Water Woes

Over the last few months, I have given water a great deal of thought. Last spring, our well ran dry.  We had no water. A plumber was contacted and we had a new well drilled. It took quite a long time and many additional feet of depth to access the water table. The reason the well ran dry was never determined. But, we thought we were all set.

Unfortunately, that was not true. A couple of months ago we started having water pressure problems. When more than one faucet or shower was running, or any water-using appliances were running, we lost pressure. This NEVER happened before. After contacting the plumber, my husband replaced the pressure tank.  It got somewhat better but then we had a problem with sediment in the water.

Again, for no obvious reason, the water began running orange – filled with iron/rust.  This was a problem. So, we spent some time in October or early November (it’s all a blur now), drinking only bottled water while the problem was diagnosed. We reached out to the plumber, who said they’d visit that day, but they never showed.  Cleaning the filter and flushing the system, repeatedly, seemed to clear the water.

Still no plumber. My husband visited a water softener company based in our city.  They offered some advice. And tested some water for us.  We tested the water out of the tap with a water test kit from the large home improvement store up the road.

Our toilet bowls were coated with orange sediment. It was not pleasant. Scrubbing and bleaching them, luckily, removed the sediment.

Just as quickly as the sediment occurred, it disappeared.  My husband has been on top of this. Still no visit from the plumber. We called again. Again, the plumber said he’d come that day. And, again he never showed.  We have done what we can and believe the problem exists outside the house, between the new well and the pressure tank.

But, today, on the heels of reading a New York Times article about the rise of water in the Florida Keys, we had water in our basement!

My husband was at our cabin – taking care of the 22 inches of snow that had fallen there recently. I had spent the morning out Christmas shopping. I came home, had lunch and was cleaning up when I heard something running downstairs. Water!  Was it the water softener recharging? Had a faucet been turned on?  I stopped what I was doing to go look.

Upon entering our utility room, I glanced around and did not see anything but heard rushing water.  As I looked back to where the pressure tank is, I saw water on the floor. Crap! We have a leak! I went towards the sound.  Sure enough, the filter near the pressure tank was leaking and spraying water at the wall in three steady streams!

Fortunately, due to our recent problems, I knew how to turn the water off to the filter and the house. Then, I had to drain the water stored in the filter to prevent it from continuing to drip and spray. There was a layer of water covering the floor in the room that contains the pressure tank. It had started to migrate out of that room to the main part of the utility room but had not yet reached anything of importance.

So, our water saga continues. My husband came home, replaced the filter that had leaked (failed), flushed the system, and ran the water. However, we now have sediment in the water again. There are two gallons of bottled water on the kitchen counter.  We can flush the toilets. But, we cannot drink our water.  It is extremely frustrating and tiring. We will contact the plumber again and issue an ultimatum on Monday.  I double they’ll respond. They haven’t yet, why would they now?  I am sure we’ll have to contact a different plumber for help with this.  I feel bad for the plumber that inherits this problem. I feel bad for us.

We all take water for granted.  We shouldn’t.