Testing the water from my deep desert well near Joshua Tree, using TapScore
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
- An analysis of the water testing process for the deep desert well that was drilled in these videos:
Part 1: • Deep well drilling in ...
Part 2: • Well drilling near Jos...
Includes an overview of the TapScore water testing product and what the results and treatment might look like.
Turns out if you go looking, you might find things you didn't expect ;)
00:00 Intro
01:08 TapScore (What's in the Box)
02:30 Water Collection
03:33 Results
If you use my Amazon links, you pay the same, but as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases:
* TapScore Essential Well or City Water Test: amzn.to/3HSfwsG
* TapScore Advanced Well or City Water Test: amzn.to/3xdbF4s
Please like and subscribe! I know that's what everyone says, but these videos are enormously time consuming to record and edit and the more people that respond with clicks, the more eyes I get on my efforts. Thank you! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Really interesting. The heavy elements are almost certainly associated with the volcanic/igneous rocks on which you're situated. Lots of granite bodies contain trace amounts of those elements, and can pick up more as they ascend from deep in the Earth and dissolve the roof and wall rock around them and incorporate them into the magma body. Many granite bodies are also radioactive, though the degree of radioactivity varies tremendously. Luckily, you are able to detect all these things and treat the water fairly easily.
What a wonderful romp into the world of water quality! TapScore looks like an excellent tool! Thanks.
We agree! :-) Hope we get to see the results after treatment is installed!
@@Tap_Scoredid you install a filter yet?
I would think being in the middle of a desert you could use distillation to separate the elements from your water. WW2 subs used distillery process to create potable water from sea water.
Personally I think your well water is great! I would be stoked on that analysis. There are many treatment options which are very low maintenance and will work great for you for many years. Easy peezy!
Thx! Yeah, a water softener for the main and R/O for drinking feels plenty sufficient and in a pinch I doubt the water would do any harm with occasional non-treated use (though I don't intend on that). Much appreciate the comment!
Interesting. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching!
Uranium, you won't need lighting in the house, you will glow in the dark... lol
Thanks for putting up this video trilogy. I was born and raised outside of LA, but by the time I was 10 in '96 I was living in the midwest, then the east coast quickly after. We have wells out here, most of the time. For the past 10 years I've always wondered what would happen if one were to drill a well in the desert, or Texas, or something. Well you've answered that 10 times over. I hope you get it sorted out. You can never win. There's always something wrong. You say the water is "old"...as in thousands of years old...just sitting down there? The whole thing freaks me out.
I'm living off of the grid, on some land I purchased. I'm a broke bastard, so the idea of drilling a well was out of the question. My neighbor drilled a well and it was 12K. Anyway I noticed I had this creek, so I set up a little basin and just started pumping the water out. I always just assumed it was clean mountain water. I never really thought too much about it. But now I'm curious. I really wonder how much a good water test is. I've got another piece of land that also has a creek. My friend told me there are beavers up a ways, so to be careful. I figured I could fill my 300 gallon tanks and just throw in a heating element and boil the water. It would kill what's in it, but who knows what else is in there. You seem to be interested in this stuff, perhaps you'd want to see my operation for getting water. I've made this video a few years ago. th-cam.com/video/3BIgnTz8_Hs/w-d-xo.html
I've been told I could run this water through a berkey filter and drink it, but I really don't know. I don't know what to believe anymore. Thanks for the videos, I wish they went on longer. Very cool stuff.
Chances are your water is not good due to the massively persistent chem-trials in the sky, which, when it rains, places extremely harmful contaminants into all surface water including e-coli, aluminum and many others. The simplest is the under the kitchen sink RO unit, does not cost much, you can install it yourself, easy to maintain.
Your land might not have good water to drink but on the other hand you might have plenty of Uranium and Lithium deposit on it. Both more expensive than gold.
🤣👍
@@rogersmith7396 LOL
and no rights to any of it
Very nice explanation on all the test you did on the water....we make one water well at Mexico use for arigetion farm. Foun water At 500 feets. But same places get to found the water at 50 feet or soo. Nice work I wash the video of the driving too perfect work
I have 870ft well in NW AZ... similar values... mine comes out of ground at 78 degrees F... I have been a missionary/church planter over 50 years, traveling always and found I was vary sensitive to different waters. One of my missionary docs suggested distilled water. Problem solved. I have been steam distilling all drinking water ever since. I now have solar still setup that meets my needs quite efficiently .
OOh, super cool! Do you have a video on the setup you are running? I'm sure a lot of people would love to see it (me included)!
