How I Dealt With Yellow Well Water

We lost electrical power when a line of severe thunderstorms swept across our state.  When the power came back 18 hours later, I was surprised to learn that our well water tank still was under pressure – we hadn’t run out of water!

I also was surprised when I refilled the dog’s water dish – the water was yellow!  The first photo below shows two bottles of water.  The one on the left was filled prior to the power outage; the one on the right, after.

There was no foul odor; no odor whatsoever, in fact.  The taste was off, though, as if “softened” by some salt.

My guess is that some silt or rust had been stirred up in the tank when the pump kicked in.  The lower-than-usual tank pressure allowed the ingress of water at a higher velocity.

I figured it would clear up on its own in a few days.  But my wife, who suffers from bizarre medical problems as well as anxiety, kept insisting that we call for service first thing Monday.  Lucky for me she didn’t know whom to call, nor did she know that they respond to emergency calls.  I was afraid that the technician would convince my wife that we needed a special filtration system.  And, of course, emergency calls cost more.

So I decided to flush the tank.

This is extremely easy to do, if you know where things are and you have a short garden hose.  Alas, my garden hose is 100’ – lugging it into the basement wasn’t too bad.  But getting it back upstairs when it was full of water was the most difficult part of the job.

I closed the valve for the house supply and switched off power to the pump.   As well, I flushed the basement toilet (just because I needed to).  Then I attached the hose to the spigot at the bottom of the tank, opened its valve and directed the water into a white basin.  I was impressed by how clear and colorless the water looked.  I let the water drain into the washing machine while I opened a few other taps around the house.

Once the pressure dropped noticeably, I reapplied power to the pump and let it right like that for a short while.  Satisfied, I closed the valve to the hose and opened the valve to the house.  I went back to those open taps and closed them.  As well, I cleaned the toilet to get out the residue and flushed, getting clear water again.

Finally, I enjoyed a refreshing glass of clear, colorless, cool well water.  Which is what I look forward to most after a power outage.