Contaminated water

[JoceAndChris]

Something's backfired with our antiquated plumbing system and the well-water, usually crystal clear though untreated, is coming out the colour of cats' pee. I've been drinking it for a couple of days before really sitting up and thinking hey- this tastes of earth! We now think that because of a dodgy valve some untreated rainwater has been pumped up into the well water tank in the attic, giving us an interesting blend of our two systems.

My question is - how did olden days people manage? Is it OK to drink a bit of yellowy rainwater? (I've been fine) What kind of bacteria might be carried - is most of it harmless? And if you boil it in the kettle, is it OK? I'm reluctant to waste a whole tank; we think we've fixed the plumbing problem now.

 

[Penners]

In the short term, I would certainly boil any drinking or cooking water. The water might still be safe, but it might not. And better safe than sorry.

In the slightly longer term, I really think you should get some expert advice on (a) exactly how good the water is, and (b) what you can do to keep it safe.

Don't take risks, Joce.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/pubs/private/index.htm

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thankyou. I hadn't seen the site before, interesting. It also says on there that guests are more likely to be made ill than those accustomed to the water, which I hadn't seen written officially before, but must be true. I have guests all weekend, just been to Sainsburys and bought all their water.

I wish I knew more about how the body works, how it builds resistance. Our ancestors must have been as tough as old boots, well, the ones who lived, anyway.

With any luck I'll have ingested an invisible tapeworm egg and will become gloriously thin.

 

[robgil]

our ancestors didn't really have a huge life expectancy.
a friend of my partners had a problem with her water , it was making her ill. she had it tested and it was found to contain , among other things human feses.
this was mains water. :shock: there must have been some kind of local back siphonage contaminating the mains around where she lived.
i only drink bottled water , i know its not the best thing to drink and we should be encouraged to drink mains water but i just don't trust it.

if i were you i would turn the stop cock off on your tank and only use it for washing, toilet flushing etc etc until it is empty , i would then flush the tank and pipework before switching it back on and refilling it with clean water, providing your well water is clean by now.

on a side note , if you ever see brown water coming from your mains its usually due to the iron in the trunk pipes being disturbed and shouldn't be a problem if you drink or wash with it , just don't drink too much of it.

also , interestingly , those kitchen sinks with an extendible shower attachment for rinsing , although not illegal to sell they are illegal if you install them on a mains system because of the ability for them to back siphon dirty water into the mains.

 

[MdB]

also , interestingly , those kitchen sinks with an extendible shower attachment for rinsing , although not illegal to sell they are illegal if you install them on a mains system because of the ability for them to back siphon dirty water into the mains.

Same goes for detachable shower heads that could potentially be placed in bath water, though I guess many people have this arrangement.

Double non return valves get around this restriction.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks so much for te helpful advice, we'll do as you say, robgil. I'll just have to wash everything in sight to get rid of it quickly - how dull.

 

[Penners]

I'll just have to wash everything in sight to get rid of it quickly - how dull.

You could also wash the bits that are out of sight.

To you, anyway.

 

[JoceAndChris]

There's a first time for everything I suppose!

The people of yore didn't waste their time washing though; there's far too much washing going on these days if you ask me.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Before we had the UV light and filters installed, our water had faecal coli in it :shock: we didn't drink it exactly but all brushed our teeth without thinking about it :roll:

 

[Flyfisher]

I remember once running a bath in a Scottish B&B that looked like weak tea. The colouration was due to the peaty water from the hills (well, so they said ).

Quite harmless, apparently, and wasn't really noticeable in the thin stream from the tap, but a little disconcerting when viewing a bathful for the first time.

Thinking alound about the amount of water we use in our daily lives compared to the relatively small amount we actually drink, I sometimes wonder if it would be better to dismantle the nationwide water purification and monitoring systems, which must cost a small fortune (not to mention energy consumption) and only drink bottled water, instead of flushing and washing away billions of gallons of potable water down the drains?

 

[chuckey]

During dry summers (remember them?) the local mains water is also contaminated with peat. I find it is difficult to wash my hair properly, the peat residue seems to cling to it!
You could try and put some purifing agent into the tank - sodium hypochorite? When the local waterboard mucks about with our water (at least twice a year) they put in some "white" stuff into the supply, running the tap seems to produce thin milk!
Frank

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh gawd. Not sure if thin chemical milk is preferable to cats' pee - but thanks Chuckey.

Thinking alound about the amount of water we use in our daily lives compared to the relatively small amount we actually drink, I sometimes wonder if it would be better to dismantle the nationwide water purification and monitoring systems, which must cost a small fortune (not to mention energy consumption) and only drink bottled water, instead of flushing and washing away billions of gallons of potable water down the drains?

I often think about that, it seems so crazy. People don't even always drink it, and then you hear these horror stories like robgil's and the old one about the pill and declining fertility. I've found it interesting to observe people's reactions when you take away the fact that potable water will come out of the tap though - it's not just drinking. Take my mother, who treats the whole experience of coming here like some form of sub-zero Calcutta, coming always armed with anti bacterial wipes, then all my friends, who won't wash their children in the bath. People won't eat salad, and want everything dried to avoid contaminating water going into the tea.

Maybe they'd just get used to it though, as I have. I think there's too much opportunity for us to be overly discerning namby pamby fusspots these days, it's a terrible culture of ooh I want decaf latte but a bit more frothy than a normal latte and I'm really sorry but that one's too cold, could you make another? There should be an enforced year in India for all!

 

[Ushy M]

During dry summers (remember them?) the local mains water is also contaminated with peat. I find it is difficult to wash my hair properly, the peat residue seems to cling to it!