That's cool. I'm wondering if the values change for the better if you drill deeper (say another 500 feet?). Also, there's a ghost town in CA called Badwater. I wonder who discovered that and how.
Thanks, man! You just saved me a lot of money.
Glad it helped. You were going to order a water test and my experience convinced you otherwise?
Very informative, thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for sharing, very informative
Thanks for watching!
In regards to the coliform positive hit, that can be (and most likely was) caused by your sampling outdoors in open air. Airborne dust has bacteria that will trigger a positive. (Since the standards call for ANY amount of coliforms, no matter how minute, is to be logged as a positive result.)
The only sound test procedure is from an indoor faucet, that does NOT swivel (The pivot joint can trap bacteria) and with the aerator removed. Run the water at a medium steady stream for about 5 minutes. Then quickly open the sample bottle, keeping fingers clear of the lip of the lid or bottle and lid opening pointed down. Quickly fill the bottle without letting the stream hit the lip, then immediately put the lid on tight. Oh, and good idea to use hand sanitizer before touching the sample bottle (or wear new latex gloves.)
I ran a small municipal system for a few years and quickly learned how easy it is to get a positive coliform result from improper sampling procedures, which in my case meant chlorinating then flushing the ENTIRE system, then taking several samples (One at each of my two wells, one upstream of the original test point, one AT the original test point, AND one downstream of the original test point.) All of that. plus public notices and EPA/DEQ paperwork.
Thankfully, a private well is not so strictly regulated.
Spot on!
Thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks for watching!
Thank you I'm happy well done great help learned things I did not New bless you mat
Very interesting 👍
Great video! Were there any other tests you were considering to use? Did you do a bunch of research to decide on the one you went with?
I’d like to test my dad’s well water in Michigan
I looked at a few but didn't go crazy with it since it was (in theory) on top of the basic test the county already did on my well. I might have it tested again in the future and choose another lab for comparison but the truth is unless you pay a lot of money to do lots of tests I don't think you ever *really* know if it was done well :(
This video is a good reminder of what a huge limiting factor water is on human civilization. There is more good land than there is water to make it useful.
Well said and you can largely track the movement of civilizations based on access to water.
Excellent video's thanks very informative..note, are you considering some type or cover for your at well control panel, the desert uv is so destructive, as well as dust, for dust well not much for that..hats off thanks.
Yes, such an excellent point!! You can't see it here but I always leave a bucket upside down on top of that panel to keep the sun from it and when my build is completed, I'm moving the control panel away and under a structure anyway for the reason you mentioned.
To your point the bucket I cover it with is already brittle and cracking.... UV is no joke!
@@LetsOverthinkThis that's why it's important to wear sunscreen too!!
This was fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes that your Reverse osmosis cleans up the issues. Have a blessed day.
Thank you and glad you enjoyed it!
Caveat Emptor and government are always a good combination. Someone once said "trust but verify."
Indeed! ;)
I have been drinking my own well water for over 30 years,never been sick or felt bad,so as far as I am concerned my water must be ok.I get a physical and blood work done every year and all my numbers are in the normal range.
Glad to hear it! I don't think that's how it works, necessarily.... People react differently to toxins and it's obviously possible you just didn't/haven't gotten cancer or reacted badly where if a hundred people drank that water, a much higher than normal amount of people would have.
That's generally how these things work.... They raise the risk of various things in a population, but not guarantee it in any individual.
At any rate I'm glad to hear you're doing well and your water is treating you well!
@@LetsOverthinkThis Thanks I just think if this water was bad I would have come on to something by now after 30 years.I used to drink out of garden hoses in the city as a kid.God knows what that water had in it.I don't baby my health,I just live like everybody else.
When it happens it happens and its too late to do anything about it. See Flint, MI.
Great info. Thanks.
Sir;
Can i borwell in desert of pakistan punjab for irrigation purposes.
Here, water is chloride salt
I wonder if it's possible to precipitate excess water hardness prior to a reverse osmosis stage?
I reject the use of a salt softening system.
I have no experience with the electronic water softeners- just seen lots of advertising on them.
Supposedly, these gizmos change the dissolved solids in to microcrystals which makes for easier cleaning...that's the pitch, anyway, and "ditch the salt".
Crazy, my well water in Joshua near sunfair has almost nothing it it but a bit of copper, very clean using a similar water testing company, they recommend activated charcoal filters for some dissolved solids, that was it you must be out near the mesa in yucca, I’ve heard that area gets uranium from eagle mountain mine, which is very far away, but the dump stuff there that gets into the deep deep well waters
Which water test did you use?
