Well water turning yellow after slurry spread.

kormak

Mods, excuse me if this is in the wrong forum.

We own a private well and most of the time the cold tap is crystal clear.
However last week I noticed there was a slurry tanker in the field next door spreading.
I know they're not meant to go within a certain distance of residential houses but I doubt some thick sh!te farmer is gonna pay much head to that.
Now in the past day or so our water has turned really REALLY yellow and has bits in it.
How does one go about reporting this?
Presumably I will need to get my water tested at a lab and contact the local authorities?
Any advice on this?

Poor Uncle Tom

Where is your water coming from?
Deep Borewell
Shallow Well
Mains Supply
Group Scheme,
Gravity Supply?

You need to report this to your local environment department of the Local Authority. Take a sample and get it tested.

mossfort

kormak wrote: »

I know they're not meant to go within a certain distance of residential houses but I doubt some thick sh!te farmer is gonna pay much head to that.

why not just say he ,instead of expressing your opinion of farmers in general.

kormak

mossfort wrote: »

why not just say he ,instead of expressing your opinion of farmers in general.

because "he" could be potentially be contaminating my family's drinking water which could have knock on health effects, especially for my young son.
excusme me for my rudeness....

kormak

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

Where is your water coming from?
Deep Borewell
Shallow Well
Mains Supply
Group Scheme,
Gravity Supply?

You need to report this to your local environment department of the Local Authority. Take a sample and get it tested.

shallow well, i'll give them a call today.

Poor Uncle Tom

I needn't tell you - very important you don't drink the water. Also check out why it's so easy for surface water to enter your shallow well and look at diverting surface water away from the well and consider investing in a filter.

There are water specialists out there, get it checked out.

kormak

spoke with the environment section of Louth Co. Co today...
engineer advises me that farmers are "well aware of certain streams and wells when spreading slurry".
They cannot spread 50m from a stream or 25m from a well/residential area.

He reckons the only thing I can do is arrange my own testing and even if it was to prove to have faecal elements within it, there is no way I can prove it was the farmer's slurry!!
I tell you what people it's a wonderful country we live in...
a complete sh!thole if you'll excuse the pun.

whelan1

we had a problem , but our well is quite deep , it was the county councils sewage that was seeping in to our well , i think i would prefer cattle slurry any day:rolleyes:

wirehairmax

Dont be so quick to blame the farmer. It could also be contamination from a number of sources.

1. It could be your own septic tank/waste water seeping into the ground.
2. There could be a build up of silt in your well
3. The water table could be getting low in your well.
4. There could be clay deposits in your well being dislodged by recent rain, frost, weather conditions

By all means get your well tested. It would be highly unlikely that slurry spread on the surface has contaminated your well. Be glad that you're not on mains water as you'd have a lot more than cloudy water to worry about. A lot of the country on mains had no water at all for the last few weeks. If you dont like country life move back to the town. farmers are restricted enough in their business at the moment with red tape without the likes of this type of neighbour moving in beside them. I've lived in the country for 32 years and over the last 10 years have heard more complaints from townies moving into the country expecting life to be all rosy and sweet. Well I'm afraid it aint all that and slurry is part of life in the country.
And dont be so quick to call anyone a thick ****e when that person is not in a position to reply to the allegations being posted here. Farmers are not thick in any way as if they were there is no way they would be able to make a living in todays climate and market conditions. And by the way I'm not a farmer but I do understand country life

Poor Uncle Tom

Keep posts on topic please, or I will delete and ban.

kormak

I had my water tested by the HSE and it was confirmed there was 53 froms of e-coli and 201 coli forms present in the water.
So that pretty much guarantees that there is faecel matter present.

My water has been crystal clear and drinkable for the past 9 months and a week after I suspect a farmer is spreading slurry very close to my house, the water turns brown and produces a report which was deemed by the HSE extremely dangerous to ingest.

The local authory officer visited my site and ackowledged the whole situation.
He also did not believe the septic was at fault due to the distance of it back to the well.
He also conatcted the farmer who off course advised he did spread slurry but defintely kept his distance of 25meteres. (funny the field beside my house where the slurry was spread has fresh track marks righ beside my perimeter!)
Anyhow the farmer advised he would not spread there anymore and nothing more can be proved back to him.
In the meantime I have what was confirmed to be a deep well, that is contaminated and will potentially cost alot of money to resolve the problem.

Options open to me now:
- Dig/Install new well - partly covered by a grant as mains water is unavailable on site.
- Upgrade existing well with new pipe/steel casing and concrete off gap back to existing 6" pipe.
- chorinate water and install a filterartion product like a UV lamp to continually filter water.

It will take a while to weigh up all the options and risks involved. but it is an absolute headache and frustrating especially as we have a little one's health to watch out for.
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated <SNIP>.

Mod Edit: Please leave the moderating to the moderators.

kormak

I'm amazed and disappointed by boards.ie.
someone on on here accuses me of something that I am not and his txt is NOT edited by moderators and left as it is
I try and defend myself this with a reply on the facts and my posts are both edited and deleted.
And they were in no way inflammotory...
Boards.ie is getting a little bit like the Chinese State me thinks. Shame.

thanks to anyone that offered any contructive advice here.

GoneShootin

kormak wrote: »

Boards.ie is getting a little bit like the Chinese State me thinks. Shame.

<ot>
I do love a good FREE THE PEOPLE rant now and again
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