06SEP11 - Sultan, WA (chem 101 or do drink the water)

Today we finally resolved our arsenic “issue” with Snohomish County Health District. As described in our BLOGs from the summer of 2008 the well we drilled on our property went far deeper & cost much more than we ever imagined. And it is not unusual for deep wells to contain minerals, chemicals, etc. Turns out not only did our water smell like sulfur & taste like iron, but also had minute traces of arsenic. In fact, the amount of arsenic was so small that our water was acceptable in every other county in WA state.

We were told that “all that had to be done” was install a point of use filter at the kitchen sink & ice maker. But you can’t just buy one & install it yourself; you have to have a licensed engineer submit a stamped plan to the health district first. Dan found someone that was highly recommend & gave him all our test results. Turns out the point of use filter will only work if all the other variables (hardness, iron, tannins, pH, manganese, etc, etc) are within certain limits! Naturally our water was not within these limits. So the engineer had to design a system to soften the water, remove the iron, reduce the acidity, & remove the tannins. And naturally this pre-treatment system was not cheap.

Finally it was time to obtain a point of use arsenic filter & install it under the kitchen sink. Turns out these filters are not available at Lowes, Home Depot, or plumbing supply houses. You can find them on the internet but we wanted one now, so we could take a water sample & get it tested at an accredited lab asap. It took two days but Dan finally discovered an independent driller that had one. After running water through it for an hour, we took a sample & drove it to the lab. After a week we received a report that shows no detectable amounts of arsenic. Another benefit is that our water has no smell, & tastes great.

But that is not the end of the saga. We then had to prepare a notarized “notice of well water arsenic disclosure” & record this document with county! So if you ever come to visit us make sure you only drink water out of the special spigot by the kitchen sink. Brushing your teeth in the bathrooms is at your own risk!