"Rotten egg" smell in the well water

Hey folks,

I just bought a property in a "semi-rural" area on well water. It's in Northern King Township (northern GTA) just south of Hwy #9. For those of you familiar with the area, the hamlet is called Pottageville. We won't take possession of it til March but I do want to look into an issue that I'd like to correct as soon as we get in there. The water stinks. A family member who is on well water says his water does not smell at all and he was concerned about the smell when he came along to view the house with me.

I've done some research and would like to know if others have experienced the same with their wells. Even if it is completely harmless, we'd like to get rid if the smell (I know the wife won't like it!)

So what I found is that we may be dealing with hydrogen sulphide. I came across this: "results from the bacterial breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen gas, such as in swamps and sewers; this process is commonly known as anaerobic digestion."

These are the solutions I came across on Wiki (I know, not a good source!):

Hydrogen sulfide can be removed effectively from drinking water and there are a number of processes designed for this purpose. However, the preferred method can change according to the level of concentration in water. Drinking water should be checked for hydrogen sulfide levels, especially if using ground water due to low dissolved oxygen levels.

• Continuous Chlorination

For levels up to 75 mg/L Chlorine is used in the purification process as an oxidizing chemical to react with hydrogen sulfide. This reaction yields insoluble solid sulfur. Usually the chlorine used is in the form of sodium hypochlorite.

• Aeration

For concentrations of hydrogen sulfide less than 2mg/L aeration is an ideal treatment process. Oxygen is added to a water and a reaction between oxygen and hydrogen sulfide react to produce odourless sulphate

So if this is my issue (hopefully nothing more) it seems like it won't be an overly complicated solution. I guess I will need to call in a company to properly test the well water. Can someone recommend a good company in York Region/GTA that deals with well water quality?

Thanks!

Did you do a test for bacterial contamination? They are free from the local health unit and easy to do. It may help figure out exactly what you have

Check with others landowners in the area to see if they have the same problem. Some areas have a high sulpher content in the water. You won't remove this with chlorination. You'll need some of water treatment (water softener).

Well, (pun intended) is the smell coming from the hot water or both? Mine is from the hot water tank. After a while, bacteria attaches itself to the sacrificial anode and contributes to the smell you are describing. I simply shut the water and hydro off, drain about a gallon of water into a bucket by opening the bottom drain valve. I then remove the anode rod which is located on top of the tank utilizing a 1 1/16" socket. It is about 3 feet in length with a diameter of about 3/4'' . If you just have a skinny metal rod it means that the bacteria have eaten it and time to go to your local hardware store and replace it. This protects your tank from internal corrosion.

Pour 1/4 cup of Javex bleach or equivalent into the top hole where the anode sits, wrap Teflon tape on threads and reinsert the rod. Turn on the water and you will have fresh smelling water for a few months.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by impact

Well, (pun intended) is the smell coming from the hot water or both? Mine is from the hot water tank. After a while, bacteria attaches itself to the sacrificial anode and contributes to the smell you are describing. I simply shut the water and hydro off, drain about a gallon of water into a bucket by opening the bottom drain valve. I then remove the anode rod which is located on top of the tank utilizing a 1 1/16" socket. It is about 3 feet in length with a diameter of about 3/4'' . If you just have a skinny metal rod it means that the bacteria have eaten it and time to go to your local hardware store and replace it. This protects your tank from internal corrosion.

Pour 1/4 cup of Javex bleach or equivalent into the top hole where the anode sits, wrap Teflon tape on threads and reinsert the rod. Turn on the water and you will have fresh smelling water for a few months.

---

This is the solution we did.. northern king as well.

A Dry Pellet Chlorinator, does the job of clearing up Hydrogen Sulfide, [the rotten egg smell] in the water .
What it does is kills the bacteria causing the smell at the source ,[in the bottom of the well] but you then also need a "charcoal filtering system ] to get rid of the high concentrations of chlorine in the water which is also offensive in taste and smell.

One of the farmers down our road has this system and it works very well, also out in Alberta , most every one out in the country uses these Dry Pellet Chlorinators.

Sulpher in well water is quite common in certain areas - there are methods of treatment that are similar to a water softener (as Werner said) - it's isn't hard to have it taken care of -

Sounds like sulfur in your water supply. There are water treatment systems that can be installed to deal with this. But, the first step is to get the water tested to make sure it is potable.

Sellers claim it was tested regularly... As part of deal, we'll have it tested before closing to make sure it's good. I will get a better idea of what is causing smell, but I think we've all narrowed it down to hydrogen sulphide.

Hopefully, this will be easily corrected.

Thanks folks! Will let ya know how it goes.

First, run it a pretty good while if it the place has been uninhabited or unused frequently.
Sometimes it gradually builds up in infrequently used systems as mentioned.

