Acid Water

Should You Be Worried About Acid Water?

If you’re a well owner, acidic water can be very disconcerting. Rainwater is slightly acidic, and in some cases can be very acidic. This can cause acidic groundwater and might cause your well water to be corrosive to plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. It can cause major damage to your plumbing and present you with expensive repairs.

Acid water can erode away the metal in your pipes, which may then end up in your water. You might have acid water if your copper plumbing looks green and corroded, if you sometimes have “pinhole” leaks in your copper plumbing or if you see greenish-blue stains on sinks, faucets, fixtures, or inside your toilet tanks. Any or all of these issues can indicate that you have acid water. 

Let’s learn a little more about what acid water is and what you can do about it.

What Is Acid Water?

Pure water is perfectly balanced and has a pH of 7, which is neutral, whereas acidic water is water that has a pH lower than 7. As mentioned above, rainwater is acidic—caused by atmospheric carbon dioxide and other airborne pollutants. CO2 is a colorless, odorless gas produced by all animals when the oxygen they inhale reacts with the carbon-rich foods that they’ve eaten. Carbon dioxide also is released when organic matter burns. CO2 acts as a greenhouse gas, trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen during photosynthesis, the process they use to make their own food.

Acidic rainwater containing CO2 eventually ends up as groundwater, and maybe as your well’s water source. In general, water with a low pH—less than 6.5 could be acidic and very corrosive. Therefore, the water could leach metal ions such as iron, manganese, copper, lead, and zinc from the aquifer, plumbing fixtures, as well as the piping. Also, water with a low pH could contain elevated levels of toxic metals, cause premature damage to metal piping, and have associated problems such as a metallic or sour taste, staining of laundry, and the characteristic blue-green staining of sinks and drains. 

What Can You Do About Acidic Water?

Thankfully, water that is dangerously acidic isn’t a problem for most Hoosiers. However, if you are among the rare homeowners that need to deal with acid water, c and j water has you covered. The best way to mitigate acidic water is to install a calcite filter—this is often called re-mineralization. This filter contains calcium carbonate (calcite) which adds minerals to your water to raise the pH.

Because a calcite filter adds hardness back to the water, in many cases, a water softener follows the calcite filter in order to remove the hardness added in the neutralization process. With the proper water testing and equipment adjustment from our Water Quality Association experts, your water can be balanced and your life restored to normal.

If you have been dealing with acid water, contact us today!