Bad Taste and Foul Odor — Iron bacteria often produce nasty tastes and odors commonly reported as: “smells swampy,” “has an oily or petroleum like smell,” “smells remotely like cut cucumber,” “sewer smell” “stinks like rotten vegetation,” or “stale and musty.”

Often times the bad tastes and odors will seem noticeably stronger after a long period where the water has not run.

Note: If you smell a “rotten egg” smell, this odor most likely comes from something other than iron bacteria. You may want to test, instead, for dissolved hydrogen sulfide in your water.

Discoloration — Iron bacteria have a knack for leaving orange, brown, red or slightly yellow stains on your normally pristine white fixtures and may even cause water in toilets and toilet tanks to become discolored.

Some folks (who have lots of iron bacteria in their water) have even reported seeing rainbow-colored oily residues on surfaces exposed to their water.

Slimy Red Deposits — Should you happen to notice a sticky slime with a rust-like color — or possibly orange, brown, red, slightly yellow or even gray color — in your toilet tank, iron bacteria may have made their home in your water supply.

So… Those Simple ‘Tests’ Always Work?

Not even in a fairytale world, pal! Each of the ‘signs’ and ‘indicators’ of iron bacteria listed above could also come from drinking water contaminants such as ferrous iron, sulfate, hydrogen sulfide, manganese and/or other biological organisms frequently found in water supplies such as sulfur bacteria.

So… How Can I Know for Sure That I’ve Got Iron Bacteria?

No method other than having your water tested by a certified water testing laboratory (such as National Testing Laboratories) will tell you for certain whether or not you have iron bacteria in your water.

T_RadioMan in Clifton Park, NY asked…

Why do I always get staining in my sinks? Is my well water polluted? Is it dangerous?

Slow down, killer. Slow down. One question about the quality of your water at a time, OK? 😉

Staining… of fixtures often happens when water contains dissolved metals. Have you tested your water for metals?

• Iron in Water — may leave brown, yellow and/or orange stains in sinks and on fixtures
• Manganese in Water — may leave dark brown, black or deep purple stains in sinks and on fixtures

• Copper in Water — may leave blue, green or dark stains in sinks and on fixtures

Polluted… drinking water may not ever show any signs of contamination. Only testing the water will tell you if your water contains dangerous contaminants and if you know nothing about the quality of the water, it definitely makes sense to opt for a thorough water quality analysis conducted by a qualified laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories or a local laboratory w/ similar qualifications.

National Testing Laboratories offers three levels of certified drinking water testing and their customers get test results within two weeks.

• WaterTest Basic tests for 27 water quality parameters
• WaterCheck test for 83 water quality parameters

• WaterCheck w/ Pesticides tests for 97 water quality parameters

Dangerous… water also may not show any obvious signs of it malignant nature so having testing performed by a qualified laboratory to find out if the water contains harmful contaminants or a dangerously low/high pH makes sense if you know nothing about the water and have ‘problems’ with it such as skin irritation, staining of fixtures, foul odor, nasty taste, or unexplainable recurring gastrointestinal troubles.

To conclude, T_RadioMan, you really won’t ever know the cause of your water woes until you get that water of yours checked out by a certified water testing laboratory.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – In the first ecological study of its kind in the world, a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researcher has uncovered the unique finding that groundwater and airborne manganese in North Carolina correlates with cancer mortality at the county level.

The study, titled, “Environmental Manganese and Cancer Mortality Rates by County in North Carolina: An Ecological Study,” was published online last month by Biological Trace Element Research. Lead researcher John Spangler, M.D., professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist, found that groundwater manganese appears to be positively associated with total cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer death rates, while airborne manganese concentrations appear to be inversely associated with total cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer death rates.

. . .

To determine whether environmental manganese is related to cancer at the county level in North Carolina, Spangler conducted an ecological study using data from the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, North Carolina Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Census.

He found that airborne manganese was associated at the county level with an 14 percent decrease in total cancer deaths, a 43 percent decrease in breast cancer deaths and a 22 percent decrease in lung cancer deaths. Additionally, Spangler found there was up to a 28 percent increase in county-level colon cancer deaths and a 26 percent increase in lung cancer deaths at the county level related to elevation of manganese in groundwater as opposed to air. ( source )

Testing for Manganese in Groundwater:

For the longest time testing for manganese in groundwater required the use of multiple messy liquids (see HMT Manganese Test Kit) and the results often had false positives as a result of interferences from other metals.

Recently, though, a water testing breakthrough called SenSafe Manganese Check eliminated the need for ALL liquids except the water getting tested. Additionally, users can complete testing for manganese in water within a matter of minutes.

The new and improved SenSafe™ Manganese Check eliminates interferences from several ions like copper, iron, cobalt, lead, nickel, etc. Designed to be a rapid, accurate alternative to wet chemical tests, SenSafe™ Manganese Check offers the user an easy dip-and-read test strip alternative for determining manganese concentrations in water. Detecting levels of <0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 ppm (mg/L), SenSafe™ Manganese Check (US Patent #6541269) is ideal for on-site testing when accurate results are immediately needed. ( source: Makers of SenSafe™ Manganese Check )

SenSafe™ Manganese Check: Fast, Accurate Manganese in Water Testing

Boiling water generates steam — and steam does NOT carry away metals with it. To remove metals from drinking water you must either filter the water using a reverse osmosis system or properly distill the water.

Need to test for metals in your water?

• Test Kit for Mercury in Water
• Test Kit for Copper in Water
• Test Kit for Chromium (Hexavalent) in Water
• Test Kit for Iron in Water
• Test Kit for Manganese in Water
• Test Kit for Heavy Metals in Water
• Lead in Water Test Kit
• Water Safe Lead in Water Test Kit