# Bleach in Well Water



## Murrel-Maher

I have heard that you can add a few drops of bleach to your well water to kill bacteria. Is this true? Would you recommend it?


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## Jack

Simple answer DONT!!!!!

yes it will kill bacteria but you need some bacteria to allow the well to stary fresh killing all bacteria will make the water deplete of oxygen fast.

then it become anoxic and then you have real problems.

1/2 a cup of hydrated lime will kill 95% of the bad stuff but the good stuff will eat this and benifit you if you live in a area of limestone this is the best water.

if you can get a big chunk of limestone hollow out a section and let the water fillter through this its slow and needs filling every so often but this will remove all bad stuff and drip a constant supply of clean poure water regardless of what goes in 

but chemicals are a no no

they go through too 

chlorine is another no no its ok for government to say its ok like flouride but they have a veru complex process that is hard to recreate on a small scale and they add it in gaseous form which is very diufferent to pool chlorine

stay natural where you can and stay healthy and safe

cheers

jack


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## ke4sky

*Chlorine v. Iodine for Chemical Sterilization of Water*

*This information comes from Virginia Cooperative Extension*

It is becoming increasingly accepted by the scientific community that chlorine dioxide technologies are more effective than iodine and chlorine for reducing the pathogenicity of dirty (soil-laden) waters containing bacteria, and waters containing cysts. Part of the reason is that chlorine dioxide is more effective than iodine at penetrating microbial biofilms attached to soil particles that can harbor large quantities of pathogenic microorganisms.

*Water purification using common household chemicals*

The most common chemical water purification in the home is done with either chlorine bleach or iodine. If used properly, the water will not be toxic after the use of these chemicals, but may have an odor or taste.

*A. Household chemicals used *

*1. Chlorine Bleach.* There are many different types of bleach on the market. Read the label to be sure that sodium hypochlorite is the only active ingredient. Do not use bleach solutions that contain detergents or other chemical components (e.g., scented bleach). If the container has a label warning "not for personal use" it should not be used. Fresh, unopened, liquid laundry bleach contains 5.25% sodium hypochlorite. However, a bottle of bleach which has been open for an extended period of time may lose some of its strength, especially if the container is only partially full.

*2. Iodine.* Iodine tablets and liquid iodine (Tincture of Iodine) can also be used to purify water. Again, read the label for recommended procedures. Tincture of Iodine usually contains 2.0% U.S.P. iodine. However, there is some variation in this product. In general, iodine has the disadvantage (compared to chlorine) in that it is not as effective over a wide range of pathogens and it imparts taste and a brown tint to the water. Thus, it should be used only when chlorine is not available.

*B. Purification Procedure *

*1. Add the recommended level of the chemical *(Table 1) using a clean, uncontaminated medicine dropper or suitable utensil.The following conversions may be helpful in determining the correct amount:

8 drops = 1/8 teaspoon 
16 drops = 1/4 teaspoon 
32 drops = 1/2 teaspoon 
64 drops = 1 teaspoon 
192 drops = 1 tablespoon 
384 drops = 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup)

*3. Stir the chemical thoroughly into the water. *
If the water does not have a faint chemical smell after the 30 minute waiting period, add another dose and let it sit for an additional 15 minutes.

*4. Allow the water to stand for 30 minutes. *
If the water is cloudy, repeat the procedure.

*5. Dispense into a clean, sanitized, and tightly capped container*, which has been appropriately labeled to indicate its contents.

Table 1. Recommended concentrations of chlorine bleach or iodine products for water purification.

*Volume of Water to Be Purified_______Recommended Amount of Chemical*

____________Chlorine*(bleach)___Iodine# Tablets____Tincture of Iodine##

1 quart (1 liter)____4 drops__________2 tablets_________½ drop

½ gallon (2 liter)___8 (1/8 teaspoon)__4 tablets_________1 drop

1 gallon (4 liter)___16drops(¼ teasp)__8 tablets_________2 drops

*Fresh, unscented laundry bleach containing 5.25% hypochlorite. If the bleach has been opened for a period of time or is less concentrated, increase the amount added. If the water is cloudy in appearance repeat the procedure.

