About ABE

Prospective Students

Undergraduate Students

Graduate Students

Industrial Technology
  Program

Faculty and Staff

Extension and Outreach

Research

Events and News

MWPS

Locator Map

Search

• This Power Point presentation was prepared by Dr. Tom Glanville, Dept. of Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University to supplement the Extension Family & Consumer Sciences teleconference held 2/26/96.
• This is a first attempt at supplementing a teleconference with concurrent visual communication delivered via World Wide Web. Teleconference participant's comments and/or suggestions for improvement would be appreciated. Mail them to: tglanvil@iastate.edu

For teleconference participants that may want to save the information presented here for future reference or possible use in an Extension meeting, a fully formatted Power Point presentation (approximately 487K with images, supplemental note pages, and references) can be downloaded by clicking HERE

---

"Our well water tastes great and looks crystal clear...it must be safe!"

• Sorry.... Nitrate, total coliform bacteria, lead, low levels of pesticides, and many other health-related contaminants often impart no noticeable odor, color, or flavor to water.
• Ironically some of the most obnoxious-looking (iron, manganese) or bad-smelling (hydrogen sulfide) contaminants have little or no health impact.
• You can't rely on your senses to tell if water is safe. The ONLY reliable way to determine if your drinking water is safe is to have it tested!

"I want to be SURE my family's drinking water is safe....what test should I have the lab run????"

• No single test can insure that drinking water is free from all health-related contaminants.
• Public health officials recommend that you start with tests for the most common contaminants (nitrate, total coliform bacteria). Then move on to other tests IF your water system is vulnerable to contamination.

"My water test results say it contains UNSAFE levels of total coliform bacteria.....What does that mean???"

• Coliforms are naturally-occurring bacteria commonly found in topsoil, surface water, sewage, and animal wastes (but NOT in properly constructed wells of adequate depth).
• Presence of total coliform bacteria in your drinking water warns that a pathway exists through which contaminated surface water or shallow groundwater is entering your water supply.
• Note: Fecal coliforms are a special type of coliform that originate in sewage or animal manure. Their presence in drinking water indicates a serious health threat

"What can I do about Unsafe total coliform levels?"

• Inspect well and plumbing system, fix obvious defects, shock-chlorinate to sanitize the system, and re-test.
• If well is relatively modern with no obvious defects, re-test to confirm bacteria test results before investing time and money in well repairs or water treatment equipment.
• Install continuous disinfection system (examples: chlorine, ozone, or ultraviolet light)

"My water test results say NITRATE ......30 mg/L. What does THAT mean?"

• When consumed by infants (generally less than 6 months old) in food, water, or formula, nitrate can cause a serious blood disorder known as infant methemoglobinemia ("blue baby syndrome").
• To minimize the risks to infants, nitrate concentrations in drinking water should not exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level of:
• 45 mg/L (milligrams per liter) if reported as nitrate (NO3); or
• 10 mg/L if reported as nitrate-nitrogen (NO3 -N)

"How can I take nitrate out of my drinking water?"

• Nitrate can be removed using distillation or reverse osmosis.
• Beware: Boiling does NOT remove nitrate....it concentrates it.
• Activated carbon filters alone can NOT remove nitrate-nitrogen.

"My water smells like rotten eggs and I can't stand it any longer......what can I do???"

• Odors described as "sulfurous", "rotten egg", or "musty", are often caused by hydrogen-sulfide, a gas produced by sulfide-reducing bacteria living inside wells or plumbing systems.
• Sudden increases in sulfide odor often accompany installation of a new water heater. Production of the gas is stimulated by the magnesium corrosion control anode in new heaters.

"Some solutions for hydrogen sulfide odors"

• Periodically shock-chlorinate well and plumbing system to reduce population of odor-producing bacteria (they WILL grow back)
  Continuously chlorinate the well and plumbing system (can cause red water problems if water contains much iron)
• Remove magnesium corrosion control anode from new water heater....this will shorten the life of the heater or invalidate its warranty (check with manufacturer)
• Improve ventilation in bathroom, shower, and laundry areas
• Install activated carbon filter on drinking water lines to remove low levels of hydrogen sulfide from small quantities of water
• Install oxidizing filter (same as iron filter) to remove moderate levels of hydrogen sulfide from all water used in the house

"A salesman (or advertisement) claims my drinking water is contaminated and that their treatment unit will make it safe.....will it???"

