Well Mystery
 

I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?

Well Mystery
 

wrote in message
ups.com...
I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?

Try a double blind trial :-)

Well Mystery
 

My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You
installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running
out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a
reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know
is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control
your well and see it the problem really comes from the water.

Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water
lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the
water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to
bother you).

Good luck finding an answer.

Pat.

wrote:
I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?

Well Mystery
 

Pat wrote:

My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You
installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running
out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a
reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know
is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control
your well and see it the problem really comes from the water.

Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water
lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the
water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to
bother you).

Good luck finding an answer.

Pat.

wrote:

I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?





My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival of
water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses
of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level...

AL

Well Mystery
 

AL wrote:

Pat wrote:

My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You
installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running
out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a
reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know
is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control
your well and see it the problem really comes from the water.

Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water
lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the
water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to
bother you).

Good luck finding an answer.

Pat.

wrote:

I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?






My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival of
water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses
of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level...

All farts are methane.

Well Mystery
 

"unsettled" wrote in message
...
AL wrote:

Pat wrote:

My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You
installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running
out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a
reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know
is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control
your well and see it the problem really comes from the water.

Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water
lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the
water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to
bother you).

Good luck finding an answer.

Pat.

wrote:

I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?






My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival of
water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses
of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level...

All farts are methane.

Maybe yours, but everyone elses are pretty much swallowed air.

Well Mystery
 

easy solution:)

Use old well water for drinking and cooking new well for everything
else!

Just plumb the old well water to the kitchen cold water faucet, low
production well will have no trouble with this demand.

whatever the cause its a sure cu)

when I post something like this it feels so great to be helpful.

Well Mystery
 

unsettled wrote:

My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival
of water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8
glasses of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level...

All farts are methane.

All farts may be Methane but not ALL Methane. Methane is odorless.

Well Mystery
 

I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?



1: Way below permissible levels doesn't mean there's nothing
that can trigger sensitivities, it just means there's
nothing wrong with it that should cause illness in
normal people.

2: Did you get all the bleach out of the system after
shocking it?

3: Do you drink water from any other source except the
old well? You could just be reacting to the change,
or to the absence of something in the old well.

4: Boiling won't help. Boiling is for killing microbes,
and you aren't seeing any.

I say you plumb from both wells, and save the output
from the old one for drinking water, and feed the
other one to the bathrooms, laundry, and outside taps.

Well Mystery
 

Toller wrote:
"unsettled" wrote in message
...

AL wrote:


Pat wrote:


My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You
installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running
out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a
reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know
is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control
your well and see it the problem really comes from the water.

Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water
lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the
water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to
bother you).

Good luck finding an answer.

Pat.

wrote:


I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?





My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival of
water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses
of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level...

All farts are methane.


Maybe yours, but everyone elses are pretty much swallowed air.




Well, as much as there can be a point to a discussion like this, my
point was farts contain enough methane to be ignited but the
fortification of natural fart methane with methane saturated water would
yield a most impressive payload. Le Pétomane could have performed near
miracles with that water.

AL

Well Mystery
 

Oh course your burbs would also be flamable. Hope you don't smoke.

AL wrote:
Toller wrote:
"unsettled" wrote in message
...

AL wrote:


Pat wrote:


My guess it that it is some outside contition, like nerves. You
installed the new well for a reason, what was that, afraid of running
out of water or contimination or something? So you only switch for a
reason and the reason is playing on your nerves. The only way to know
is to do some sort of double-blind trial. Have someone else control
your well and see it the problem really comes from the water.

Okay, other possible problem would be residual oil in the pump or water
lines. That will clear, eventually. Also might be natural gas in the
water (are there any wells locally) or possibly radon (but unlikely to
bother you).

Good luck finding an answer.

Pat.

wrote:


I have a new well and an old well. The old well is perfectly drinkable
but low production. When I drink from the new well, 250' away, I
suffer intestinal tenderness and bloating, which goes away a few days
after I stop drinking this water. I sterilized the new well and
associated plumbing with bleach before hooking it into the system. The
new well is several hundred feet from the septic. I have tested for
bacteria, at a sink tap, 3 different ways - 2 outside labs and one home
test kit, all tested negative. I tried sterilizing the water using a
pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, and still
suffered the same ill effects. I sent a sample to National Testing
Laboratories who tested for 17 different metals, a handful of anions,
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?





My neighbor's well water supply would send air ahead of the arrival of
water at the tap. Then they discovered the "air" was methane. 8 glasses
of water a day took lighting farts to a whole other level...

All farts are methane.


Maybe yours, but everyone elses are pretty much swallowed air.




Well, as much as there can be a point to a discussion like this, my
point was farts contain enough methane to be ignited but the
fortification of natural fart methane with methane saturated water would
yield a most impressive payload. Le Pétomane could have performed near
miracles with that water.

AL

Well Mystery
 

Thank you all for your highly entertaining discussion which no doubt
will be reprinted the Annals of Scatology (or should that be Anals?).