#Dry iodine tablets.

##Liquid iodine solution. Label concentration of 2.0% iodine. If a tincture of iodine is used with a different stated iodine concentration, the usage level may be calculated as follows: Drops/gal = 80 divided by the % iodine in the concentrated solution.


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## JeepHammer

_This is simply a reprint of what I wrote on the other well water treatment threads..._

Treating water in the well is like pouring water in the ocean.

The water flows into, AND OUT OF wells all the time...
A well is nothing more than a deep spot on an underground stream, and if you pour the bleach in the well, it will be migrated out almost immediately and replaced with 'Raw' water.

It's much easier and more convent (not to mention using a bunch less 'Bleach' or whatever!) to have a large reserve tank, and when the tank is refilled from the well, add the bleach.
Since you know exactly were the pump comes on and when the pump goes off, you know how much water (within a few gallons) has been replaced in the tank, and most places with a 'Bad Well' have automatic cycling treatment tanks anyway...

When the tank gets full, it looks like a toilet tank float that administers a metered amount of disinfectant into the water... every time the tank is refilled...
-------------------

Regular chlorine bleach will work in well water, but since the volume in the well usually isn't known, it's usually better to treat the water in a container of known size so the dosages are correct.

When we had a well, I used plain old 'Clorox' bleach.
None of the 'Smell Good' or 'Color' they like to put in things now.
Later we used the water treatment chemical power like they use in swimming pools and water treatment plants.
Cheaper and didn't take as much work to get the smell out.

To take the chlorine smell/taste out, simply aerate the water.
Chlorine is volatile and will evaporate/evacuate the water simply pouring it back and forth from one container to another.

There are several chemical filters on the market that will take chlorine out of water also, they are cheap, easy to install in a pressurized water system, and they are nearly 100% effective.


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## rockwellmj

I drill wells for a living and we are reqired by the state to shock a new well with chlorine. As for your well you can do the same depending on what type of well it is. what is the reason for chlorinating your well? Have you had the water tested and it is positive for bacteria? If you are only doing to get rid of the smell you can do this with a carbon filter. Or you can install a chlorinator that will inject a little chlorine only when the pump is on and then it will have time in the water setting in the tank, then you can install the carbon filter to remove the chlorine from the water. Any questions please feel free to ask.


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## StillStanding

Yes you can and should chlorinate wells when they have a bacteria problem.

Due to the "pouring water in the ocean" problem described upthread you have to use concentrated chlorine, a lot of it.

I recently shock chlorinated my well using 4 gallons of pool-grade liquid bleach that has five times the chlorine concentration of laundry bleach. 20 gallons of bleach from the grocery store would have been more expensive and unwieldy.

There are also powered products available from pool places and industrial supply places that get the job done if used properly.

Dangerous stuff to work with unless you know what you're doing though.


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## Herbalpagan

we used to go out once a year and scrub down our well tiles and put bleach in the well. It was a fast moving shallow well, and we didn't have much of a problem.


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## BurtB

It does not sound good to me to use pool cleaning chemicals in your well but I am no expert.

Scrubbing down the tiles every once in a while sounds like a good idea but also like tons of work. Eh : /


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## rediranch

We have been told by our county and other land owners, that if your property sits for a while, dump a gallon of bleach into your well, run water in each faucet in the house until you smell bleach from it, and then run the bleach out of the well via hose to avoid your septic.

This is to kill bacteria not in the well, but in the pipes.

Some land owners do this yearly to avoid bacteria growing in the pipes.


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## northernontario

Bleach is often used to 'shock' a well. Especially, if as Rediranch points out, the well isn't used much. My wife and I are buying a house that the current owner was using as a storage place, and where he did his honey extraction (he was a beekeeper). So the well was rarely used. 

Well is approx. 125ft deep, 6" diameter.

Initial water test came back with 10 total coliform... limit is 5. We shocked the well. At the same time, the pump and control box started to fail, so the current owner replaced it. Next test came back at 88 total coliform! The lady on the phone was in a panic when she called! The simple act of pulling the pipe/pump, replacing the pump, and putting it back in.... dragging the hose all over the lawn... had generated that much bacteria growth. 

