well water ph

[hapaschold]

well water tested out at only a ph of 2....far below what is was 4 or 5 years ago before city water began available, ph was 6 then.

anyway, i m using the well water for lawn and tree watering.

but the lawn is suffering from the high acid watering. ph of lawn was only 4.5

and is losing it s luster.

what to do ? ?

[budtoh3zo]

you can pour i cant remeber the name of it down the well to balance it out. also have you shocked it with clorine latly?

[hapaschold]

been sometime since i added some chorline down the well, since being on city water i dont have the problems with well water in the house anymore.

[ktpauley]

This is what a regulated drinking water factility would do here in Pa. Install a contact tank, and a feed pump to inject liquid sodium hydroxide ( Caustic Soda). Yes, caustic Soda is dangerous. You can get it in 5 gallon carboys, and feed it "neat", just swap the feed tube from1 carboy to another. Keith

[NBhunter80]

pH of 2 is extremely low. There must be something causing the drop in pH, because that is surely not the natural pH of ground water. If you drink the water, it could cause damage to your throat over time. It would be like drinking lemon juice instead of water. Keep in mind pH is a logarythmic scale so pH 2 is actually 10000 times more acidic than your former pH of 6! Another problem you may have besides acidity is that acid causes metals to dissolve, therefor you may have high disolved metal contents which can dangerous as well. If I were you, I would totally stop using your well water, shock it with a gallon of bleach down the well, flush it out completely, then have your water tested again. DO NOT use Sodium Hydroxide. It is extremely difficult to add the perfect amount of a strong base to neutralize water. It is far to easy to overshoot and have the opposite problem of high pH, which is equally dangerous. Also, for safety reasons, use a weak base such as household bleach. Bleach is alot more friendly if you spill it on yourself or somewhere else. With NaOH you could easily burn yourself, and also the reaction of a strong Base with acids can produce heat and gas which could be inhaled and cause further damage. Play it safe, shock your well with bleach, re-test and then take it from there.

[hapaschold]

it s a strange drop in ph......well s been pumping since march,did some early planting s ...and watering part s of the lawn early as april.

oddly how i found out about the real low ph, is i dumped my pool, cleaned and refilled, when i went to pool place with sample of the 18000 gallon pool, guy said ph is really really low.....that was done 2 nd of june...so the well was purged out well watering the lawn and new plantings.

neighbor 4 houses up also just filled his pool of his well, his neighbors well and city water , his ph came in at little under 4.

we ve been on city water for household use about 4 years now, i guess the ground water is getting alot of the acid from the pinelands surrounding.

[NBhunter80]

Very possible. Acid rain, industrial fallout, and natural Acid generating rock are other possibilites. pH 4 is low, but not abnormal if you say there are pinelands or bogs in the area. pH 2 is not normal, as it is 100 times more acidic than pH 4. Anyway, it seems like in your area you must keep a close eye on your well pH before using the water for anything where the potential for damage exists.

[ktpauley]

If yoyu shoot me your email address I'll send you the guide we give to people with wells here in Pa. it tells how to treat common problems. I would venture to say the Pine Barrens are the culprit in lowering th pH. Keith

[Bill Wincapaw]

I'm on a well and I'm getting bluish/green stains in my sinks, from what I've read this is the copper pipes dissolving from high acidic water. I am now looking at a calcite filter to install at the well to bring up the Ph.

[ktpauley]

Bill, it depends on how low your pH is this might not work properly. How Hard is your water. Typically that kind of treatment put hardness, and raises the pH some to prevent the copper from disolving. you may need to go with more treatment than that. Keith

[fields]

You need to lime your yard.

richard