Help! Well sanitization question

[VaHomeOwner]

I’ve lived in my house for 11 years. For the first 10, we have had no smell coming from our well and no issues. About eight months ago someone ran over the well cap and ripped it off. I did the repair and poured in about 2 cups of bleach to cleanse it. Since then my well water starts to stink about every three days and I have to pour in a cup of bleach.

This is a 6 inch well casing and the total amount of water is about 500 gallons. I called my well guy, and he said to pour in a gallon of bleach, use the well as normal for four days, pour in another gallon of bleach, and do the same thing. ChatGPT says I should pour 6 gallons of bleach in the well, circulate it using the garden hose, run each faucet until I smell the bleach, and then do nothing in the house for 24 hours. Both think this is a bacteria problem. I don’t know if that is accurate or not. I am not sure which to do and would love some opinions. Thank you so much!

 

[LopezBart]

These folks have pretty good directions for well sanitizing:

Well Disinfection - MN Dept. of Health

www.health.state.mn.us

Is the stink hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs)? Does it happen only on the hot water taps? This can be caused by hard water reacting with magnesium anodes in water heater, or bacteria living in the hot water heater...

Why Does My Water Smell Like Rotten Eggs? Hydrogen Sulfide and Sulfur Bacteria in Well Water - MN Dept. of Health

www.health.state.mn.us

We've had the H2S problem in the hot water in my folk's guest house; when we replaced the water heater it stopped (different anode material, most likely).

 

[PCustoms]

Have the water tested at a lab to see what you're dealing with, then treat accordingly.

Any recent construction in the area?

Are you on sewer or septic?

 

[VaHomeOwner]

Have the water tested at a lab to see what you're dealing with, then treat accordingly.

Any recent construction in the area?

Are you on sewer or septic?

Thanks for responding. We are on septic. There was new construction last year about 400-500 yards away. The smell started about six months after they put their well in but before they moved in. I have not had the water tested but can do that.

 

[22-W]

The ChatGPT way is what I have been doing for 40 years in the well business. But the smell will very possibly return in a while. If it does, like others have said, have it tested and filter or condition accordingly.

 

[loganb]

Your county health dept can likely provide a recommendation for testing and may offer it for free. When I had a well I did it the chatgpt way. Make sure if you have a whole house filter you have changed the element.

 

[Gutman]

The new well being drilled could have disrupted the strata affecting your well, and it might take some time for the system to reach a new equilibrium. Having the water tested would be a good choice to see what you may be dealing with. Had that happen to a well we had in CT. Did what Tony the WellDriller (a neighbor) reccomended and it cleared up withing a couple weeks.

I've used bleach several times before after replacing well pumps, piping, or cabling. In all cases, I went on line and did calculations for volume. My wells were deep (~500 ft) and I typically went heavy on bleach (a little bit extra for Granny is always more better), especially after having ~500ft of well piping draped across the lawn when it was removed.

The key to treating it after the shocking was to circulate the water for a while by running it through a hose and dumping back into the well. I think I did at least 12 hours to help mix it, and then I ran all the taps and spigots to flush all the lines, flushing until no noticeable chlorine odor.

And most importantly, DO NOT RUN ANY LAUNDRY UNTIL YOU'VE FLUSHED THAT PORTION OF YOUR SYSTEM. Your wife will thank you.

 

[T45]

is there more to the story? how long was the well exposed, and how long did it take to initially develop the issue? I'm wondering if there isn't some other harbour, like mentioned above.

Biofilms tend to develop over like 3-4 days, and are known to recurr/be persistent in some areas. eg in hospital p-traps, this is an on-going debate. Even with peresistent localized sanitation. But as far as i know is a fixture-specific issue.

 

[zendriver]

Since someone ran over it, any chance the casing has damage and runoff is getting in?

Have the water tested.

 

[Sumboodie]

How high above grade is the well? Should be at least a foot or two. Is the casing ok? Just broke the top and you welded on a new section?

 

[pcmeiners]

You did not mention the well depth.If it is a deep well, over a hundred feet, less chance of having dangerous bacteria. If shallow you should definitely have a bacteria check. If very shallow well approx 30 feet at that depth wells are easily contaminated. Have iron in my well and we get iron bacteria (harmless) if the well is not used on a regular basis, well is 265 ft. , it gives off smelly hydrogen sulfide gas if the iron bacteria builds up. If you have neighbors close by pumping from roughly the same depth let them know your shocking the well .

