How Do You Know What Your Water Treatment Facility Is
How to Remove Sulfur From Your Well Water
Medically Reviewed by Briony Jain, PhD in Public Health
While nearly people get their drinking water from public h2o supplies, more than than 13 million households in the United States rely on private wells for their drinking water. Well water can absorb many different compounds from the surrounding soil — and when levels of compounds like sulfur go too high, yous'll need to filter it. If you're dealing with high levels of sulfur in your drinking supply, learn how to remove sulfur from well h2o.
Sulfur is a naturally occurring chemical compound. In that location are two sources of sulfur in well h2o – sulfates and hydrogen sulfide gas.
- Sulfates are a type of salt that contains sulfur. They may exist in the soil and rocks surrounding your well. As groundwater and rainwater seep through the soil and rocks, they tin can comport sulfates into your well h2o.
- Hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) tin can happen naturally when plants or other organic material decays. Information technology tin can also exist related to pollution in the water. And when sulfur bacteria feed on sulfates in well water, they can create H2S. Yous'll need to remove the H2S from your water and vent the gas from low-lying spaces around your well.
Is Sulfur Harmful?
It depends on the level of sulfates or hydrogen sulfide in the water. In small amounts, these things don't cause a problem.
Too much sulfate tin cause diarrhea and dehydration. Information technology can also have a biting taste, clog your pipes with slime and stain your laundry.
Too much H2S causes a rotten egg odour in well h2o. In large amounts, information technology tin can be poisonous and lead to nausea and disease — simply this is more probable to happen from animate the gas than from drinking water. H2S can also corrode pipes and stain your utensils.
How Can I Tell If My Well Water Has Sulfur?
There are a few ways to tell if you have a sulfur problem:
- Smell or taste — Sulfur has a distinctive olfactory property similar to rotten eggs, and sulfates can give h2o a biting taste. If your well water has sulfur in information technology, you may observe an unpleasant smell or odd taste.
- Slime or stains — Sulfur bacteria can leave black stains or a white, grey, black or cherry-brown slime on silverware or plumbing.
- H2o tests — Go your well water tested every twelvemonth, fifty-fifty if you don't detect signs of sulfur or other problems. Yous can find several unlike water testing kits online or in stores. Only to ensure authentic results, detect a state-certified laboratory to do the tests. And check with your local health section kickoff, in case they provide these tests for free.
How Tin I Remove Sulfur From My Well Water?
There are many options for removing sulfur from your well water. The all-time option for you will depend on the source of the sulfur, how serious the problem is and how much you're able to spend. Options include:
- Activated carbon filtration — Activated carbon filters use small pieces of porous carbon (like charcoal) to attract chemicals in h2o and filter them out. Y'all can install an activated carbon filtration system as a depression-price and low maintenance solution to remove a low concentration of sulfur — but it won't handle high concentrations of sulfur.
- Aeration treatment — This is a depression-cost and safe solution that adds air to the h2o. This process may reduce the hydrogen sulfide to adequate levels, but may not get rid of information technology completely. And it won't kill sulfur leaner.
- Chlorine bleach — You can inject chlorine bleach into your water before filtration. This is a low-price solution that can effectively remove medium-to-high levels of hydrogen sulfide from your water. Simply this method isn't fast-interim, and information technology besides adds sodium to the water and tin leave toxic residue.
- Potassium permanganate — You tin use potassium permanganate solution in combination with a special type of filter to remove sulfur particles. This procedure gets rid of several odors, only it can be toxic and may leave your water looking pink.
- Hydrogen peroxide — This is a fast and safe solution that leaves no chemical residue and no taste in the water. Simply an annual supply of peroxide may exist expensive, so information technology'due south not as common in private home water systems.
- Ozone gas — This is likewise a fast and prophylactic solution that leaves no chemical residue. But ozone systems are expensive, and they add gases to the water that yous then need to vent.
If yous own a private well, or are thinking of putting ane in, check in with your local health section about maintenance procedures to make sure your water is rubber for everyday employ. Many health departments offer costless h2o testing to cheque the levels of sulfur and other compounds — and they can provide more detailed communication virtually the all-time filtration methods.
Resources Links
- "Hydrogen Sulfide and Sulfur Bacteria in Well Water" via Minnesota Department of Health
- "Hydrogen Sulfide and Sulfate in Private Drinking Water Wells" via University of Massachusetts Amherst
- "Private Drinking H2o Wells" via U.S. Environmental Protection Bureau
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