The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: DavidandCollette on May 10, 2015, 09:17:24 am

Title: smelly water
Post by: DavidandCollette on May 10, 2015, 09:17:24 am

We recently had a well dug on our land with a mini digger. When we pump the water up it  smells of rotten eggs. Any ideas please?

Title: Re: smelly water
Post by: waterbuffalofarmer on May 10, 2015, 09:24:43 am

could it be sewage? :thinking:

Title: Re: smelly water
Post by: Foobar on May 11, 2015, 10:13:38 am

Sulphur?  Get it analysed!

Title: Re: smelly water
Post by: oor wullie on May 11, 2015, 08:10:51 pm

A well dug with a mini-digger suggests it is not very deep and therefore it will be very difficult to keep unwanted nasties out of it.
A sulphur smell is probably hydrogen sulphide of something similar.  Probably caused by bacteria in the water.

I had this in my water supply, I think because the pipes sat empty for months, the water in the taps was coming out smelling of sulphur.  The solution was to pour a bottle of bleach down my borehole and then flush a lot of water around the system to make sure it went through all of the pipes and was properly flushed to again (as bleach in the drinking water supply is not so good!)