Sounds like you have a decent perspective on this. R/O for water you'll ingest for sure. Whole house, you have quite a bit of leeway. I think at very least a basic whole house filter is prudent, under $500 for most systems, under 100 for a basic GE if you're feeling really secure. The thing is most of these contaminants risks are over a lifetime. Actuarial stuff, and if your gray hair is any indication, you've already ingested the vast majority of the problematic stuff at this point...
As a side curiosity, how much of the problematic elements are just blowing around out there. The desert can be dusty. I'm not sure drinking a few hundredths of a PPM are that worrisome when there are days you can blow your nose and get mud.
Thanks for the in-depth comment. All-agreed and great point about the air-borne contaminants, too. It is dusty up there for sure (though not nearly as dusty as Coachella valley where palm springs is) but I haven't had a test done to know what's actually in that dust. Totally true, that may make the ingested amounts moot or at least an incomplete picture ;)
Thanks again!
Would a large distillery setup make any water safe to drink from all those possible contaminants?
Hmm, probably? But r/o still seems like a more reasonable way to go 😉
Do you have a distilling setup?
I made that u-line freezer bag.
Really? Thanks! Everyday useful items are underappreciated 🙌
Wondering what route you have chosen for softening? I have found that my RO filter only removes about 90% of contaminates. When it is new about 95% and when old about 85%. ( old being 2 years in service.) The reason I use the TDS PPM meter is to help judge the condition of the RO Membrane. My well runs 40-60 psi which is barely in RO spec requirements. I bypass the flow valve when the TDS PPM gets above 150 PPM to flush the membrane out better. After a flush it takes a day to get down to 50 TDS PPM but then slowly climbs it's way back up over 6 weeks. Sounds like you have a very good well at only 582 TDS PPM. At my TDS, even with my softener, I keep spare faucets for all my sinks because the alkalines build up in them.... Most have lasted about 5 years a few of the lessor used ones are at 20 years now. Shower cartridges are another "keep a spare". I have found that with 3 people here I have the softener cycle every 3 days, but when more folks stay with us then I must cycle every 2 days. I normally buy 800lbs of salt pellets at a time so the pump house works well for storing them. I have found that distilled water seems to work the best when I have to "wash" the solar panels as it leaves no residue.
Thanks for the detailed comment! I'm a long, long way off from actually having any water treatment here (need to do site grading, ground compaction, under-slab plumbing, pour the slab, and set up some shelter above it before I get to it). But I will likely go with one of the newer water softeners with 2 tanks that alternate so you avoid the unsoftened water making it through while it's flushing. They also are more efficient with salt usage since they actually meter the water rather than just base it on time.
I'm surprised your RO doesn't get the PPM lower than that but yeah, makes sense you have extra shower and faucet parts around! That's smart.
Seems like you know your system and keep a good eye on things so I have nothing to offer, but thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!
@@LetsOverthinkThis yes, the style that I use has the flow meter too but it doesn't seem to activate the recharge cycle soon enough. 3rd unit, none have cycled according to the usage. the built in tank units are just more compact. they all operate the same if they use salt. suggest putting septic under slab but put all waterpipes above ground inside your walls. suggest pex with crimp rings, insulate each pipe, both hot and cold. Don't depend on wall insulation to keep them from freezing. Set plumbing so you can use solar hot water heater.
@@rss608 Hmm, not activating soon enough seems like you'd just adjust the "grains" number in the interface so it activates sooner, but of course you may have another problem I'm unaware of. I don't think I'll put the septic under the slab; seems like a nightmare for fixing things in the future and I don't see the benefit (let me know!) but totally agree, all plumbing that can be in the walls will be that way.
The under-slab plumbing I was referring to in my original post is the plumbing that has to be there, mainly the shower and toilet drains.
Thx for the suggestions!
The problem with groundwater in Cali is that this area is geologically active with crustal thinning. Because of this, hydrothermal processes are very important....You have a high heat flow, upward movement of magma full of various elements and mechanical deformation. All of this means that the groundwater will have a high load of dissolved minerals.
Interesting! Didn't know that.
Interesting! Didn't know that. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Radioactive elements decay, that's why they are radioactive. Lead doesn't decay into uranium, for example. You always decay to lighter elements. In the desert those things are just lying around, and have been since before people were there. In the east, where I live, we get lots of radon from the ground compared to other areas. But that's granite for you.
