- 5/2/2007 11:39:09 AMBleaching The WellAs part of the adoption requirements, we are required to have the water at our home checked. Since we don't live in the city - we have our own well.
When the well was first dug 8 years ago, one of the precautions we had to take was to bleach it. This process is very similar in nature to shocking a swimming pool. In this case, we poured 4 or 5 gallons of non-scented bleach down the well and ran the garden hose into the well head for about 15 minutes. This churned up the water and mixed everything real nice. The purpose then was to kill any bacteria that may have gotten into the well water from the top soil during the drilling process. Since the initial bleaching 8 years ago, we have had very good (if not a little hard) water (25 ppm).
So now we have to get our well water checked again. Just to make sure it was free of any bacteria, we decided to bleach it again. In hind sight, we should have just taken a sample and sent it in for testing first. Then if it required bleaching, we could have done that. But of course... that is not what we did. (Lesson #1)
So last night around 8 PM we dumped in the bleach and ran the hose into the well for 15 minutes. After that, we ran the spigots in the house so that they filled with bleach water. While the hose ran, all of the sediment in the well became mixed with the water. When we ran the water into the house it was all brown and disgusting. I think we should have let the water sit for a while before we turned on the inside spigots (Lesson #2). After this we let it sit over night.
In the morning, we ran the hose out into the field and let it run until the water became clear and the strong smell of bleach was gone. The water cleared up within about 3 or 4 minutes, the bleach smell remained for a long time. I honestly don't remember how long we let the hose run the first time we did this but today I let it run for about 4 hours. That is not enough time (Lesson #3).
I took a shower later in the afternoon and the whole bathroom smelled like a swimming pool locker room. I was clean though! I think we'll take the sample some time next week.