Shocked it again.... Zero coliform.

I'm doing another test soon. 

And to put it into perspective... 5 total coliform... is roughly the equivalent of:

Take an olympic size swimming pool. Now take all the chlorine out so it's just fresh water. Now have someone gently wipe their butt with some toilet paper (we're talking a basically clean wipe... not a smear  )... now drop that piece into the pool. That's 5 total coliform.


If you have soluable iron in your water (comes out clear, but your toilets/shower/sink/washing machine end up stained), the bleach will react with the soluable iron, causing it to oxidize, and turn your water rusty for a period of time.


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## LittleFire

I have used bleach for my well to kill bacteria which was recommended by the Health Unit where I bring my water to be tested at least once a month. Especially during the spring where the snow melts and we have lots of rain, it is safer to do this than to get sick. Once I put bleach in, I run all my faucets to clean it up. Works wonders!


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## rediranch

The post I put out there was prior to us purchasing our current house, which had sat for about 5 months with no usage.

We poured 1 ga of bleach in the well, then ran it though the pipes until we smelled the bleach.

The problem we ran into was that we couldnt get the bleach out! For more than a month we had to deal with bleach smell and taste, and running a hose for hours still didnt work.

We did not get rid of it all until I got fed up and ran every hose connection, even the one off the water heater, and the faucet in our barn - for hours.

I'm not saying it was a mistake to do - just telling you that you may have to pump a LOT of water, all at the same time, to get rid of it.


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## Grizz

once a year I used to dump 1 gallon of regular bleach down our well and let it set over night. we would not use any water. then the next day I would turn on all the faucet until i smelled bleach and we would let it sit like this for another day. Then the next day i would open all the faucets until the smell went away and we would be set for another year. This cleaned the entire system. Worked for us.


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## ZoomZoom

Grizz said:


> once a year I used to dump 1 gallon of regular bleach down our well and let it set over night. we would not use any water. then the next day I would turn on all the faucet until i smelled bleach and we would let it sit like this for another day. Then the next day i would open all the faucets until the smell went away and we would be set for another year. This cleaned the entire system. Worked for us.


My approach is similar. I dump the bleach and run it to the faucets, then stop.
Next day, do a load of white laundry so the bleach water gets used instead of directly dumping it.


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## bunkerbob

I bleach my 5000gal water storage tanks once a year, one gallon standard bleach in each, then run all faucets, including my gravity system to the garden and trees. Because I do not have any above ground PVC pipe in the system, there is a very small chance of algae growth, none the less can't be to careful.
Make sure you open all hot water faucets as well.
Only once did I have to treat the well with bleach, it began to smell like rotten eggs, sulfur dioxide, one treatment of pool shock down the well did the trick, no recurrence of problem since.


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## ZoomZoom

bunkerbob said:


> Make sure you open all hot water faucets as well.


It takes a flush of the HW tank if you do that. Just running clean water through it takes forever since it just mixes with the bleach solution in the tank.


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## bunkerbob

bczoom said:


> It takes a flush of the HW tank if you do that. Just running clean water through it takes forever since it just mixes with the bleach solution in the tank.


 Adding one gallon of bleach to 5000gal of water isn't that strong, smell gone in a few days even in the hot water. By the way I have a tank-less water heater and only a small 30gal elect that is heated from the unused power from my solar/wind system. Once the batteries are at full charge it 'dumps' any excess power through the heating element in that water heater, thus preheating the water prior to the tank-less one.


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## ZoomZoom

I said that as it relates to a traditional system (shock the well).
I can see where that problem isn't an issue in your setup.


