What is wrong with my well water?
Start with what you notice. Each page tells you the likely causes, the exact lab tests that confirm them, what the fix costs, and when to stop drinking the water.
Smells
Rotten eggs, chemicals, musty or earthy.
Well Water Smells Like Chemicals, Gasoline or Solvent
A fuel, solvent or chemical smell is the one well water symptom that is a stop sign. Stop drinking, stop bathing the…
Well Water Smells Like Rotten Eggs
That sulfur smell is hydrogen sulfide gas. It is rarely dangerous, but it corrodes pipes, stains fixtures and sometimes points to bacteria…
Well Water Smells Musty, Earthy or Moldy
A musty basement smell in the water, worst in late summer, is usually harmless organic matter or bacteria growing where water sits.…
Stains
Orange, black or blue-green marks on fixtures and laundry.
Black Stains and Black Specks From Well Water
Black or dark brown stains in the toilet, black flakes in the dishwasher and a dark film on the shower door are…
Blue-Green Stains in the Tub and Sink
A blue or green ring where water drips is copper, and it did not come from the well. It came from your…
Orange and Rust Stains From Well Water
Orange streaks in the sink, rust rings in the toilet and laundry that comes out yellow all point to dissolved iron. It…
Looks or feels wrong
Cloudy, gritty, scale and spots.
Cloudy, Gritty or Sandy Well Water
Sand in the toilet tank, a milky glass that clears from the bottom up, or grit in the aerators. Each one means…
Hard Water From a Well: Scale, Spots and Dry Skin
White crust on the kettle, spots on glasses, soap that will not lather and a water heater that rumbles. Hardness is calcium…
Tastes wrong
Metallic, salty or bitter.
Well Water Tastes Metallic
A metallic taste is a dissolved metal, and which one depends on your rock and your plumbing. Iron and manganese are harmless…
Well Water Tastes Salty or Brackish
A salty or briny taste is sodium and chloride. Sometimes it is road salt, sometimes an old softener, and near the coast…
Pressure and flow
Weak, sputtering or running out.
Air in Well Water: Sputtering Taps and Milky Water
Taps that spit and bang, and water that looks milky but clears in a minute, mean air is getting into the system.…
Low Water Pressure on a Well
Weak showers, a washing machine that takes forever to fill, pressure that drops when two taps run. On a well the cause…
Well Running Dry or Losing Water
Water that sputters, runs fine then quits, or comes back after an hour is a well that cannot keep up. Sometimes the…
A test result
Bacteria, nitrate or a report you do not understand.
Coliform Bacteria in Well Water
Total coliform present means something from the surface is getting into your well. E. coli present means it is sewage or manure.…
My Well Water Failed a Test. Now What?
A lab report with one number over the line is not an emergency, but it is a decision. Here is how to…
Nitrate in Well Water
Nitrate has no taste or smell and it is dangerous to infants at levels that are common under farmland and near septic…
Invisible contaminants
Arsenic, lead, radon, uranium and PFAS.
Arsenic in Well Water
Arsenic comes out of the rock, not from anything anyone did. It is common in Michigan, the West and parts of the…
Lead in Well Water
Lead almost never comes from the aquifer. It comes from solder, brass and old fixtures, pulled into the water by low pH…
PFAS in Well Water
PFAS are the forever chemicals from firefighting foam, some factories and consumer products. They do not come from your rock and they…
Radon in Well Water
Radon is a radioactive gas from granite and other uranium-bearing rock. It leaves the water when you shower and joins the radon…
Uranium in Well Water
Uranium dissolves out of granite and some sandstones into groundwater across the Rockies, the Southwest, New England and parts of the Carolinas.…