The problem with separate plumbing for the 2 wells is it would require
500' of trenching, so I view that as a solution of last resort.

The reason to try sterilizing the water, even though the bacterial
testing came up negative, is that there is such a thing as fastidious
bacteria that are not easily detected or cultured.

I do not believe this problem is "nerves" because this was never a high
stress situation, and I certainly did not expect this problem to occur
when I first hooked up the well.

I have repeated the experiment of drinking the water from this well
several times and the irritation is definitely correlated with that.

After the chlorine shock, I ran the well pump for several hours just
flushing the output onto the ground, so I doubt the problem is residual
chlorine or pump oil.

The substances found in the water were calcium, magnesium, zinc, and a
trace of copper, all of which are in my multivitamin supplement in
greater qunatities, sodium, and chloride, nitrate and sulfate at no
more than around 10% of their maximum allowable levels. It seems
unlikely, but I suppose it is possible the nitrate or sulfate could be
irritants. The other possiblity would be some chemical species not
tested for.

Well Mystery
 

Oh you're no fun.

Just out of curiosity, have you had anyone else drink it so see if it
bothered them?

Using 2 wells shouldn't require any trenching. Both wells are working
and both go into your house, no? Just a little re-plumbing in the
basement.

Call your local health dept. or cooperative extension agent and see if
they can recommend a lab to test for "everything". Something like a
gas might evaporate by the time it is tested.

Personally, I think I would run the well for a few days and see if it
clears anything out. also, then having the water tested, test from
both wells and see what the difference is.

wrote:
Thank you all for your highly entertaining discussion which no doubt
will be reprinted the Annals of Scatology (or should that be Anals?).

The problem with separate plumbing for the 2 wells is it would require
500' of trenching, so I view that as a solution of last resort.

The reason to try sterilizing the water, even though the bacterial
testing came up negative, is that there is such a thing as fastidious
bacteria that are not easily detected or cultured.

I do not believe this problem is "nerves" because this was never a high
stress situation, and I certainly did not expect this problem to occur
when I first hooked up the well.

I have repeated the experiment of drinking the water from this well
several times and the irritation is definitely correlated with that.

After the chlorine shock, I ran the well pump for several hours just
flushing the output onto the ground, so I doubt the problem is residual
chlorine or pump oil.

The substances found in the water were calcium, magnesium, zinc, and a
trace of copper, all of which are in my multivitamin supplement in
greater qunatities, sodium, and chloride, nitrate and sulfate at no
more than around 10% of their maximum allowable levels. It seems
unlikely, but I suppose it is possible the nitrate or sulfate could be
irritants. The other possiblity would be some chemical species not
tested for.

Well Mystery
 

or buy bottled water for drinking only, the polar water route

Well Mystery
 

On 25 Nov 2006 10:16:25 -0800, wrote:
and dozens of organics. No organics were detected, and the metals and
anions were all way below the maximum permissible levels. I have

My guess is you're sensitive to one or more of the minerals in the water
at levels less than max permissible. My grandparents had to haul water
from a county park for me -- I was the only one of the grandkids who
suffered major GI distress from their town water. All of that went
away when the town drilled a new well into a different aquifer, which was
less rich in Fe and Mg.

Well Mystery
 

My guess is you're sensitive to one or more of the minerals in the
water
at levels less than max permissible. My grandparents had to haul water
from a county park for me -- I was the only one of the grandkids who
suffered major GI distress from their town water. All of that went
away when the town drilled a new well into a different aquifer, which was
less rich in Fe and Mg.

OP may be able to desenitize themselves to the new water source.

first 90% old water with 10% new water, over time increase gradulally
the new water percentage.

this approach is gow allergies are treated continious increasing
exposure often desensitives the person over long ewnough of a time

Well Mystery
 

Kay, thanks for the first person account - at least I'm not the only
one.

Haller, the desensitization idea is interesting, might be worth a try.

Pat, no I haven't cared to use my friends as guinea pigs, but I'll send
you 1 gallon free of charge and you can report to us your findings.
Using 2 wells shouldn't require any trenching.
Both wells are working and both go into your house, no?
NO.

Well Mystery
 

wrote:
I have
installed a .5 micron activated charcoal filter in line with the
kitchen sink tap to no avail. Any thoughts?

Put in a reverse osmosis filter maybe? Most of them also use an
activated charcoal filter as part of their system, too.

Well Mystery
 

wrote:

After the chlorine shock, I ran the well pump for several hours just
flushing the output onto the ground, so I doubt the problem is residual
chlorine or pump oil.

I doubt that a proper shock treatment would clear with several hours of
flushing. I know of many shocked wells that took several days or more
of occasional flushing to get rid of the chlorine. Did you pump the
chlorinated water back into the well for several hours to get a good
recycle cleaning? Did you use specified well chlorine or cheap clorox?
Many times clorox doesn't get the job done.

Bob