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## dantaddei

Jack said:


> Simple answer DONT!!!!!
> 
> yes it will kill bacteria but you need some bacteria to allow the well to stary fresh killing all bacteria will make the water deplete of oxygen fast.
> 
> then it become anoxic and then you have real problems.
> 
> 1/2 a cup of hydrated lime will kill 95% of the bad stuff but the good stuff will eat this and benifit you if you live in a area of limestone this is the best water.
> 
> if you can get a big chunk of limestone hollow out a section and let the water fillter through this its slow and needs filling every so often but this will remove all bad stuff and drip a constant supply of clean poure water regardless of what goes in
> 
> but chemicals are a no no
> 
> they go through too
> 
> chlorine is another no no its ok for government to say its ok like flouride but they have a veru complex process that is hard to recreate on a small scale and they add it in gaseous form which is very diufferent to pool chlorine
> 
> stay natural where you can and stay healthy and safe
> 
> cheers
> 
> jack


Respectfully, I've been adding bleach to my water for over 20 years. It IS what you do to avoid getting sick. It work and is safe. If you add to much its a bad thing but a little kills the bad stuff and prevents many illnesses.

What you need to know is there is a formula for how much to add. I believe most bleach bottles have it printed right on the bottle.

To make the water taste good again, all you need to do is run your drinking water through a $4 charcol water filter. On my sailboat, in the tropics, a filter lasts 3 months in the winter and one in the summer. It dies from slime. On my ship (I'm a captain) we treat our tanks with chlorine tablets, use thousands of gallons a week and change the same type of $4 charcole/carbon filters once a week.

Chorine bleach IS the way to clean up questionable water. I've taken on dock water from every county in central and coastal south America as well as many Asian ports without a single instance of disintary or any other water born illness. 
And- Flouride is what you use to make nerve gas. Chlorine just kills germs.

If you respond and don't hear back from me it's because I'm only in port for a few hours- not because I'm being rude.


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## froggymountain

Hydrogen Peroxide


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## Davarm

froggymountain said:


> Hydrogen Peroxide


Please expand a little on the h2o2, I can see that that could cause some problems if you are not careful. I started using %35 food grade in water(about 8-10 drops), drinking it each morning. If you are not very careful with it you could wind up in deep doo-doo.

I have used bleach in my well in the past, dont have one now but it will kill microbes and make a questionable well safe to drink from, the chlorine will also settle the iron out in wells that have water high in iron.

I think that in the U.S. their are EPA issues with pouring anything into the water table now, so be careful and don't advertise it.


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## redfoxwillow4165

we have an Artesian well on this property,it pumps an unbelieviable amout of water!! i understand that they r naturally filterd by sand stone ect. and theres alot of limestone around here,i feel it would be very usefull but i am concerned about how clean it is anyway, i understand havinga well tested is expensive and money is VERY tight. any suggestions?


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## backlash

redfoxwillow4165 said:


> we have an Artesian well on this property,it pumps an unbelieviable amout of water!! i understand that they r naturally filterd by sand stone ect. and theres alot of limestone around here,i feel it would be very usefull but i am concerned about how clean it is anyway, i understand havinga well tested is expensive and money is VERY tight. any suggestions?


Our department of health did free water testing at one time.
Might call your local DOH.
I paid to have my well water tested.
Cost $40.
They found chloroform bacteria and I treated it with bleach.
If your artisan well is contaminated I'm not sure you could treat it.
If you have been drinking it without problems then I would keep on drinking it,


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## truthmonger

i'M A BIT CONFUSED,,, the well holds at least 500 gal. of water... and to "run out" the water... does that mean empty the well?? also what about the "lime" is that like lime juice or lime rock? and where do ya get that ? do ya grind it up into a powder? I like goiing natural.... 
I have been running the water through a garden hose to the house for several minutes before filling up drinking water jugs which I them run through a "brita" before drinking and usually only for tea which is run through a "mr coffee"... no problems in two years, that that atht that I I i wo would kno know of :-} Never shocked it or anything just started using it even after several years of non use.. the level goes up and down with the seasons.... thanks for any help. BTW please reply to [email protected] thanks as I only came here by search engine on question..


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## Well_Driller

redfoxwillow4165 said:


> we have an Artesian well on this property,it pumps an unbelieviable amout of water!! i understand that they r naturally filterd by sand stone ect. and theres alot of limestone around here,i feel it would be very usefull but i am concerned about how clean it is anyway, i understand havinga well tested is expensive and money is VERY tight. any suggestions?


