Private well water quality concerns. Help Please..

POB_1980

Hi All,

Its my first post here just hoping to get some advice about the water quality in the house which I'm currently renting.
So sorry in advance for the really long winded post but I'm really desperate to get advice from someone in the know.
We moved into this house a couple of months ago and having no experience of wells I just assumed the water was mains fed. I did ask the landlord when we moved in if the water was ok to drink and he said it was fine. Last week the water turned a sort of yellow tint and started acting up a bit so I rang the landlord and he said there may be a problem with the well and that he would check it out. I was surprised and concerned by this as my wife is pregnant so was worried about the water we have been drinking. I had a closer look and the 'well' in the field beside the house is a few sections of 1metre concrete sewer pipe going into the ground, to the side of the well is a sort of man made pond which I assume is to feed the well through the bottom or something. The well itself is uncovered and seems to have 1.5inch outlet pipe fed in from the top, I cant see if this pipe is running down into the bottom of the well or where it goes. This oulet pipe is plumbed to a pump in the house which then goes to a open tank in the attic. I can see no filtration anywhere on the line.
So, from reading up online all the sites say the well should be fully sealed and the water should be treated so I'm just wondering what is the minimum you would expect on a system to make it safe and how dangerous is this water? What would the minimum standards be to be able to use water for cooking etc.
We have obviously stopped using it straight away and have been using bottled water for the kettle and cooking and everything since. We have also ordered water testing but I think the results take around 4 weeks I think. To be honest I think we need to move house straight away but just want to check to make sure I'm not overreacting. The thoughts of moving again so soon are killing me but obviously Im not going to risk the health of my wife. Any advice would be great,

Thank you

Dtp79

POB_1980 wrote: »

Hi All,

Its my first post here just hoping to get some advice about the water quality in the house which I'm currently renting.
So sorry in advance for the really long winded post but I'm really desperate to get advice from someone in the know.
We moved into this house a couple of months ago and having no experience of wells I just assumed the water was mains fed. I did ask the landlord when we moved in if the water was ok to drink and he said it was fine. Last week the water turned a sort of yellow tint and started acting up a bit so I rang the landlord and he said there may be a problem with the well and that he would check it out. I was surprised and concerned by this as my wife is pregnant so was worried about the water we have been drinking. I had a closer look and the 'well' in the field beside the house is a few sections of 1metre concrete sewer pipe going into the ground, to the side of the well is a sort of man made pond which I assume is to feed the well through the bottom or something. The well itself is uncovered and seems to have 1.5inch outlet pipe fed in from the top, I cant see if this pipe is running down into the bottom of the well or where it goes. This oulet pipe is plumbed to a pump in the house which then goes to a open tank in the attic. I can see no filtration anywhere on the line.
So, from reading up online all the sites say the well should be fully sealed and the water should be treated so I'm just wondering what is the minimum you would expect on a system to make it safe and how dangerous is this water? What would the minimum standards be to be able to use water for cooking etc.
We have obviously stopped using it straight away and have been using bottled water for the kettle and cooking and everything since. We have also ordered water testing but I think the results take around 4 weeks I think. To be honest I think we need to move house straight away but just want to check to make sure I'm not overreacting. The thoughts of moving again so soon are killing me but obviously Im not going to risk the health of my wife. Any advice would be great,

Thank you

What you have is a shallow well and that means surface water can easily contaminate the well. I don't know how long it takes to have water tested. You should have this water treated with a UV filter and a particle filter before this. These will kill all bacteria in the water but are expensive

DGOBS

Micobiological testing wouldn't take that long, chemical analysis may do, ask the lab when can you have results for both over the phone (raise your concerns, so they understand your urgency)

studdlymurphy

Where would you get water tested?

DGOBS

Public analyst lab in lower grand canal street dublin

bax4556

Go ahead and sterilize the well anyway using Hypochlorite,a relatively simple procedure--loads of information on Internet from the States about the relative vols required and how to work it out

DGOBS

ring the analyst lab and ask for some professional advise

http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/Publications/services/Environmentalhealth/How%20Well%20is%20your%20Water.pdf