Say good-bye to sulphur PDF Print E-mail
Written by Steven Maxwell   

Adding hydrogen peroxide to wells can cure water woes


When Scott and Enid Runnalls decided to drill a deep well for water at their fifth generation beef farm on Barrie Island, in northern Ontario, the neighbors just shook their heads.

Everybody knew there was nothing but sulphur water down there, and as it turned out, everybody was right. "When we pumped the new well to see what it would produce, you could smell the rotten egg stench 100 yards away," remembers Scott. But he's smiling as he tells this story - smiling because he doesn't have sulphur water anymore.

The solution came from Bruce Wahl, water treatment specialist in the Mamtoulin-Barrie Island area. About a year ago, he introduced the Runnalls' to the use of oxygen to eliminate sulphur water, and they've enjoyed odorless drinking water, showers and laundry since.

The system is simple. Small amounts of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) are added to the water intake line in the basement by an electric injection pump, just before the pressure tank. Hydrogen peroxide is just an ordinary water molecule with an additional oxygen atom temporarily tacked on. It's this extra oxygen atom that is the active ingredient in the system. Hydrogen peroxide is an inexpensive, convenient way to deliver it.

Whenever the water pump switches on, the hydrogen peroxide injector pump is energized too, adding H2O2 to the incoming water stream from a plastic reservoir at a rate of about 30 parts per million. Once in contact with the water, the H2O2 reacts with sulphur compounds, changing them into a new form that can be filtered out. The Runnalls' water softener does this job, but a whole-house carbon filter also works well.

The H2O2 injector system costs just over $1,000 installed (including a supply of hyrdogen peroxide). A replacement container of H2O2 that'll last two to three years under normal household use costs about $240. You'll pay another $1,000 for a carbon filter, or $1,000 - $2,000 for a water softener.

The only maintenance is to check your tap water with a strip of test paper occasionally to make sure hydrogen peroxide is present in the right concentration. The injector pump is adjustable to deliver more or less H2O2 as needed. If you've got a carbon filter in your system, check the water before it passes through, since the carbon will remove H2O2 along with the transformed sulphur compounds and just about everything else.

Hydrogen peroxide does more than eliminate sulphur water, too. It also kills bacteria, removes many non-sulphur odors, and changes dissolved iron into a form that's easy to filter out.

Large scale hydrogen peroxide systems are also making their way onto the municipal scene. The largest public use of H2O2 technology for odor control of sulphur-water began several years ago in southern California. Various oxygen-based systems are also used in about 60 percent of European municipal water supplies, where the drawbacks of chlorination have been a public health concern for some time. Scientific findings suggest that when chlorine reacts with organic materials in water (such as bacteria), it produces a family of chemical byproducts call trihalomethanes. Water drawn from surface sources like lakes and rivers is most likely to contain organic substances, but it can also be present in well water. In high enough concentrations, trihalomethanes have been linked to health problems. Will hydrogen peroxide work for you? Almost certainly, but there are a few things you need to check first. One is the presence of disolved iron in your water. If your water contains more than 0.1 parts per million of iron, it can short the lifespan of a carbon filter. The solution is to install a sand filter before the carbon filter to trap the particles of iron oxidized by the H2O2.

The biggest challenge you'll face is finding a water treatment specialist to supply the equipment and hydrogen peroxide. "Not everyone in the business offers H2O2 systems," explains Wahl. But as its value becomes more widely recognized, the number of professionals offering this technology is growing.

In fact, some people believe that hydrogen peroxide offers health benefits when added to drinking water, especially as an infection fighter.

Used with permission. Farm & Country Magazine, Sept. 21, 1998.