QUESTION / COMMENT. as a WATER EXPERT: are there ways to filter items like: antimony, arsenic, fluoride ? Does sending the water thru a softener "clean any of these chemicals" ? Does a charcoal filter remove any of this ? last question: when bottled water labels read: minerals added for taste ........ what minerals are usually added ?? - thank you
I am not a water expert, just to be clear :)
The cool thing about the service I used is their web site (in an interactive way) shows which treatment methods treat which of the things in your water.
The short answer is that R/O would treat everything in my water, but it's expensive and wastes a lot of water. A typical salt water softener would help with things like Lithium and Molybdenum but not Arsenic or Uranium. Carbon would help with Manganese and Antimony but not Uranium or Arsenic, etc. So it's complicated and it depends on what you're optimizing for.
Generally speaking, the water you drink is a lot more important than the water you bathe with so that's why you might put an R/O filter on your drinking water and something less wasteful and less expensive on your house water (or nothing at all).
As for bottled water, I don't know.... I bet if you google it though you can find the answer! Come back and let us know if you do!
I realize you live in the high desert. Many families out here in the desert SW of the US, collect rain water. Do you plan to instal gutter systems in order to capture and store rain water? Do you plan on reusing your gray water for agriculture, greening the trees and shrubs around your home? Thank you....excellent video
Thanks for watching and for the great comment! I'd love to be able to utilize the rain and I know that's really popular in other places in the SW, like in Arizona. It's super variable, though, and even most parts of Arizona as far as I can tell get twice the rain I do up here. I calculated it out and even if I captured all of it from my largest roof, it would amount to about 20 gallons a day of "saved" water. While that's nothing to sneeze at, it would require another big water tank, more filters and piping, etc, and frankly it just hasn't been planned. It's something I could add in the future, though.
As for gray water, it's considered if we ever build a "big" home up here that will have enough gray water to make that useful. For now, we will have a tiny home and accessory building and it's just not a lot of gray water. These are all very valuable strategies but to be frank we just haven't invested in the complexity required to execute them. BTW, they're all really simple concepts, but doing them all in a code-compliant, permitted way, is a lot harder ;)
There’s a YT channel, Handee man. He collecting rain water and diverts rain water from his roof for home use. They started off with a tiny house and eventually went onto to build a very energy efficient ICF home.
I've watched him for years! Although recently haven't seen as much from him. As far as I know, he's in Cochise County, Arizona, which according to google, gets about 14 inches year, which is 3-4x what I get. His land is also more flat and has easier access than mine which makes putting large capture systems and that HUGE tank of his in easier. Not that it's EASY, per se. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up, he definitely has a great channel and does great work!
I would have a water softener and preferably an under the kitchen sink Type RO unit (has to be serviced every 3 months, easy to do it yourself). The water that you drink has to be purer than washing cloths etc.The uranium is really troublesome, esp since 90% of the world's population along with harmful radiation exists exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. There are radiation protocols that can be used such as a homeopathic remedy - Radiation detox.‡. West German Homeopathic Formula by Dynamic Nutritional Associates (DNA Labs). Also take 6 selenium tablets daily the strongest anti-cancer mineral. Do not eat bananas which are high in radiation. Enjoyed the video, very well made, thanks.
Yep, definitely going R/O for drinking (and ice, etc) and lesser-treatments for just skin contact or non-contact (like toilets, etc). Good thoughts there on selenium tablets and such. Will have the water tested again in the future post-treatment to see what I'm exposing myself to in what ways. Thanks for the comment and glad you enjoyed it!
Is it normal to drink well water in your area? Here in the UK I think the vast majority of people have city water and it is nearly always potable. When visiting Mediterranean countries I would expect to drink bottled water. Great video btw.
Thx for watching! Well the US is enormous (it's 40x the size of the UK) which means it's very hard to serve all of it with city plumbing and sewer. Most is rural and low density which makes it even less useful to do so. Most people actually live in cities (this feels improbable but true if you look at a population concentration map) so the answer is that most people have plumbed water and sewer but most LAND is served by wells and septic.
As you might guess from the video, I'm in the middle of a desert and nowhere near any "city" services like that 😉
@@LetsOverthinkThis hi, thanks for the reply. My point is, do most people drink the water from wells and city supplies or drink from bottled water and use the water supply for washing and irrigation etc?
