M.O. Foss Well Drilling & Pump Service: It’s All About Chemistry

Hands down my least favorite subject in school was chemistry. Lots of math and formulas, my seventeen-year-old self had zero interest. I phoned it in all year, barely coasting my way through. Who cares? It’s not like I’m ever going to use it in real life! Well fast forward to today, I use it and I teach it every day. I’ve even got a little chemistry kit that I bring out on almost every job to test water.

Treating people’s water takes up most of my time these days. Just today, I replaced a well tank that was destroyed by low pH(acidic) water. Installed a neutralizer (to raise the pH), a water softener (to strip the mineral content and pull out sodium) and a point of use reverse osmosis system for drinking water. All in one house. Tomorrow I’ll be installing a filter to remediate radon in someone else’s house. And it’s all chemistry.

Water picks up the attributes of the bedrock that it flows through. Limestone creates hard water, schist has iron and manganese, granite has arsenic in it and so on and so on. Even if you’re on city water, it will be hard. Municipalities treat water to be potable but that doesn’t include hardness (New Milford’s municipal water is about 22 grains hard).

Back in the not-so-distant past, people lived with iron staining and pin holes in their plumbing, that’s not necessary anymore. With modern testing and filtration, you can control that. It’s important to know what is in the water that you’re drinking, cooking and bathing in. You can treat your water and save thousands on fixtures, water heaters and pipes in your house. It’s easy to find out and it’s able to be filtered out.

If you have any questions about your water (and you should), please feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to show up with my little chemistry kit, take some samples and show you what’s in your water.