Had the same problem outside of Port PERRY, YEARS AGO. A Patterson Iron Remover , did the trick.

you can get a water test kit at your local library .then you send it in and thy will tell you what is up .it is common in a lot of areas to have sulfur in the water and it will still be safe to drink ,just smells bad .most gals will not like this .haha it is a easy fix ,but get it tested your self just to be sure D

It might be "fixable".
But I would never buy property where my water supply had to be "fixed".
An eternity of using technology to remove bad smells from water....
No thanks.
I think I'll live somewhere else were the water tastes like water.

Rotten egg smell a.k.a hydrogen sulphide can be present for a number of different reasons and although unpleasant is not usually a health concern. The exception is the rare instance where the source is actually from sewage contamination - but as stated this is rare and if true the microbiological test results will also be through the roof.

The most common sources (in no particular order) are:

- natural due to the local geology.
- sulfur reducing bacteria residing in your well.
- sulfur reducing bacteria residing in your plumbing (most often the water heater)
- chemical reaction between the anode in your water heater and sulphate

The microbiological testing done by the local health unit and/or the home owner prior to closing is usually only for Total Coliform and E. Coli and/or Fecal Coliform. This test will not detect sulfur reducing bacteria and will not tell you anything regarding the source of the problem.

If the problem only occurs on the hot water only than the issue is likely localized to the hot water heater and can be resolved by cleaning and shock chlorinating the water heater and/or changing out the anode based on the recommendation of the water heater manufacturer. If sulfur reducing bacteria have colonized the heater you may have to do this on some kind of regular schedule as it is almost impossible to kill all the bacteria and the survivors begin recolonizing at a geometric rate.

If the issue is sulfur reducing bacteria in the well/aquifer than shock chlorination will temporarily resolve the problem but as with the water heater it is almost impossible to get them all and survivors will recolonize the well. Continuous chlorination with subsequent activated carbon dechlorination will permanently resolve this (although carbon media will need to replaced periodically).

Another alternative is to install a backwashing filter (looks like a softener without the salt tank) that oxidizes the hydrogen sulphide to harmless tasteless sulphate (this would be my first choice). Incidentally sulphate is usually what you started with but the bacteria use it as an oxygen source and in the process convert it to hydrogen sulphide.

If the issue is caused by the geology and not bacteria related than either chlorination/dechlorination or an oxidizing filter will work.

If you get testing done beyond microbiology than make sure you check for iron, manganese, hardness and pH as well. These parameters will directly affect the model and size of treatment equipment installed.

Also beware of free testing as sometimes they know what they are doing and are honest. Other times they are shysters and will say you need whatever they have the largest margin on. The residential market is full of both types.

Javex is is the realtors trick and friend lol There is a place just south of Sutton that has the small sterilized water bottles used to put your water in to be tested Hand your sample in to them and it gets picked up by the lab there on certain days .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splaker

Sellers claim it was tested regularly... As part of deal, we'll have it tested before closing to make sure it's good. I will get a better idea of what is causing smell, but I think we've all narrowed it down to hydrogen sulphide.

Hopefully, this will be easily corrected.

Thanks folks! Will let ya know how it goes.

---

Were you there to see them take the water? Did you take the sample?

The only reason I ask is because you want to make sure that it is just too much sulfur (it happens). If it is just sulfur then it is safe to drink, rotten egg water just reminds me of grandmas house, ha ha.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by johny

It might be "fixable".
But I would never buy property where my water supply had to be "fixed".
An eternity of using technology to remove bad smells from water....
No thanks.
I think I'll live somewhere else were the water tastes like water.

---

Not sure where you live but the housing market is extremely tight here. There's not much out there that we like. We narrowed our search down to one area, actually. We love the house we bought. Paid a bit more than we wanted too, but there was a lineup of buyers. They have a small child and we met them. They have had the water tested and said they just got used to the odour and didn't notice it. We mostly drink bottled water anyway. That's not the issue. So, overall, I figure the house is otherwise perfect for us.

Once you get YOUR well water fixed up, you will wind up filling plastic bottles for friends who want PURE water to drink, instead of that store bought swill....
If it is your hot water tank, do some Google research on anodes. There are two common types and you can solve your problem by switching to the other one. It is just a different metal and you can tell which you have by the cap on the end, where it screws into the tank.
Like I said, once you get used to good well water you will never be happy with city or store bought stuff...

we have a sand farm and the water is heavenly we have folks come form the city to fill jugs of are water .even the old owners come out once a month to fill there water jugs .once you have had real good water everything ells is just not good enough .I hope you can get your smell sorted out and good luck with your new home Dutch

Our test came back fine... but it only tests for potability. Good to drink but still smells - cold and warm water.