Oh, lol. Sorry. I can't imagine most people who have wells and spent as much as they cost still use bottles. Or at least I hope they don't. Reverse osmosis systems are so inexpensive now there's no reason to. But I can't explain what most people do so maybe I'm wrong 😉
Didn’t see the entire list of elements present in your water but as hard as your water is I wouldn’t be surprised to see it high in nitrates-the kind that stains the side of your homes siding a tan/ golden brown when you water the grass etc. some nitrates can get dangerously high and require filtration and a water softener to be user friendly.
Thanks for the comment! Interestingly, my nitrates were super low (1.5PPM) so although I have other things to worry about, that's not at the top of the list! Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@LetsOverthinkThis you may have said but what did your wells GPM end up being and is that why the holding tank? Or peace of mind for a power outage.
@@Mr.Innovator961 Out here in this desert, if you're lucky enough to get water, they aren't high-producing wells. Mine is around 4gpm which is as good as I could have hoped for, but none-the-less, what everyone does is have a big water tank (like 3k or 5k gallons) and just keep that topped off from the well pump. And then run a pressure pump from that storage tank so that you can pull as much as you need at a given moment (say 2 showers running simultaneously + a sink or two) and not have a GPM problem so long as your use in the long run can be supported by the well.
The secondary benefit from this is you can run your well pump less frequently but for longer periods to keep the tank topped off and only have to short-cycle the pressure pump, which generally-speaking is better for the well pump.
Hope that answers it!
@@LetsOverthinkThis sure does…sounds like you have the entire process well thought out, my buddy’s been gathering info about private wells for his rural Arizona property. He’s been a city slicker most of his life and never had this operation done, so I’ll refer him to your videos. Would like to see a complete video on how your holding tank system is plumbed and could it be made solar powered, or hybrid off grid. Thnx
Do refer him! Should be an interesting journey ;)
I will definitely document the tank and pressure system but unfortunately I can't do either until I have the building pad and such they're going on, which is many, many months from now :(
That being said, I'm off-grid (there's no choice here) so everything will be solar no matter what! The well pump we chose kept this in mind, since it runs not only from 120/220v but even from DC so it can run from solar panels directly!
Great series! Thank you.
So, how do you cut cost of well development by testing water prior to finalizing well?
I myself, should any governing body present numbers to me, would only accept them as a worse case baseline, then drive in on my own to validate. More of a data driven person myself.
Thank you again, extremely useful information!!!
Peace ✌️
Thanks for the comment! I also wanted my own data and not just the little bit the county provides, hence this test ;)
Not sure what you meant by "how do you cut cost of well development by testing water prior to finalizing well?"
The well will cost whatever it costs anyway, and I'm going to need to spend the money to treat the water in a way that satisfies me no matter what, too. So I'm not sure how you can cut those costs given that for me there are no alternatives (though maybe I don't understand your question).
I think what you want to avoid is having a company set up whatever water treatment they want to sell you BEFORE you have a chance to do a water test and make decisions on your own. But realistically in a scenario like mine, you need a well before you can even apply for a building permit so you have many months if not a year+ to actually make those water treatment decisions.
@@LetsOverthinkThis I guess it the chicken egg I’m looking at.
I think my start point may be different.
A tap or source well through completion would be a focus of, liking the topographic environment to purchase vs quality of resource prior to final large investment.
So if a sampling bore to test water for water quality prior to purchase is realistic?
Maybe I’m overthinking it?!
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There's no right answer, but to me, I've chosen this place to live for a lot of other reasons, and as long as I could get water here, treating it isn't a big problem. IE the "natural" quality of the water is extremely far down on the list of how I make a decision about where to live, since we live in a time with myriad water treatment options.
I could have asked my nearest neighbor for a sampling of his water before any investment on my end, assuming that his water is close in quality to what mine would be, but again, the bigger question for me was whether i would hit water AT ALL. His water would have to be truly, truly terrible for me to re-think my investment, and I knew it wouldn't be since this is all untouched land with no agriculture or industry anywhere near it. As for "sampling bore", that's the well drilling.... you've already spent 90% of the money to drill the hole (and you can't drill on land you don't own, so that's also sunk cost at that point), and all you can do if you don't like the water then, is save the money by not dropping a pump into it. But that's the "cheap" part....
@@LetsOverthinkThis I like the asking neighbor to test water qualities…. And a little reach would establish if a shared aquifer…congratulations on your success!!
And thank you again for sound logging and sharing of your well developed and plan!
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@@LetsOverthinkThis I think the AI is strong in "rexro....
Wow, check out those eyebrows ! Oh. Sorry, I got off point. Love your videos. Very informative.