• When buying drinking water treatment equipment ....Remember
• Start with a water test to positively identify the cause of the problem.
• Seek out equipment advertised to handle the problem(s) you are trying to solve.....no system can do everything.
• Every system will need maintenance.... be sure to ask about type and frequency of required maintenance, and the cost of replaceable components (reverse osmosis modules, ultraviolet lamps, filter elements).

Before purchasing drinking water treatment equipment....Remember

• Iowa law requires that any drinking water treatment system advertised to remove a health-related contaminant MUST be tested according to state-approved procedures.
• A performance data sheet, summarizing the results of these tests MUST be voluntarily provided to buyers or renters PRIOR to completion of the sale or rental agreement.
• Two different units advertised to remove a particular contaminant may not perform equally. By comparing performance data sheets, you can tell which does the better job.

"I'd like to soften our water, but I'm afraid of all the extra sodium it will add to my diet."

• Except for persons on a very low sodium diet, the additional sodium added by a softener is often a small fraction of total daily intake.
• You can use your water hardness test report to estimate how much sodium will be added by a home water softener that is recharged with sodium chloride.
• The additional sodium added to your daily diet will be approximately equal to the water hardness (measured in milligrams per liter).
• Example: if total water hardness = 400 mg/L then softening would add about 400 milligrams of sodium to your daily intake.

Ways to soften household water and still avoid extra sodium intake

• Route an unsoftened water line to kitchen or other locations for drinking.
• Recharge water softener with potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride.
• Use distiller or reverse osmosis unit to remove sodium from softened water.

"Our water causes red stains on laundry and fixtures and everyone I talk with gives me a different solution to the problem?"

• There are several options for dealing with "red water". Selection is based on the type and amount of iron in the water.
• Start with a water test to determine if you have mineral iron, iron bacteria, or both.
• Low levels (5 mg/L or less) of mineral iron can often be handled with a softener.
• At higher levels of mineral iron, equipment manufacturers often recommend an oxidizing filter (often called an "iron filter") followed by a softener.

Iron Bacteria

• Iron bacteria are non-disease-causing microorganisms that form an iron-laden slime on the interior of plumbing systems.
• Coping with Iron Bacteria
• Shock-chlorinate the well and plumbing system to reduce the population. They WILL grow back, so be prepared to repeat the process periodically.
• If re-growth is rapid, continuous application of low levels of chlorine, using an automatic chlorinator, may be more effective.
• NOTE: continuous chlorination may aggravate mineral ironproblems.

"I use a cartridge-type filter to remove iron, and whenever I replace it there is lots of red stuff coating it....so it must work pretty well."

• Paper, spun fiber, or charcoal cartridges are designed for removing small amounts of sand or rust particles from small quantities of water.
• Charcoal cartridges also do a nice job of removing chlorine and other taste- or odor-causing contaminants.
• BUT, small cartridge-type filters are NOT designed to handle large quantities of water for a whole house, and they lack the chemical oxidizing power needed to react with and trap dissolved iron.
• The amount of mineral iron (or iron bacteria) that cartridge-type filters accumulate represents only a small fraction of the total amount of iron in the water.

"My water softener worked great when it was new....now it's not getting the job done."

• A slow build-up of iron inside the softener coats the hardness-removing resin, causing a decline in softener performance. In extreme cases, softener plugging may occur, particularly if iron levels exceed the manufacturer's recommendations.
• Periodic treatment with a resin-bed cleaner (added to salt) or use of specially-treated salt can help to minimize this.
• If resin bed cleaning agents don't work, you may need to install an "iron filter" ahead of the softener to prevent softener.

Back to Water Quality