Chlorine Treatment of Well Water

By Bill Warren

If you examine the information and articles in this web site, you will realize that we are not big fans of chlorine in our drinking and bathing water. I am not going to go into the details of how chlorine reacts with other substances in our water. Instead, I'm going to address the advantages of chlorine for treating bacteria, iron and odor.

Chlorine vs. Greensand Filter

For many years, Water Value Company has avoided any support of adding chlorine to water. We have whole-house filters designed to remove chlorine from city water and greensand filters to remove contaminants from well water that chlorine is capable of removing. A greensand filter removes iron, bacterial iron and hydrogen sulfied from water just as effectively as chlorine does using potassium permanganate to refresh the media much like a softener uses brine. This system has a modest operational cost and is quite reliable.

Due to recent price decreases in WellPro chlorine pellet droppers, we have been forced to re-examine our position on chlorine as a water treatment additive. After much deliberation, we have decided to market the WellPro line of dry-pellet chlorine droppers hoping that most customers will realize that removal of the chlorine after it has been introduced into the well water is easily done with a carbon filter.

What is a dry-pellet chlorinator?

Chlorine dry-pellet droppers mount to the top of your well head and are wired into your well's electrical supply. When your well kicks on, the pellet dropper starts releasing dry chlorine pellets into your well pipe dissolving and mixing with your well water as it is being pumped into your well tank. When the pump shuts off, so does the pellet dropper. The rate at which these pellets are released is fully adjustable.

If a carbon filter is not used inline before the water gets to your faucet or shower-head, chlorine will be either consumed or absorbed into the skin. While not a health concern on its own, chlorine does react with other elements in the water to cause health concerns that are noted here by the EPA.

The installation of an auto-backwashing carbon filter will eliminate any chlorine concerns in your drinking water. The activated carbon will not only remove chlorine, it will remove any trace of other chemicals and odors making your water taste clean and refreshing. A carbon filter will remove sulfer, but sulfter should be removed with either a greensand filter or chlorinator before it gets to the carbon filter. Sulfer will drastically shorten the usefull life span of activated carbon.

What is the best method of treating my water for bacteria, odor and iron stains?

As long as a carbon filter is used in conjunction with a chlorinator, we would have to recommend the chlorinator system. A greensand filter system by itself will work just fine and actually cost less initially. In the long run, you will have much better tasting and cleaner water with the chlorinator system, along with long-term savings in operational costs.