sulphur water for tubing washing

[The Sappy Steamer]

I'm thinking of having a well drilled so I don't have to haul water to wash my tubing. My only concern is that all of my neighbors have a terrible sulphur problem with their wells. I assume mine would be no different. If I wash my tubing with sulphur water will it leave the taste or smell in my lines and effect my syrup? I would think so, but I'm sure the situation is not at all uncommon, and there must be away around it. What are you guys that have the same situation doing?

[maple flats]

Syrup takes on any foreign smell or taste very quickly. I would think you would need to treat the water to use it. I used to sell water conditioners as part of a boiler business I had. Sulphur can be removed, it requires a large enough carbon filter and maybe other things which a water test would show. The carbon filter media would need to be exchanged periodically, typically annoally but that could only be determined after the well is tested and a specific size carbon filter is decided upon along with a usage pattern. This may or may not be worth it to you but it would not be cheap. If your usage is rather sporadic you might do better hauling water, maybe even having a large enough tank set to accumulate several loads of water, hauled in your sap transport tank after cleaning said tank. This is how I do my sugarbush at my sugarhouse. AND i have my own small well drilling rig, hope to do a well this year and test it.

[brookledge]

Are you talking about an artesian well? I would thing that would cost a lot more than hauling water especially since you already have the equipment to do it. I use vacuum to wash so I don't use much water.
Keith

[The Sappy Steamer]

We don't have vacuum so we're limited to 325 gals a trip. That's pretty marginal for the tubing distances we have. We also use the place as deer camp, and would like to live there someday after I retire, but that's a ways off. We spend alot of time there, but I don't want to have a well drilled and still need to haul water, which sounds like it would be the case.

[super sappy]

Our well water has alot of sulphur, I have used it in the past for cleaning tubing. What I find is that the sulphur smell will off gas alot if the water sits for a wile. Last year I washed tubing with it and I had no off flavors. I would not use it to dilute heavy syrup, I think it would be fine for rinseing stuff. We do have suspended clay in our water also. When the water evaporates we get a lite film left on the surfase that the water was on. So we have to towel dry everything. A big ro will take care of that.$$$ ---Sappy steamer-- On a side note if you think sulfur water is a bad thing take a trip to Saratoga State Park in August. I cannot get over all of the track people that line up at the mineral springs and take a drink of the worst sulfur water you ever smelled. I guess it is supposed to make them feel better after they lost all their money at the flat track.-SS

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[super sappy]

Kevin-I dont drink ours it is like rotten eggs. I have been told that there is alot of sulfur deposites on the east side of the Hudson river over to the Takonic(sp) ridge as you enter Vermont.North and East of me there are some good size sugar opperations and I am sure that they use the local sulfur water to clean their tubing. I could alwayse drill down 100 ft then go to a right angle into the hudson river. I wonder if PCB,s will inpart an off flavor in syrup?

[The Sappy Steamer]

I read on line that hydrogen peroxide works well for removing sulphur from well water by adding oxygen. We use peroxide to wash our tubing anyways,so I wonder what the minimum ppm would need to be to take care of the sulphur. I guess injection pumps are typically used to add the peroxide in a water system in the right proportions, but the same could be done in a holding tank. I'll have to do a little more research. As far as the sulphur springs...We have a daughter that lives near Saratoga Springs, so we have witnessed the show ourselves. The sulphur water will about make you hurl. People stand in line for it and the regular spring water as well. We even saw one woman getting jugs of water from a ditch with bottles and cups in it. Close enough for her I guess. It's all in what we want to believe.