunch of water to get to the fresh stuff but man, it's hard work!

The test came back with fairly high levels of Lead (19 micrograms/liter - the action level is 15).

There are other issues but lead's the big one for us (turbidity was high, manganese was high, pH was low, and coliform was present).

My question, for those who know about such things, is...could this high level of lead, etc. simply be present because the water's been sitting there unused all this time?

I spoke to the folks at the wellcare hotline and they seem to think so - they suggested we flush out the well and get fresh water in there and retest it. They said that, even if there continues to be a problem (presumably with the casing), we could simply install a pvc sleeve and eliminate contact with the casing.

This was encouraging news since I was really upset to get these test results...

Do any of you folks know about such things? And if this is the case, what would you suggest we use to flush the well out (i.e. what kind of pump? I hope we don't have to use the manual one! lol)

Thanks for any insight...
 
naturallysweet

naturallysweet

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Even if the lead level stayed high, it could still be good water to use. Just run it through a filter first.
 
Kathy in FL

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________
Are we talking a piped well? Could be lead leaching out of the pipes and because it has sat there for so long simply compounded significantly. Coliforms can be killed by bleaching out everything. You take the cap off and pour bleach directly down the pipe sunk into the ground ... all of the technical terms completely escape me at the moment. You let it sit for a prescribed amount of time and then flush it out.

Most everything can be fixed by running the water through a sanitizer and filter system. We use peroxid and salt at our primary. We have to by law have a sanitizing system at any of the properties that we manage that are on a well and most of the sanitizers are chlorinators as opposed to peroxide ... we went with peroxide here at the house due to the high amounts of sulphur in the water. It is also less destructive to you plumbing.
 
bbkaren

bbkaren

Veteran Member
Thanks, NS - we were hoping to have it as a prep, though ... i.e. to water the garden, etc. I doubt it's safe to water our food crops with high lead levels, and running it through a manual filter would really be a chore.

But yeah, as far as drinking goes, that's no big deal - we use a Brita for the city water anyway for drinking since it's so terrible tasting.

Just praying that a flush and retest produces a vast improvement! [crosses fingers]

...and Kathy, thank you too!
 
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Sebastian

Sebastian

Sebastian
Fist google super fund sites in TN - um your not near Oak Ridge are you?

The lead may be from pipes or weights left in the well - seen a well once where we fished an old steel tape out with a huge lead weight attached. So you can get some hooks a heavy test mono-filament fishing line and try jigging the well. Worth a try and use stainless steel nuts for weights.

Flushing called "developing a well" is always called for when opening an old well or a new one. Pump it dry if you can - calculate the volume in the well and get at least three volumes out of it ten is better.

You also need to look at industrial solvents and rad would be nice.

What was the pH?
 
bbkaren

bbkaren

Veteran Member
Thanks, Seb - the pH is 5.6

We haven't had the opportunity to pump it out yet - other stuff has taken priority (like finishing up the house).

Trying to think of what sort of pump to use to do this; the rental place says they don't have a pump that can pump out an 80' deep well...any ideas?

We're about an hour from Oak Ridge. My main concern and reason for testing the water is the big ash spill that took place in the lake/river near here a couple years ago. Even though we're at the crest of a ridge, I was worried about that stuff getting into the ground water but mercury, arsenic, etc. levels are fine.

Thanks again!
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
Is this a drilled deep well you have to lower a submergible pump down into it? I have seen a few sand points that came up with a high lead count and just needed to be pumped out some. You can dump some beach down in it like a gallon of it mix into five gallon bucket of water before pumping some of the water out of.

Now I have to inform you and anyone reading this, how they are measuring the contaminants!!! A Microgram "One Millionth" of a Gram. The next question is how much water are they using when they test? A test tube, A cup, A pint, quart? And likely a small test tube (1 Oz.) and they come up with 19 millionths of a gram of lead per-part water. 16 Oz. to a pint= 304 Millionths of a gram per-pint, you still a long way to go before you get to a full gram.
 
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bbkaren

bbkaren

Veteran Member
They did it per liter: 19 mcg/liter. I don't know if a sump pump would fit down there - it's a 6" pipe I believe. Unless I don't understand sump pumps and maybe the pump itself doesn't have to go in?
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
You can go Lows or home depot and ask about deep well pumps and you say it's an 80 foot well, so a 1/3 to 1/2 Hp pump should do it and you're looking at $350 or more just for the pump, you may need 1 1/2" poly pipe, fittings, hose clamps, wire, rope, I really don't know what you have already on site. These pumps run on 240 volt 20 Amp breaker and the box it comes in will say it's a 230 volt but not to worry it will work just fine on 240 V, the 1/2 Hp at 80 feet will give you a solid 10 gallon per-min.

Over the X-mass holiday we had to replace our well pump and its down 250 feet and boy what a pain in the butt pulling it and we went with a 3/4 Hp this time, had a 1/2 Hp it got the job done but the 3/4 Hp made a big noticeable difference, much faster filling the tank.
 
bbkaren

bbkaren

Veteran Member
Just out of curiosity, would an actual electric well pump from a different well work? We might have access to one...
 
Pebbles

Pebbles

Veteran Member
Our well is at 210 feet and our submersible pump went out. We got lots of clay silt in the lines. It took at least a week for the well and 1500 gallon holding tank to pump clear water again. That was for 4 horses, chickens, dogs, cats and garden during July in Arizona. It takes a while to get the standing water pumped out, a lot longer than your would think.
 
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