Every well is naturally filtered by the layers of the ground. Doesn't matter if it's artesian or you have to pump the water up. As far as the testing goes, depends on where you're at and what type of test you have done. Our health department only requires a basic bacteria test. It tests for Total coliform and e. coli. That test in our local lab only costs $20. Now, you can chlorinate an artesian well. It has to be capped and then injected into the well. Usually those bacteria get into the well during drilling or any work being done and can show up if the well has not been disinfected after the work is complete. Interesting enough EPA does not approve bleach for disinfecting wells, yet our health department allows it. Anyway we're now required to disinfect wells that we work on after we're done with it, but i've always done this because sometimes the new wells would sit for months before they would be used. Bleach isn't all that strong anyway. I use chlorine pellets that are approved for use with drinking water for shock treatment and those are much more concentrated then bleach anyway. Some wells will take more then others. I've went in and cleaned old wells that hadn't been used in 20 years and the water would be nasty and stagnant like you wouldn't believe, but once cleaned up and used they are fine. Other wells the water does move, you may not be able to hear it but it's moving. They can be a bit more difficult to do a shock treatment on sometimes.


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## uppakut

*Colaform present in water*

Recently after sending my water to the lab, the results stated Colaform was present in the water. My well is 500ft deep. I am not sure on how much water it bold. I started the initial treatment process by adding 2 chlorine pucks(crushed). I was not able to smell the chlorine as I ran the faucet. I added 2more pucks and 2 gallons of bleach. Still I couldn't smell the chlorine in the water. Finally I used my pool water test kit. I definitely have way too much chlorine in the water. I have run the water for a week approximately an hour per day. I still have the chlorine in my system. Every now and then my water is rusty in appearance. I have a CSI water softener system. I have not put the system online yet. Would be a good idea to get the system online to filter what chlorine may be left in the well water.


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## Meerkat

rockwellmj said:


> I drill wells for a living and we are reqired by the state to shock a new well with chlorine. As for your well you can do the same depending on what type of well it is. what is the reason for chlorinating your well? Have you had the water tested and it is positive for bacteria? If you are only doing to get rid of the smell you can do this with a carbon filter. Or you can install a chlorinator that will inject a little chlorine only when the pump is on and then it will have time in the water setting in the tank, then you can install the carbon filter to remove the chlorine from the water. Any questions please feel free to ask.


We always poured bleach in our wells in Stone Mt.Ga..Don't know what kind of aquifer it came from,but I never heard it hurt anyone.I use to dislike that well,now I wish I had one just like it.I may have one but not sure it works.Also ours then was dirt walls.These insane do gooders tied to chemicle co.s lie,imo.


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## Meerkat

Well_Driller said:


> Every well is naturally filtered by the layers of the ground. Doesn't matter if it's artesian or you have to pump the water up. As far as the testing goes, depends on where you're at and what type of test you have done. Our health department only requires a basic bacteria test. It tests for Total coliform and e. coli. That test in our local lab only costs $20. Now, you can chlorinate an artesian well. It has to be capped and then injected into the well. Usually those bacteria get into the well during drilling or any work being done and can show up if the well has not been disinfected after the work is complete. Interesting enough EPA does not approve bleach for disinfecting wells, yet our health department allows it. Anyway we're now required to disinfect wells that we work on after we're done with it, but i've always done this because sometimes the new wells would sit for months before they would be used. Bleach isn't all that strong anyway. I use chlorine pellets that are approved for use with drinking water for shock treatment and those are much more concentrated then bleach anyway. Some wells will take more then others. I've went in and cleaned old wells that hadn't been used in 20 years and the water would be nasty and stagnant like you wouldn't believe, but once cleaned up and used they are fine. Other wells the water does move, you may not be able to hear it but it's moving. They can be a bit more difficult to do a shock treatment on sometimes.


 I agree.Bleach like most everything else is not what it use to be.Tablets are better,but i:wave:ts all still clorine.


