Well water, coliform. Educate me.

[Jaytee]

We have a cabin over near the Pruitt put in on the Buffalo ... about two miles away towards Jasper.

Just sent water from the new well in for testing. No E-Coli (hooray) but for total coliform, state lab says "present." (Frustratingly, they do not quantify... it is just "absent" or "present."). I can't imagine we're impacted by the Mill Creek/Dogpatch debacle but I guess it is possible.

If anyone has a referral for enviro/water types to further test and treat, or if anyone has dealt with this at a rural property, I'm all ears. We'll be bummed if the water isn't potable. Not the end of the world, but a tad inconvenient.

Anyway, I thought this was as good a place as any for a water quality question.

[painterbob]

I'll ask the Alma water treatment boys!.. but it sounds like a disinfect well treatment and retesting .. did you pull the water sample or did your well guys do it?

[Jim E]

It's not that big of a deal and sounds worse than it is. A pretty common occurance for wells no matter where you live.


Just need to do a bleach treatment, flush and then re-test.


http://www.ehow.com/how_5028467_treat-w ... teria.html

[Jaytee]

We pulled the sample, one of those test kits you get from the Health Dept and then send to the lab in Little Rock. Would love a contact for water peeps to treat and re-test but I'll also look at the ehow link to see what we might want to try to do!

Since the well is new I'm a little worried that the issue is in the groundwater, not the well itself but I'm happy to start with the simple before worrying about the complicated...

[Victor Caballeros]

Jaytee this happen to me I think? I refinaced the house for a 10 yrs loan and the bank needed a water sample so this water lady came out and did a water sample which I had to pay for it which also failed and i called her up and she told me to put a gallon of bleach down the well and she would come out and take another sample and it passed which my loan passed too. I don't know if this is what you are doing as well Hope this helps

[plaidpants]

ABout 4 years ago I had to seel my farm and move into town. To be able to sell I had to make sure the water from the well was drinkable. No matter how many times I did the bleach treatment it still came up with bacteria of some sort in the well. So I called in the experts and it cost me $200.00 to have a UV light placed in the water line. This light stays on all the time and kills all the bacteria in the water as it passes the light. The light has to be replaced once every two years and cost about $7.00 to replace. Test all you want. Bleach all you want. In 30 days your well will be back the way it is today. I recommend a UV light system.

[Bozman]

It is possible that the contamination actually came from water pumped into the well by the driller. Unless they have changed methods, drillers usually bring and pump some of their water into the well during the drilling process. I have seen well drillers pump water from creeks that they should have known were contaminated, when they didn't want to drive to town for fresh water. Just a possibility.

[Mtngal]

Call Ivan Reynolds at 870-four four six-5352 at Jasper. He's the water guy for most of the area water systems.