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...
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...