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## Meerkat

backlash said:


> Our department of health did free water testing at one time.
> Might call your local DOH.
> I paid to have my well water tested.
> Cost $40.
> They found chloroform bacteria and I treated it with bleach.
> If your artisan well is contaminated I'm not sure you could treat it.
> If you have been drinking it without problems then I would keep on drinking it,


 Our aquifer is spring fed.Don't know how long before the gulf starts floing in thanks to Coke and Nestles we already lost several springs that had been here since time .So whatever we are drinking now is what will be in the other well we want to use.We have local divers who swim under us all the time.I'll se if I can find the video.


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## cas4green

I have lived on my property since Oct. 2000 and have never treated my well. With a sandy bottom that sits 600ft down and the 3HP pump that is at 560-580ft our water taste better then most bottle waters. The only thing I have added is a sediment filter as we have a lot of red clay(duh Ga.) and the sparkly stuff that you see in the lake water....a mile away!

I guess having a 3yr old now I should at least check the water for any bad stuff!


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## readytogo

Chemical treatment of water should be used only in stored water only, not the water source.


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## farright

i put a gallon of bleach in my well once a year when the level is high in spring never had a problem the few times it was tested all was good.


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## Tirediron

when you chlorine shock a well the normal procedure is to circulate the water back down the well casing for 15 minutes and let is sit for 2 hours, pump it out until the chlorine smell/ taste is gone. let it rest 2 hours pump it out again, then let it back into your system, heating over clorinated water can cause some nasty gasses.


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## Huntmaster

Putting bleach in a well seems pretty stupid and a waste of time if you ask me...water in, water out... Only stored water imo...


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## cowboyhermit

Huntmaster said:


> Putting bleach in a well seems pretty stupid and a waste of time if you ask me...water in, water out... Only stored water imo...


I understand you are only putting forth your opinion but I wonder if people saying it's a bad idea have ever had to deal with a problematic well and if so what they believe to be a better way of dealing with the problem.

If bad bacteria get established in a well, shock treatment is the standard way of fixing the problem. The only other real option that I have found is pumping it extensively for long periods of time, this will work in some cases but not others.


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## HomegrownGal

Murrel-Maher said:


> I have heard that you can add a few drops of bleach to your well water to kill bacteria. Is this true? Would you recommend it?


My water tested positive for E. coli bacteria when going through the process to purchase my homestead. It was bank owned and sitting vacant for several seasons. We "shocked" the well with only one gallon of bleach, but it was not enough to disinfect it. How much bleach you use depends on the depth of the well. I ended up repeating the process with 12 gallons!! That did the trick! It disinfected the well and all plumbing. I have a whole house filter for minerals and installed a reverse osmosis system for drinking water. Here are a few links that were helpful:

http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/ehdw/pdf/disinfectwell.pdf

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nse/water/docs/wellwaterbookletEnglish.pdf


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## hiwall

I believe all new drilled wells are shocked by the driller before use by the home owner. Some wells require a chlorine feeder be installed that is used from then on. Water varies greatly even in relatively small areas. There are many, many different things that can be naturally found in well water(many of which can be bad and very hard to overcome). If you ever buy a rural home and it has good water, you are lucky indeed.


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## RayinTexas

I had a positive for bacteria on a recent test of our water. We had to shock the well 30 years ago when we built our house for the same reason. People have been drinking from this well for many years before we bought this land with no ill effects. We do have the bacteria that cause the reddish iron color but using the iron-out pellets in a water softener seems to alleviate that

I've added an inline chlorinator between the pump and the storage tank and am hoping this can solve the problem. If I measure the chlorine as it goes into the storage tank I can get it at the right range. Problem is the chlorine never makes it to the house and I get a zero reading there. So, I'm pretty sure I need to shock the system first and then take another sample to get checked.

People have lived here since the late 1800s, but I don't know when they drilled the well, but it is old. I would guess 50 years minimum. I have replaced the pump and all the steel pipe.

I have a couple questions i think this group can answer.

Should I shock the storage tank and well or just the storage tank?

If I only shock the storage tank or both and the well gets contaminated again will the inline chlorinator solve the problem?

My well is not completely sealed at the top. Should it be? It has a steel plate that is attached to the pipe that sits tightly on top of the casing. The power wire runs through a threaded hole in the plate. There is enough room in that hole to put the end of a funnel in and pour a cup of Clorox in every few weeks.