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How old is your water? When was it last on the surface? My guess it filtered down from an ancient lake...
I assume treated water for consumption, untreated for everything else..
I don't know how old the water is but I suspect it's not as old as you may think, given that a lot of it comes from a lake and snow-melt a bit higher than I am. But I really don't know!
Suggest you drink reverse osmosis water costing 1.35 dollars for 5 gallons. And use well water for
everything else. Or you can drink well water and spend more time in the bathroom :)
Lol! I don't know where I can get r/o water that cheap but to be honest, point of use r/o systems are inexpensive and I already have one anyway so yeah, that will be drinking water 😉
I find it odd that they view the presence of fluoride as an issue. In my country, Australia, we have been adding fluoride to our water for about 70 years now. (Note: I am not talking about well water) Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel, and since the introduction of fluoride in our water supply, children's tooth decay has been reduced by approximately 50%, with no ill effects whatsoever. Most states recommend 1/ppm.
Hi Akitas, and thanks for the great comment. Yeah to your point, I don't think it's the presence of fluoride they have a problem with; it's the concentration.
According to Health and Human Services in the US (aspe.hhs.gov/hhs-recommendation-fluoride-concentration-drinking-water-prevention-dental-caries) they lowered the recommended fluoride levels to 0.7 avoid fluorosis in children which it looks like they were seeing at the old recommendation, also finding that the benefit from it being in the water exists at that lower level.
I suspect that is why my simplelab report has a recommended "health goal" of being under 0.8. To their credit, they also show the US federal and California guidance being under 4ppm and under 2ppm. Mine is 2.3 so it was flagged but I'm not even remotely concerned about it.
Anyway, I think your question and the above highlight the complexity in setting these limits and the onus being on you (in this case, me :) ) to decide what standard or thresholds are concerning for my household and use.
Thanks again for watching!
Its a regulated concentration. Flourine is the most powerful oxidizer known. It will oxidize oxygen which is why flourocarbons destroy ozone. There is almost no container that will hold hydroflouric acid. The fumes are poisonous. It will burn skin. Nasty stuff. As nasty as bromine. HCL, HNO3, and H2SO4 are koolaid by comparison.
Depends on the TYPE of "Fluoride" Some Salts of Fluoride are better than others, The US adds "Fluoride" to our city water, So, "I ADD!" a few Mils of Borax 20 mule team, and backing Powder loaded with other salts to counter the Bad Fluoride our Admin put in our Potable Water.
The federal drinking water standard for arsenic is 10 ppb. Your water contained 1.3 ppb, which is an order of magnitude lower than the standard.
Oh wow, yes you're completely right. I was confused by the "simple lab" health goal recommendation as well as the federal and California *health* benchmarks, but you're absolutely right that the actual *regulatory* benchmark at the Federal level (and California, surprisingly) are about an order or magnitude higher.
Thanks for that important (to me) clarification!
@@LetsOverthinkThis No worries. I’m a geologist/environmental consultant in Florida so I do this for a living. My concern is the Uranium concentration. It’s not something I deal with in my backyard so you need to dig deeper into the type analysis performed on your sample, if a different analysis might be more appropriate for comparison to the standard, and the treatment best suited for your water. Consider talking to the state of CA not water treatment companies.
Also, I’m a licensed geologist in Florida, not California, so I cannot help much beyond what I’ve offered so far.
@@jonh901271 I much appreciate the help as it is! Take care.
@@LetsOverthinkThis There is some great information on the California Environmental Protection Agency (CA EPA) website for drinking water. Here's one on radionuclides including Uranium. www.waterboards.ca.gov/gama/docs/coc_radionuclides.pdf
I did industrial water testing for several years using atomic absorption. Yes it will show all sorts of things. I thought city water plants were rated by NSF or something like that. You don't want anything to do with heavy metals. Don't drink it don't get it on your skin or in your clothes. In for a penny in for a pound. Get the whole house reverse osmosis with chlorinator or UV. You could treat waste water as black and use it for toilet flushing or irrigation. Otherwise I would have said it might be cheaper to haul city water to the premisis. I follow someone who lives in Tecopa and they can't drink that water. They are washing in it which I think is a mistake. Arsenic is a poison as is antimony. I've heard that desert water has asbestos too. I would expect any of the heavy metals to concentrate in the liver and cause cancer. Smell can be characterized using gas chromatography. Think of the farm produce being fed this swill then we eat it. They are raising cattle next to the New Idria Superfund mercury site. Yum.