We need to get it tested now for the other stuff to figure out what is in our water. No idea about PH, iron, other mineral counts.. I just don't want to dump bleach down the well as some sites suggest. We get the place in 2 days so we will spend a few days trying to figure this out. I am wary of the crooks out there who want to sell you a $1500 system.
The dry pellet chlorinator recommendation sounds interesting since we are pretty certain it's hydrogen sulphide... it has all the symptoms of being that.

If anyone can recommend a good, trustworthy company that can test our water then recommend a product without getting ripped off, I would appreciate it.

thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splaker

Our test came back fine... but it only tests for potability. Good to drink but still smells - cold and warm water.

We need to get it tested now for the other stuff to figure out what is in our water. No idea about PH, iron, other mineral counts.. I just don't want to dump bleach down the well as some sites suggest. We get the place in 2 days so we will spend a few days trying to figure this out. I am wary of the crooks out there who want to sell you a $1500 system.
The dry pellet chlorinator recommendation sounds interesting since we are pretty certain it's hydrogen sulphide... it has all the symptoms of being that.

If anyone can recommend a good, trustworthy company that can test our water then recommend a product without getting ripped off, I would appreciate it.

thanks

---

I'm glad to hear that your tests came out OK. A retired friend of mine was a Culligan dealer for decades. I knew his company and their reputation,so,I don't hesitate to recommend them. There's a dealer in your area. Of course,there's others. Next time should you decide on another rural property,always be sure to include complete water tests and full disclosure as a condition of purchase. Too many people don't and get whacked for full systems worth thousands of dollars to rectify the situation orworse,need to dig new wells. Buyer beware. Take nothing at face value.

We've experienced the same problem where we live, but it's only at certain times of the year. Last's for a week or two then it's gone. We have a water softner and water filter in the system yet for a week or two during the course of a year we are saddled with the problem. We've had our water tested and other than the smell it's fine.

Drilled or dug well? Possible runoff getting in during wet periods only. We had to landscape the lawn around our dug well a few tears back. It only happened in the spring when the lawn had heaved in the frost....

Nothing to get worked up about. It's quite common, esp. with heavy clay-limestone based soils. The real estate agent that tested the water needs to taken out behind the chicken shed for a discussion, with a nice spruce lathe stick in your hand. The water is still considered potable, but it's pretty sad that they lied and didn't admit there was a sulphur issue with the water. It would have reeked when the sample was taken. All you do is let it oxidze (gas-off) by letting the sample sit for a while, and the water won't stink. The driller would have known this. Check the well log for the well. Anyway, no big deal. We ran in to this 22 years ago when we bought our house. Aeration is by far the easiest and healthiest way to get rid of it. We still are using our same system that was installed 22 years ago and it still works fine. It's simply a by-pass valve after the pressure tank, with a pair of scuba bottles (filled with sand media) that have aeration venturi jets on them. The rig is on a timer, so it can back-wash itself 3X per week, at night when you're sleeping. No chemicals involved. All it's doing is injecting oxygen into the water, changing the H2S in S04 (sulphate) which precipitates out of solution. The backwash sends the precip to your septic. Water is fantastic. Perfect, no odour. You're prob. looking at about $2-3K for the system, but they last a long time. Untreated, H2S is corrosive to all your plumbing and appliances, like your dish washer and washing machine. You'll also have bowel movements that mimic a mudslide if you drink it. We dealt with McLeod Water out of Peterborough. Excellent folk with no BS. You're best bet is to call a reputable local company. Get them to come and test your water on site at your house (no charge). Based on your H2S level, they can recommend the best system for capacity that you want. Get a quote and call others for the same. You do not need bleach, unless you want to shock your well to try to deal with either anaerobic iron bacteria (would have been introduced by the driller by bringing in contaminated equipment), or coliform bacteria.

Dave

Great write up and explanation Dave.

Question....Would a well casing that is slowly rusting also introduce anaerobic iron bacteria. I disturbed mine when I pulled out my submersible pump last year and seem to have to shock my hot water tank a little bit more frequent now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fenelon

Nothing to get worked up about. It's quite common, esp. with heavy clay-limestone based soils ......
Aeration is by far the easiest and healthiest way to get rid of it. ......
The backwash sends the precip to your septic. Water is fantastic. Perfect, no odour. ......

You'll also have bowel movements that mimic a mudslide if you drink it. .......

Dave

---

Dave's solution is bang-on. Growing up, my parents owned a bar/restaurant with the smelliest high sulphur content water. We had monthly testing by the Dept of Health and passed with flying colours. And no smell unless there was a power outage. (No power = no aeration)

As for it's effect on the body -- the body gets used to it too.
Oh yeah -- expect to use extra fabric softener and hair conditioner unless you also spring for water softening.