I remember that! When I was a child - living in Wensleydale in fact Frank - the water frequently came out peaty - my mum always looked forward to this as she reckoned it made better tea! I don't remember dry summers though I do remember winters where there was such a vicious wind that we had horizontal icicles on the fence.

 

[Cloudscape]

Thin milk here too, every so often. Also, a bleachy smell and taste sometimes. The water here used to come down from a reservoir that's still there. It fed taps at various points along the road, and everyone collected their water in buckets. The tap stations are still there (should be listed), and even one tap. Less than fifty years ago, the supply was changed to somewhere downhill. :? It now has to be pumped up, and the pump fails every so often.

The woman who lives near the reservoir still checks and records the water level every day, even though the water isn't used (as far as I know). This requires her to climb down into the reservoir, and she's in her late eighties. :shock:

We all have supplies of bottled water for when the pump fails (or Severn Trent come up with another reason :roll. I'm looking for water in glass bottles (can you still get it?). Plastic water tastes odd to me. I'd rather taste bleach than plastic.

 

[shingwell]

also , interestingly , those kitchen sinks with an extendible shower attachment for rinsing , although not illegal to sell they are illegal if you install them on a mains system because of the ability for them to back siphon dirty water into the mains.

Same goes for detachable shower heads that could potentially be placed in bath water, though I guess many people have this arrangement.

Double non return valves get around this restriction.

Most shower hoses, at least these days, are deliberately too short to reach bath water level (you try buying a long one!).

My water is supplied via private pipework from a reservoir up on the hill behind the house, which is filled up from the mains. From time to time there is a problem with the mains, the reservoir empties, and when it fills again the sediment on the bottom is disturbed and we get "cats pee". The pipework also feeds several animal field troughs on it's way down.

When we moved in we had the water tested (by the council, for free) and it was found to contain bacteria from animal faeces. I installed a cheap plumbed-in water filter from Screwfix (the sort that gives you an extra little tap for filtered water) and had the filtered water re-tested. Not only did that pass with flying colours but it removes the sediment to produce clean water. You still get brown bath water and can't wash whites until the sedment has cleared, but it feels a lot better drinking it!

A neighbour also had the water tested - by a hospital for about £20.

The thin milk is probably air in the water - harmless. The bleachy smell is probably chlorine, added by the water co. to kill bacteria. They also chlorine-flush pipework after they have worked on it.

I've often wondered about all these people who consume Yakult and other "good bacteria" products - do they also drink chlorinated tap water, which will kill their good bacteria?!

 

[Schoolmarm]

When we moved in we had the water tested (by the council, for free) and it was found to contain bacteria from animal faeces. I installed a cheap plumbed-in water filter from Screwfix (the sort that gives you an extra little tap for filtered water) and had the filtered water re-tested. Not only did that pass with flying colours but it removes the sediment to produce clean water.!

You could of course just been lucky with your second sample, it just may have been a day when nothing was in the water. If you have tested positive for faecal coli it needs a uv light set up to sterilise it properly.

 

[Lime]

Of course it is not just bacteria you need to worry about.
Rainwater that is collected from a roof is very likely to contain a high lead content picked up from any flashing or valleys used on the roof.

 

[Aidan]

In the olden days I think people either drank beer, cider, mead and/or wine (seriously) or they died; the water was far too dodgy. Medieval history makes more sense when you realise all the participants were plastered and were all liable to expire from alcoholism or high-blood pressure from all the salted meat and fish they had to eat.

I don't know the arrangement of the system, or how the suspected dodgy valve would let rainwater into the well. From the previous post ISTR that the well is hand-dug and is only about 7m deep. I would think it more likely that the discolouration is due to ground water getting into the well. It could also carry in any bacterial and chemical matter in the ground. You could get the water tested , usually by a water supply company, to identify what is in it. Suspended solid matter could be removed with a filter. There's lots of information on the internet, mostly on US sites where rural water supply is usually from wells.

A deeper borehole would take water from a deep aquifer and the borehole would be sealed to the well casing at the impervious strata above to prevent the infiltration of contaminated groundwater.

RE the well, I'd suggest that you fill it in. It is in the middle of the building and has permeable dry stone walls of dubious strength. If it collapses it will take the building with it. I'd think you could probably drop a well casing in before back-filling it so you'd still have a water supply from it without the risk. It's been there for XXX years, so I wouldn't be immediately concerned but it's something you might bear in mind regarding your long term water strategy.

 

[chuckey]

Aidans comment about the internal well, reminds me that "The Leckford Hut" on the A30 btetween Winchester and Stockbridge has an internal well with lighting. probabley worth asking to view before you imbibe too much!
Frank

 

[Sue Wilkinson]

The thin milk is probably air in the water - harmless. The bleachy smell is probably chlorine, added by the water co. to kill bacteria. They also chlorine-flush pipework after they have worked on it.

Yes, white water is a mass of tiny air bubbles. If you run a glass and stand it on the side and watch it will clear slowly from the bottom of the glass up. The air is trapped and put under pressure when a main is opened for work and then resealed. It can't get out and so it breaks up into tiny bubbles and comes out the tap.

In areas where the mains (or parts of them) are still cast iron, the rust residue is also stirred up when the main is opened and worked on and that can give you brown water in the tap.

All mains are flushed with chlorine tablets after they have been opened, hence the smell of bleach which often accompanies the white/brown water problems.

So, those years of hell working as the only woman inspector Severn Trent had on their books (at that time) served some purpose after all :?