# Sulfur in our drinking water **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sulfur-in-our-drinking-water/335756 "2005-12-15T18:03:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sulfur-in-our-drinking-water/335756/21 "2005-12-17T04:58:50Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > I like reading your post’s I never learned all the chemistry behind this stuff. Generaly I was the person installing not evaluating. I also ran a plant for batch regeneration of water softener exchange tanks. I’ve been out of the field for 6 years or so. > > On smell do to bacteria from what your saying is caused by sulfur bacteria. ie rotten eggs smell not iron bacteria. > > Another cause of sulfur smell in the water can be anode rods in the hot water heater. In this case it would be in hot water only. It’s easily solved by changing the anode rods to another material. > > Methods used in public water supplies can be very different then those used for private wells. The volume of water and the frequency of testing give them much different answers to common problems. The fact they can have people full time changing over filters and such plays into it as well. > > Potasium permaginate with greensand filters is deffinatly become obsolete for most needs. It still serves a purpose in very specific pruposes for a few rare homeowners. > > As I mentioned earlier the person should check out the Water Quality Association to help them find a qualified supplier. [www.wqa.org](http://www.wqa.org) While I agree with you on most of your comments, the interesting thing is that the methods of treatment really don’t differ that much when dealing with groundwater in terms of municipal versus home systems. I’ve designed “water softeners” for municipal well sites that had 1200-gpm flows and also did an evaluation and purchase of a softener for my 0.25-gpm house. One’s obviously a lot bigger than the other. As a comparison, the 1200-gpm system had four resin tanks that were each 9 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. You wanna talk regeneration wastes? ---
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sulfur-in-our-drinking-water/335756/22 "2005-12-17T15:17:45Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > I assumed the iron was supposed to be .3 parts per million. Above .3 is typically where you start seeing staining. > > I also translated the hardness to 1 grain hardness which is very rare in untreated water but I have seen it. Tested it a half dozen times. searched the basement for a softener or something. Before accepting it, but I have seen it. > > Kanicbird your correct. That maintenance cost was too high. I couldn’t remember the cost of the ‘purple stuff’ 25 bucks for a 5lb container didn’t seem unrealistic. Now that you mention it 5 bucks a container sounds more correct. So the maintenance would be 5-25 dollars a year. > > Yep city folk just learn to take clean water for granted its not till your outside of a public water supply that you even need to think about these things. The cities do all the work to make your water clean and healthy. Maybe people should thank their public works department every once in a while rather than bitch that they had to shut off their water for maintenance. > > I don’t think someone living in a rural area is expecting too much when wanting their water to be odor free clean and healthy. It’s not even hard to do it just takes someone to provide the right solution. > > I’m not sure why water treatment equipment is considered high maintenance. It’s definitely not no maintenance I think of it as pretty low maintenance. Take a water softener it requires you add salt at least once every 5 months. How hard is that? > If you want to be good to it you could add some Rust Out, Rust Raze or Iron Out i.e. sodium hydrosulfate every year or so. A lot of the time they go 30 years or more with the home owner only knowing they need to add salt to the thingy in the basement. Is a oil furnace high maintenance. You need to make sure it has oil and every couple years have someone check it out. That’s about what’s needed for most equipment. Water treatment generally is high maintenance. Water softening is not. You are correct. Most water softeners are on city water. Just add salt. When the thing craps out (and you can get many years of service from a water softener) —just buy a new one for maybe $300. However if you are on well water with sulpher and acidic water and possibly tannic water and clearwater iron water. --------equipment to treat that runs in the thousands of dollars and uses chorine and is VERY high maintenance. All that equipment works together----------the chemical feed pump, pumping highly corrosive to itself (if even the tiniest leak) chlorine, a holding tank, a water softener, (which will be destroyed if too much chlorine reaches it) an activated charcoal filter (which also will be destroyed if too much chlorine reaches it). It all has to be watched like a hawk and checked and rechecked and readjusted at least weekly if not daily by the consumer. If not done-------thousands of dollars of very expensive water treatment equipment can go down the tubes. As said before-------if you can’t handle it-------live in the city. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sulfur-in-our-drinking-water/335756/23 "2005-12-17T23:57:59Z")
I still think your theory of having to check equipment daily or weekly is absurd. I would never recommend a chemical feed pump for a home owner. I can’t think of a situation where one is needed. There are better solutions for most problems. If chlorine is needed a closed pellet container needs service about over 6 months. I recommend the service be done by a professional but the average person is capable of doing it themselves if they can follow instructions and are very safety oriented. It is not true that most water softeners are on city water. Unfortunately my google foo is weak; I could not find a site. In my experience I’ve seen far more water softeners in people’s homes for private water supplies rather then public. If your buying 300 water softeners I’d expect them to crap out frequently. Sulfur can be solved by the above chlorinator followed by an activated carbon filter. When you smell chlorine you change the filter normally every 2 months. Acidic water can be neutralized with a neutralizer. All it requires is someone adds limestone when needed, frequency varies people need to do/have this done usually between 1 and 6 months. Tannic water is something I have very little experience with. Only saw it once in a drilled well. It’s occasionally found in dug or driven point wells that are contaminated with surface water. I’ve seen R/O units used to treat this. R/O units require service every six months or so. Clear water iron is solved by your $300 dollar softener. I don’t know why anyone would put a chlorinator inline before a softener. Destroyed is an interesting term for the carbon filter. Most people use terms like exhausted of depleted. As the purpose of the carbon filter is to take out the chlorine. When its ‘destroyed’ you replace it. If you have equipment that needs to be watched like a hawk I’d say be done with it and replace it with something that works well without contant supervision there is a solution to almost every problem. Are you trying to scare the city folk out of living in the country? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sulfur-in-our-drinking-water/335756.md?page=1)