How To Remove Water Stain From Ceiling Without Painting

How to Remove Sulfur From Your Well Water

Last Updated Jan 07, 2022

Medically Reviewed past Briony Jain, PhD in Public Health

While most people get their drinking water from public water supplies, more than 13 1000000 households in the U.s.a. rely on private wells for their drinking h2o. Well water can absorb many dissimilar compounds from the surrounding soil — and when levels of compounds like sulfur become too loftier, you lot'll need to filter it. If you lot're dealing with high levels of sulfur in your drinking supply, learn how to remove sulfur from well water.

Sulfur is a naturally occurring chemical chemical compound. There are two sources of sulfur in well h2o – sulfates and hydrogen sulfide gas.

Sulfates are a type of salt that contains sulfur. They may be in the soil and rocks surrounding your well. As groundwater and rainwater seep through the soil and rocks, they can carry sulfates into your well water.
Hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) tin happen naturally when plants or other organic material decays. It tin can too be related to pollution in the h2o. And when sulfur bacteria feed on sulfates in well water, they can create H2S. You'll need to remove the H2S from your water and vent the gas from low-lying spaces around your well.

Is Sulfur Harmful?

Information technology depends on the level of sulfates or hydrogen sulfide in the water. In small amounts, these things don't cause a trouble.

Too much sulfate tin cause diarrhea and aridity. It can also have a bitter taste, clog your pipes with slime and stain your laundry.

Too much H2S causes a rotten egg smell in well water. In big amounts, it tin be poisonous and lead to nausea and disease — but this is more likely to happen from breathing the gas than from drinking water. H2S can as well corrode pipes and stain your utensils.

How Can I Tell If My Well Water Has Sulfur?

At that place are a few ways to tell if you lot have a sulfur problem:

Odour or taste — Sulfur has a distinctive aroma similar to rotten eggs, and sulfates can give water a biting taste. If your well h2o has sulfur in it, yous may observe an unpleasant smell or odd taste.
Slime or stains — Sulfur bacteria can get out black stains or a white, grey, black or reddish-brown slime on silverware or plumbing.
Water tests — Get your well water tested every year, even if yous don't find signs of sulfur or other problems. You lot tin can find several dissimilar water testing kits online or in stores. Just to ensure accurate results, observe a state-certified laboratory to exercise the tests. And bank check with your local health department first, in case they provide these tests for free.

How Tin can I Remove Sulfur From My Well Water?

At that place are many options for removing sulfur from your well water. The all-time selection 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 employ small pieces of porous carbon (similar charcoal) to attract chemicals in water and filter them out. You can install an activated carbon filtration arrangement as a low-price and low maintenance solution to remove a low concentration of sulfur — just it won't handle high concentrations of sulfur.
Aeration handling — This is a low-cost and safe solution that adds air to the water. This process may reduce the hydrogen sulfide to acceptable levels, but may not go rid of it completely. And it won't kill sulfur bacteria.
Chlorine bleach — You can inject chlorine bleach into your water before filtration. This is a depression-cost solution that can finer remove medium-to-loftier levels of hydrogen sulfide from your water. But this method isn't fast-acting, and it besides adds sodium to the water and can leave toxic remainder.
Potassium permanganate — You lot can use potassium permanganate solution in combination with a special blazon of filter to remove sulfur particles. This process gets rid of several odors, only it tin exist toxic and may leave your water looking pink.
Hydrogen peroxide — This is a fast and safe solution that leaves no chemical remainder and no taste in the h2o. But an annual supply of peroxide may be expensive, so it's not every bit common in private domicile h2o systems.
Ozone gas — This is also a fast and safe solution that leaves no chemic residue. But ozone systems are expensive, and they add gases to the water that you then demand to vent.

If y'all ain a private well, or are thinking of putting one in, check in with your local health section about maintenance procedures to make sure your water is prophylactic for everyday use. Many wellness departments offer gratuitous water testing to bank check the levels of sulfur and other compounds — and they tin provide more than detailed advice near the all-time filtration methods.

Resource Links

"Hydrogen Sulfide and Sulfur Bacteria in Well H2o" via Minnesota Department of Health
"Hydrogen Sulfide and Sulfate in Private Drinking Water Wells" via University of Massachusetts Amherst
"Private Drinking Water Wells" via U.S. Environmental Protection Agency