Sagle Well Water.....Iron bacteria (Sandpoint, Kellogg: appliances, house, neighborhood) - Idaho (ID) - City-Data Forum

DvrGrl · 07-06-2019, 06:27 AM

Greetings virtual neighbors, I appreciate your continued postings as I wish I was in my house in Sagle but am still living my professional life in hot humid Virginia. When you share your perspectives and insights and good cheer for each other I feel for a moment that I am in North Idaho and can picture myself in my garden surrounded by flowers and vegetables and fruit trees, with the pine-clad hills in the distance. (Even though I would probably be weeding and trying to avoid the wasps).

I have a question regarding the overall well water quality in the Sagle area. We have come to realize the orange rings in our sinks and toilet bowls are caused by a high iron count—actually something called iron bacteria. It apparently can be common in the water in certain areas, or caused by a well drilled by contaminated equipment. It’s not really harmful, but certainly annoying, and can be treated by shocking the well with bleach, which to me seems to miss the whole point of my desire for beautiful pure sparkling well water—if I wanted to taste chlorine in my water I could keep drinking what comes out of the tap locally from the city. So for now, we just keep filtering the water though an elaborate, not cheap filtration system.

Theoretically we could drill another well....but that’s not cheap, and wouldn’t make sense if this is a common occurrence in Sagle. Should I just resign myself to the situation? We love the house and area and certainly aren’t planning on moving any time soon except for full time to Idaho as soon as we can retire. Would appreciate your experiences with well water quality, and any other recommendations you might have.

oregonwoodsmoke · 07-06-2019, 07:36 AM

If it is a problem, you could install a whole house water filter. Not cheap, but less expensive than replacing appliances and plumbing.

nm9stheham · 07-06-2019, 07:40 AM

Can't comment on the water in that area, but if this is just a bacterial worry, I'd just chlorinate the well... the taste will be gone in a few days. I don't know how you will get away from the iron dissolved naturally in the water without further treatment. With that iron, you just will never have 'sparkling pure' well water.

FWIW.... Here is a pretty good procedure for iron bacteria treatment. It appears to assume a fair water flow capacity for flushing out the system afterwards, so account for that. And says to pre-store your water needs for up to 2 days (8 - 48 hours).

https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex1142/$file/Agdex716(D12).pdf

Been on a well for 29 years..... never worried about chlorinating it. But we never have iron problems like yours, and never have had to use quite as high concentrations as are being discussed here. (And we are in hot humid VA too, in the Blue Ridge Mtns. The last 2 days have been 'special' with humidity!)

nm9stheham · 07-06-2019, 08:04 AM

BTW, I found this water report from the Sagel area. Looking at the total dissolved solids from well samples (appendix A), it looks like you have water in that area ranging from 38-210 in the wells sampled. That roughly ranges from soft to moderately hard. So I suppose from that, you could drill another well and MAY get less iron. (Seems like a long shot if you are on a small plot of ground.) You might look at the map of these wells on page 10 of this report and get some idea if you are in a locale with higher or lower TDS numbers.
https://www.deq.idaho.gov/media/4707...r_sagle_31.pdf

Have you spoken with any water treatment companies in the area?

Cnynrat · 07-06-2019, 01:46 PM

We're in eastern Sagle, and high iron content is pretty normal in the wells in this area. We have two filters in our system. One is a sediment filter, and the second is a carbon filter. The water that comes thru those tastes just fine, and we don't have a big issue with staining on fixtures etc. We also have a water softener, and we do use a type of salt for that is designed for high iron content water. Not sure if that makes any difference, it's just what we've always done.

I think the type of filtration system we have is pretty standard for any home that uses water from a well regardless of iron content.

Dave

banjomike · 07-08-2019, 03:21 PM

This sounds like a strange problem I'm having with one of my toilets. It always develops a strange and funky 'something' that reminds me of stuff I see in Yellowstone's hot springs within a few days after a cleaning.

What's strange is the toilet shares its plumbing with another one that's on the other side of a dividing wall, and the other toilet has never had the stuff grow in it. The two are back to back, with just the wall separating them.

It looks like rust with added extras. It cleans right out, but looks terrible, and I've found nothing yet that will stop it from forming.

There's no iron to speak of in our water, but this neighborhood is notorious for water pipes that rust out that come from the mainline under the streets to the homes. Some of the mainline has rusted out too. So far, though, there's no rust I can see or taste in my water, and only one fixture has any problems. Very mysterious...

nm9stheham · 07-08-2019, 05:08 PM

It's up in the channels inside the upper rim or in the tank or back in the trap. Tried strong bleaching in the tank? If it is in the rim or trap, maybe try repeated bleaching in the tank after each flush for a week and flush with bleach several times a day. It's always sumpthin' LOL

banjomike · 07-08-2019, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

It's up in the channels inside the upper rim or in the tank or back in the trap. Tried strong bleaching in the tank? If it is in the rim or trap, maybe try repeated bleaching in the tank after each flush for a week and flush with bleach several times a day. It's always sumpthin' LOL

I haven't tried repeated strong bleaching. Maybe that will do it. Thanks for the tip!

It sure is strange. the thing that seemed to retard the growth the most was a bucket of mop water with some all-purpose household cleaner in it that was dirty and I just poured it into the bowl to get rid of it. It stopped the growth for a full week, but some of the cleaner alone didn't work.

nm9stheham · 07-09-2019, 05:11 AM

Must be that 'gentle cleaning action'.. it lets the muck live to fight another day LOL

Ghostrider16 · 07-10-2019, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DvrGrl

I have a question regarding the overall well water quality in the Sagle area. We have come to realize the orange rings in our sinks and toilet bowls are caused by a high iron count—actually something called iron bacteria.

Hi DvrGrl,

Don't know if you've had your water analyzed or not, but, if not, there is a lab that will run whatever test(s) you want so you can confirm exactly what's going on with your well water.

We used them when we bought our place. They are called SVL Analytical with offices in CDA and Kellogg. You can pick up sample bottles at Panhandle Health in Sandpoint, and you can drop them off there as it is a pick-up point for the lab. They will email you the results.

https://www.svl.net