Our water supply is now via a borehole. The supply is great BUT the water reeks of sulphur. I've never got through so much bath oil! Does anyone know of a way to cure/disguise it? The water has been tested and is fine otherwise.
We also have a spring supply but the outgoing people didn't know how to reconnect it, despite it being still directly connected to the ouside loo etc. Apparently it can be used on an either/or basis but not simultaneously for the main house. We have been under the house finding stopcocks etc but haven't located the diverter yet. It's a maze and only suitable for very thin midgets so a bit hard to handle. The spring supply problem will therefore be left on hold for the time being!
Rotten eggs
-
Graye
- A selfsufficientish Regular
- Posts: 800
- Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:07 pm
- Location: Whitby, North Yorkshire
Rotten eggs
Growing old is much better then the alternative!
Re: Rotten eggs
We have exactly the same system as you, except I know where all the diverters/stopcocks are. 
We use the spring water all the time, except when we have a long dry spell and it peters out, because the borehole water is very minerally tasting and the spring water is pure and soft.
Although I do use the borehole supply all the time to water the tunnels and greenhouses to keep it from becoming stagnant.
I would fill a bucket of you well water, leave outside for an hour and then go and sniff it. Sulphur is usually released as a gas as soon as the water makes contact with the air, so your bucket might not smell any more. If that's the case you can cure it by pumping the water to a holding tank that you then draw off your supply from (after the sulphur has vented to the atmosphere).
If it were me though I would go all out to track down that spring supply.
We use the spring water all the time, except when we have a long dry spell and it peters out, because the borehole water is very minerally tasting and the spring water is pure and soft.
Although I do use the borehole supply all the time to water the tunnels and greenhouses to keep it from becoming stagnant.
I would fill a bucket of you well water, leave outside for an hour and then go and sniff it. Sulphur is usually released as a gas as soon as the water makes contact with the air, so your bucket might not smell any more. If that's the case you can cure it by pumping the water to a holding tank that you then draw off your supply from (after the sulphur has vented to the atmosphere).
If it were me though I would go all out to track down that spring supply.
Tony
Disclaimer: I almost certainly haven't a clue what I'm talking about.
Disclaimer: I almost certainly haven't a clue what I'm talking about.
-
Graye
- A selfsufficientish Regular
- Posts: 800
- Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:07 pm
- Location: Whitby, North Yorkshire
Re: Rotten eggs
Thank you for that info. We had noticed that the showers don't smell and that the shower water supply comes from a storage tank in the loft. Perhaps we'll see if the plumber can direct everything via that tank before it arrives at its destination. Even if it was just the bath and handbasins it would help! The kitchen is filtered, which seems to help too.
We have a (small) plumber coming to see what he can spot under the house, but it's a maze with lots of low rooms and tunnels under there (house built into a hill). About the best I can come up with is that the spring storage tank is in a neighbouring farmer's field. As for pipework, routes, etc - we are currently totally at a complete loss! The outside loo water supply (spring) seems to be switched off and the last people can't even remember how they managed to do that. They also turned off the supply to one shower and don't remember where they found a tap for that either. I know it's been empty for a year but even still...
We have a (small) plumber coming to see what he can spot under the house, but it's a maze with lots of low rooms and tunnels under there (house built into a hill). About the best I can come up with is that the spring storage tank is in a neighbouring farmer's field. As for pipework, routes, etc - we are currently totally at a complete loss! The outside loo water supply (spring) seems to be switched off and the last people can't even remember how they managed to do that. They also turned off the supply to one shower and don't remember where they found a tap for that either. I know it's been empty for a year but even still...
Growing old is much better then the alternative!
-
Stonehead
- A selfsufficientish Regular
- Posts: 2432
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:31 pm
- Location: Scotland
- Contact:
Re: Rotten eggs
We have the same problem. In our case, it's because we have very acidic water that's high in iron and sulphur thanks to our local mineralogy. The only real cure is a decent filtration system but a short-term fix when it's really, really bad is to drop a chlorine tab down the borehole or in the header tank. (Obviously the dosing has to be correct and the bore/tank may need thorough scrubbing first.) By really bad, I mean when the smell is so bad it makes you want to puke! It's only happened to us once in seven years and I was a bit reluctant to go down the chlorine route, as suggested by our water engineer, but it did work and the problem hasn't been that bad since.
As well as the stench, our water causes two other problems. The first is that it corrodes our copping piping, leaving blue stains on everything and leading to regular failure of the joints. The other is the dreaded "brown slime"—sulphur bacteria create slime and the iron present in our water tints the slime brown. Yuk.
There's plenty of info on the web about this. Google along the lines of using combinations of "sulphur water borehole well iron rotten egg gas". The chlorination treatment is "shock chlorination"—it's a one-off and not a long-term treatment as happens with town water supplies.
In Scotland, it's possible to get a non-means tested grant of up to £800 towards a filtration system on a private water supply. Councils administer the scheme and will send someone out to test your water. If it's not up to scratch, you get a quote from a reputable water engineer and pass it to the council for approval, and then get the work done. However, if your water is particularly dodgy and needs a really comprehensive filtration system then, even with the grant, it can be expensive.
As well as the stench, our water causes two other problems. The first is that it corrodes our copping piping, leaving blue stains on everything and leading to regular failure of the joints. The other is the dreaded "brown slime"—sulphur bacteria create slime and the iron present in our water tints the slime brown. Yuk.
There's plenty of info on the web about this. Google along the lines of using combinations of "sulphur water borehole well iron rotten egg gas". The chlorination treatment is "shock chlorination"—it's a one-off and not a long-term treatment as happens with town water supplies.
In Scotland, it's possible to get a non-means tested grant of up to £800 towards a filtration system on a private water supply. Councils administer the scheme and will send someone out to test your water. If it's not up to scratch, you get a quote from a reputable water engineer and pass it to the council for approval, and then get the work done. However, if your water is particularly dodgy and needs a really comprehensive filtration system then, even with the grant, it can be expensive.