@@boblatkey7160 And you sir are an idiot. MTG supporter?
Concentration absolutely matters so a lot of what you said is nonsense.
All water, everywhere on the planet, have all heavy metals present in it. It is just how much. When some labs say some element is not present, it just means their equipment could not detect low enough. Other labs with different equipment may detect it. You cannot make a blanket statement about heavy metals, or any other analyte, like that.
How deep is your well.
These vides are basically the prequel to the water testing one and answer your question (and a lot more):
th-cam.com/video/384ZHLjO6ag/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/pI8rN56jj1I/w-d-xo.html
... but short answer is 600 feet, but static water level is around 200 feet.
Lots of these salts are VERY Good For You! Uranium, not so much, but relative to US recommended? I BET! I would Love the Taste of Your Water! I did big Pharma WFI water and steam treatment.
The whole of our Mojave is basically the same! with mines everyplace! did Mines and their water treatment had prop in Newberry Springs too. Just drop an air stone in your settling tank! and an RO on your drinking water! I drink RO! But YES! the minerals in your well water MAYBE! Better For You than You Think? I have to Put mine Back now days. H2S typically only comes around organics or sulfur rich not Mojave minerals.
I wonder if using a Berkey would filter those things in your water. Have you looked into those water filters?
And do you have a link to RO product that you like that’s only $300? Did you overthink that one too? Just kidding .. cute name for your channel. I think “thorough thinker” is what I would like to identify as 😊
Hi! I just did and it looks like it would remove some of the problematic things, but not all (for example, Uranium isn't listed on their page at all). Definitely would help compared to nothing, but I'll stick to R/O for my drinking water for sure :)
As for R/O systems, I've bought several from airwaterice.com/ and have loved them (not sponsored or anything BTW). They use the legit US membranes from DOW and I find their prices and quality to be both great. I did not scrutinize endlessly ;) but they've been around for a while and I've used their products for over 8 years.
Thanks for the comment!
.. you're already in the Desert, you should use Solar Distillation & Store That in a Tank ..
Interesting idea! Is that feasible for the few hundred gallons of water a day I need? Or is that only useful for like drinking water kind of scale?
@@LetsOverthinkThis .. would be low cost, i'd use it for Everything..size everything to fit Your Needs.. just think Moonshine Still without the Moonshine.. you might get away with doing Laundry & Showering in what you have with some Light Filtering like a Charcoal Filter..
You could filter the water with sand or some kind of over watered garden or lawn area
That's an awesome idea but unfortunately (so far as I understand it), while that might work for a few things in my water, it would not help me with things like Arsenic and Uranium, which is what I really want help with. :( I do love those natural solutions, though, so thanks for the prod to dive deeper into that in case I'm wrong! Take care....
My well is at 425 and I am able to produce about 10gpm. 1100ppm. noticed that you didn't mention what the Parts Per Million for the water was? I found that an old style "salt" water softener does the best job protecting my plumbing and for "soap" related faucets. IE: washer, shower, dish washing. Sadly the price of salt is going up so the cost of treating the house hold water is too. I use a 20 inch 50 down to 5 micron spun filter before the water softener. I use 2 125 gallon pressure tanks. I don't water any exterior plants at all. I rarely use a pressure washer, preferring a hot water bucket wash for vehicles. Keeps the alkalines from sticking to the paint and leaving white spots everywhere. Under sink RO filter for drinking water, reduces the PPM to 50 to 125ppm... While we have a dish washer I have found that it uses more water than washing by hand. Suggest a Rheem fiberglass tank electric water heater. the tank never rusts out. I"ve learned many tricks about using and saving well water over the last 22 years of living in the desert. Build a "pump house" over your well to prevent theft and protect components from the UV rays. If you like we can com about my experiences. Great pix of the well drill truck, I didn't get to see mine drilled.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I didn't mention PPM because I kind of felt nobody is using my water so it mostly doesn't matter and also I'm not a big believer in PPM since that number doesn't tell you anything about what the "parts" ARE! :)
My hardness PPM is 452 but my TDS PPM is 582, which is high but not crazy high. More interestingly, it's around 97 PPM calcium, 82 PPM chlorides, 32 PPM silica, 97 PPM sodium, 50 PPM magnesium, and some other stuff.
I'll likely be doing a lot of what you mentioned (water softener for the main use + RO for drinking) and like you won't be watering anything.
Good tips you left there, so big thanks for taking the time to comment!