CA - you must have a cast iron colon if you can partake of the egg water without getting "the scours"!. I remember going skiing once at Blue Mountain as a teenager, and a bunch of us rented a couple of chalets at the base of the hill. The sulphur was so bad you could barely have a shower in it. Anyone who drank it was pissing out of their bums so bad it literally ruined their ski trip. It was priceless - all the hot chicks in our group would be squirming on the chairlift during the 10 min ride to the top, then they'd frantically ski-skate into the nearest patch of trees to bark out a spray of tar. Nobody wanted to date these hot chicks after seeing that.

Re"iron bacteria - you'd have to Google it to be sure, but this is not the standard iron oxide rusting you see on the steel casing when it's exposed to air. This is an anaerobic bacteria found where's there is no oxygen. It creates slimy, ropy masses as it grows. Drillers are supposed to clean and disinfect their rigs, as it's easy to spread it to a new drill location. It's a pain when you get it. You'll gradually see the output from your well decline as it bungs the interstitial spaces up in the water-bearing formation that your well point is in. Chlorinated bleach will kill it, put simply pouring a jug down the casing will not do the job very well. It's best to get the driller to water purge the well with a good pump and a tanker truck of chlorinated water. When I saw it done properly, they poured 4 full jugs of bleach down, then ran a 4"hose down the casing to the bottom of the well. Then they opened the gate valve on the truck and pumped the whole 1500+ gallons of water down the well at high pressure. It put a 15 foot plume of water in the air, and blew all the iron bacteria goop onto the lawn. Looked like something that would come out of a grown man's colon after a week at the deer camp. Goopy stuff with fine white threads in it. They then get you to pump down the well and run it off on a garden hose, to bypass your septic (bleach will kill the poop critters in the septic). A pumping test will show the effect of the clean-out. Much better recharge time on the well, and much greater capacity.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$departm.../all/agdex1142
Amazing what you can get on the computer. Description of how to shock your well if it has iron bacteria

We just pump out our dug well and add five gallons of pool chlorine. Five minutes later when the water level is back up to the pump intake we open the taps in the house and run each one until we smell chlorine. By then the well is normally filled so we pump it out again to get rid of most of chlorine. (It will have already killed any bacteria) takes a day or so for the smell to leave the hot water in the house....

I just swapped the anode in my hot water tank. All of a sudden my hot water stunk. Had a magnesium changed to aluminum all fixed.

Just catching up on this thread.. been busy moving into the place!

What we've noticed is that the water itself does NOT smell. If you pour a glass of water and move away from the tap, and smell the water, there is absolutely NO odour. So the gas is coming from the pipes.

A relative on the wife's side of the family checked it out a few days ago and he thinks it may actually be methane gas from the septic backing up into the plumbing/pipes due to possibly poor plumbing. Is this possible? He is an electrician an not a plumber but he built much of his own house and has a good understanding of plumbing.

I just don't know if I should be calling a plumber, a water specialist or someone else.. Smell persists and I still think it smells more like rotten egg than septic methane. So does the wife...

I'd hate to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy system if it's a simple solution. If it's a matter of adding some bleach to the well, what harm can that do? I think we are going to at least try that first..

Thanks and keep ya posted...

Oh, and it's a drilled well, not dug.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gassyplumber

I just swapped the anode in my hot water tank. All of a sudden my hot water stunk. Had a magnesium changed to aluminum all fixed.

---

Good tip! I went to Home Depot last Friday and picked up an aluminium anode for $15. Removed the magnesium anode, poured a wee bit of bleach down the hole and installed the new anode. So far, so good. No smell. Time will tell how long this will last as we are now in the spring thaw.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splaker

Just catching up on this thread.. been busy moving into the place!

What we've noticed is that the water itself does NOT smell. If you pour a glass of water and move away from the tap, and smell the water, there is absolutely NO odour. So the gas is coming from the pipes.

A relative on the wife's side of the family checked it out a few days ago and he thinks it may actually be methane gas from the septic backing up into the plumbing/pipes due to possibly poor plumbing. Is this possible? He is an electrician an not a plumber but he built much of his own house and has a good understanding of plumbing.

I just don't know if I should be calling a plumber, a water specialist or someone else.. Smell persists and I still think it smells more like rotten egg than septic methane. So does the wife...

I'd hate to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy system if it's a simple solution. If it's a matter of adding some bleach to the well, what harm can that do? I think we are going to at least try that first..

Thanks and keep ya posted...

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by impact

Good tip! I went to Home Depot last Friday and picked up an aluminium anode for $15. Removed the magnesium anode, poured a wee bit of bleach down the hole and installed the new anode. So far, so good. No smell. Time will tell how long this will last as we are now in the spring thaw.

---

What impact said. I would try that before spending oodles of cash for a purification system. I doubt it's your septic system backing up,but,when was it last pumped out? Check that out,too.

Well we have narrowed down the smell to just the hot water! Could swear we smelled it in both cold and warm but it seems that it's just the hot water. So we called the water heater rental company (Direct Energy) and they are coming this morning to check it out.

Will let ya know what happens!