 

[VaHomeOwner]

OK! So many amazing answers and I really appreciate it. Hopefully I can answer all of your questions. The well is 450 feet deep and the water table starts at 60 feet. The top of the well casing was cracked at ground level and so we removed it down to the break, put a coupler on, and a new section of 6 inch pvc pipe above ground. I do not know how far down or if the line is cracked below ground level. I did put mortar around the base as deep as I could get it to try to seal any cracks near the top. In terms of the length of exposure… When the well was cracked, it took my Plumber about five days to come out before he could put the coupler between the 2 - 6 inch sections of pvc pipe. We had it covered with a garbage bag and taped at the bottom. My assumption is there could’ve been contamination then. He still needs to come back and fix the gasket at the top. It is loose and the cap is on but may not be air tight.

 

[pcmeiners]

At 450 feet you not suffering from surface contamination unless there is a leak in the casing which is extremely unlikely. Look up iron bacteria, chlorine kills it. Also iron bacteria clogs water filters

 

[toplessHO]

put some bollards up to prevent any future"accidents"

 

[djbmw]

Is the smell with hot AND cold water... or only hot?
If only hot.. your water heater cathode might need to be changed

 

[Codyboy]

Is the smell with hot AND cold water... or only hot?
If only hot.. your water heater cathode might need to be changed

Nm

 

[rocksnstumps]

Maybe pcmeiners and I are neighbors, but maybe not... My well is 264 ft deep and also has an iron bacteria problem at times.

But really posting about if you are in an area for having natural arsenic pockets in the bedrock. My area is such and our state DNR has advised to shock your well as little as possible due to the chlorine will temporarily raise arsenic levels for awhile. Some chemical reaction thing, can Google if you want. Have had my water tested a few times and always below the advisable limits but still there. Just bringing up if you don't know or haven't had your well tested ever.

 

[pcmeiners]

But really posting about if you are in an area for having natural arsenic pockets in the bedrock.

Check out Katalox Light filters, will remove heavy metals including arsenic, have (2) 54x10" Katalox filters, for me it is ferrous iron, radon and other nucleotide I need to get rid of.

https://www.watchwater.de/pdf/documents/Katalox%20Light/Brochures/Ra%20and%20U%20removal%20with%20Katalox%20Light.pdf

 

[Wrench97]

When I was a kid in the mid early 70's we had a stone lined hand dug 20' deep well, the local ground hogs tunneled into it.
Yep water smelled like dead groundhog, we had to remove the animal dose with 6 gal, bleach send water samples off to university of penn.
Flush well add more bleach sent more samples, water passed smelled like bleach for at least a week then dead groundhog again...
Yep found another fresh one in the well...Dad was done with the well had a new one drilled 240'.....

 

[VaHomeOwner]

Thank you all for your help!

 

[captaindiode]

If you shock you well on a septic system, flush out the system to the outside as much as possible. I would not want all the chlorine in my septic tank.

 

[BobnCO]

When I was a kid in the mid early 70's we had a stone lined hand dug 20' deep well, the local ground hogs tunneled into it.
Yep water smelled like dead groundhog, we had to remove the animal dose with 6 gal, bleach send water samples off to university of penn.
Flush well add more bleach sent more samples, water passed smelled like bleach for at least a week then dead groundhog again...
Yep found another fresh one in the well...Dad was done with the well had a new one drilled 240'.....

What is the maximum recommended daily intake of decaying dead ground hog for a family?!? That would be two!

 

[dcg9381]

This is a 6 inch well casing and the total amount of water is about 500 gallons. I called my well guy, and he said to pour in a gallon of bleach, use the well as normal for four days, pour in another gallon of bleach, and do the same thing. ChatGPT says I should pour 6 gallons of bleach in the well, circulate it using the garden hose, run each faucet until I smell the bleach, and then do nothing in the house for 24 hours. Both think this is a bacteria problem. I don’t know if that is accurate or not. I am not sure which to do and would love some opinions. Thank you so much!

So you got "500 gallons" from the math of well casing, knowing the well depth, and knowing how deep the water level is, right? Cause you need all of those things. Sounds like chat GPT is going for 100:1 concentration.

They "hyper-chlorinate" method is common around here too. I'll get chatGPT do the math, but yes, I've poured GALLONS of bleach (check the concentration level on the beach) into perfectly good wells before. Sometimes takes days to get it out.

You basically have to flush everything. If it's coliform (colonly forming) - then it's in your cold water lines, hot water lines, and likely in your water heater. So you have to flush all of it.

The only way to know for sure is to go through the process above, then a few weeks later send the water off to a LAB to be tested and tell you what is in it. LAst time I did it, cost about $120, had to be careful gathering samples, mail it on time, etc..