@@LetsOverthinkThis your'e welcome
Wait they test the water and then sell you water filters? hmmm
Agreed it could be a conflict of interest! My hope 🤞 is that it doesn't cause them to fraudulently report results but rather to take a fairly conservative view on the contaminants, hence their own rating system which you can interpret as you like. But like everything else, pays to be a bit skeptical and get a second test elsewhere if you can!
I'll admit I couldn't watch this whole thing, What if you ran this through a RO system?
You're obviously free to not watch but I'm not going to repeat the video in text form 🤣
You might want to consider a commercial ice maker for your drinking water. It should remove all the minerals in the water as it makes the ice, then you melt the ice.
Interesting, though since i'm off-grid I'm pretty sure freezing a hundred+ gallons a day just to melt it again might not be the most power-efficient thing to do ;) I haven't seen anything special in those machines in terms of water filtration... it looks like a few particulate filters, a carbon block, and sometimes R/O membrane. Is there anything in there special you know of?
I think @Dan is talking about an air to h20 generator (cooling condenser water maker / atmospheric water maker).
@@EL90291 Ooh, yeah, different deal there and not one that works well either when the ambient humidity is usually around 28% ;)
That is the best water in the world if it is from desert hot springs
I'm a fair way down the road so unfortunately not, though I suspect they have a lot of the same minerals I do. Thx for the comment!
I don't think that you have overthinked things here. Why not do an ambient dust analysis and install an air filtration system or two? The dust around your place probably would resemble the water analysis profile. So . . RO on your drinking water is probably a good idea because of the time it will spend inside your body. But I don't think you can avoid dust contact and so treating your shower water etc is a waste of time and money.
All good points!
Yeah, the water filter for the house plumbing might be a waste of money. It's a toss-up because those water softeners may help to extend the life (and reduce maintenance) on things like the dishwasher, hot water heaters, etc, so even if the "filtered" shower water isn't of value, over time it helps in other ways. But to your point, I may plumb the house without it and just leave an access point where I could easily add filters/softeners later if I so desire.
Good points on the air.... it's a tricky one since I think the exposure varies a lot more than with water based on wind speed and direction, mainly, but an air test is a great idea....
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@LetsOverthinkThis Desert has wind borne asbestos. Miners get silicosis from breathing silica. White lung disease.
Pump it into a filtration pond
Hmm tell me more! I don't know anything about how that works but I would assume those work well for things like letting sediment fall out of solution but not for things like uranium.
@@LetsOverthinkThis I guess you're right, but I cant help but think that some filtration of radiated particles attached to salts or other solvents could be filtered out. I also believe that sunshine and the UV could bring a change to the test results.
I have no idea but If I was in your shoes then I think I would settle, then tap to test.
A metallic taste indicates iron content.
That is very often the case but not here (Iron is a non-detect in my water) and these are not the red-looking rocks that have iron in them. In my case either I'm not very good at identifying tastes (LOL) or I'm tasting other things, like the manganese, magnesium, sodium or other dissolved solids.
Thanks for the comment!
Much of that can be filtered out.
Yep!
Any fecal matter?
Not sure if that's what you're asking, no, no fecal matter. Also a non-detect result for E. Coli which is a good way of validating that.
As-mentioned in the video, Total Coliform was detected, but this is more likely the result of the inevitable contamination when a well is drilled and more than likely handled by a bleach shock if it hasn't gone away on its own by then.
Install an RO system
Yep, this is what I said, though only for drinking water.
Buy some water and have it tested.
Theyve done lots of tests like that and published the results! Not personally interested in spending my own money for that if you know what I mean 😉
Just drink it, maybe become a super hero???
;)
people not understanding that these things exist in nature.
That is a common misconception, yes. Though not everything natural is healthy, too.
I assume you install the mother (in law) of water filters... right ??
R/O should be fine for drinking water and I'll maybe do a softener and a carbon filter for the rest of it. Not sure though!
no biological contamination? e.g. Giardia?
Didn't test for Giardia but I think it would be really unusual to find that where I am and as deep as this is. Also, was non-detect on e.coli which I think would show up first, but I'm no expert :)
Giardia? It's well water! Holy cow!
Holy cow there are all kinds of "water experts" posting their opinions here! I would not listen to any of them!
right? LOL
Your.livestock.dogs.cats
?
You talk too much too nobody gives a s*** just what the results are and then you can make a synopsis at the end Don't chop it up into little pieces that makes it hard to understand
That's how I do it, but good news is there are almost infinite other free channels to can watch that may suit your needs better 😃