My 3000 gallon concrete storage tank has five 3/4-inch PVC vents at the top. Should i cap those or are they necessary for some ventilation reason.


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## TheLazyL

RayinTexas said:


> ... My well is not completely sealed at the top. Should it be? ....


YES!

and again I say, "YES"


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## Well_Driller

When you drill into an aquifer it is normally free of ecoli and total coliform bacteria unless it is already contaminated, but usually in my area it is not. When you drill into it you do introduce total coliform at the least from the tooling going in and out of the hole and touching that tooling that's going in and out of the new well. Total coliform will not harm you, it's naturally on you and everything in the environment, but they use it as an indicator bacteria for other nasty stuff. Usually when we get one where the total coliform keeps coming back then we start testing for other bacterias that could be present, usually don't find anything but the coliform will be there.... I quit using bleach a long time ago because it's not that strong. I use the chlorine pellets that are approved for disinfection of drinking water for shock treatment. It has to be done after a new well is drilled because you will find bacteria present in a new well that has not had the shock treatment. It's usually just the coliform that shows up. Have never had ecoli show up in one... That red/orange slime you see is waste produced from iron bacteria growth. If that gets started it can really make a mess of a well. I've cleaned them when they let it go too long and the stuff that you get coming out when you swab the well is really nasty and takes a lot of swabbing to clean it up. It gets up into the formation and makes a mess of things. Chlorinating wells at least once a year on wells likes this helps to keep that growth down. I know even after the swabbing it takes a few heavy shock treatments to kill it all off. As far as chemicals go chlorine is the only thing I use. There are some really nasty chemicals that are supposed to clean wells, but that's a waste of money and I wouldn't want to put them in a well. The best thing to do is have it cleaned and swabbed with a rig, that way all the sediment is cleaned out of the bottom too. I usually see around 10ft of sediment in wells that are 30 - 40 years old here. Some a little more depending on the hardness of the shales...


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## MrMakAttack

Glad I found this page...really hoping someone can help us. We just shocked our well for the first time. We were told to dump 2 gallons of bleach in the well...which we did. Then we were told to turn on the faucets until we smelled beach and then turn them off....which we did. It did take quite a bit of water to get the bleach smell to come out of the faucet. We then let the water sit in the lines for 24 hours and turned the faucets on again to get the bleach out of the system. Problem is, we never smelled bleach when we opened the faucets up...and didn't even smell it after 2+ hours of running! Really not sure what to do? Is the bleach gone somehow? Did it mix so much that we can't smell it? Did we not use enough bleach? Did we not let it run long enough? Should we have turned off our well pump or water heater? Really confused  Help someone please!!!! Thanks!!!!!


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## Caribou

MrMakAttack said:


> Glad I found this page...really hoping someone can help us. We just shocked our well for the first time. We were told to dump 2 gallons of bleach in the well...which we did. Then we were told to turn on the faucets until we smelled beach and then turn them off....which we did. It did take quite a bit of water to get the bleach smell to come out of the faucet. We then let the water sit in the lines for 24 hours and turned the faucets on again to get the bleach out of the system. Problem is, we never smelled bleach when we opened the faucets up...and didn't even smell it after 2+ hours of running! Really not sure what to do? Is the bleach gone somehow? Did it mix so much that we can't smell it? Did we not use enough bleach? Did we not let it run long enough? Should we have turned off our well pump or water heater? Really confused  Help someone please!!!! Thanks!!!!!


Your well goes into an aquifer. This means that it is a large body of water so the bleach has a large volume to dissipate into. Twenty-four hours is plenty of time and if there is any flow, like an underground stream, a few minutes might be enough to carry it away.

If I was worried about my well water I would expect a quality filter to be a more effective answer.


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## Country Living

We're in a similar situation of being on top of an aquifer. We put 1/4 cup of bleach in our micron filter (which is after the calcite and other filter so the bleach doesn't damage them) to decontaminate our lines several years ago. Then we got smart and put in a UV light. 

We have three tests run on our water every year: water out of the holding tank (before the filters), water from a faucet in the house, and we have the water tested in the third tank of our aerobic system just to make sure the septic system is working correctly.


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