Recommendations for Brackish/ Salty Well Water

[Dave21]

So I made a water well for a future homestead on several acres. There is city water, but I wanted well water for irrigation of alot of ornamental and a small orchard of fruit trees (100+ trees) plus for some livestock. If I could use the well water for my home that would be great, this is where the water analysis comes in. I would need to determine if its cost effective. My main problem is salty water.

Based on the analysis before I would likely need a commercial RO system. I would be using 200gpd + more if I use it on salt sensitive fruit trees.

Calcium (Ca) 11 ppm
Magnesium (Mg) 5 ppm
Sodium (Na) 428 ppm
Potassium (K) 2 ppm
Boron (B) 0.41 ppm
Carbonate (CO3) 0 ppm
Bicarbonate (HCO3) 394 ppm
Sulfate (SO4-calculated from total S) < 3 ppm
Chloride (Cl-) 423 ppm Titr.
Nitrate-N (NO3-N) 0.06 ppm
Phosphorus (P) < 0.01 ppm
pH 7.53
Conductivity 1994 umhos/cm Cond.
Hardness 3 grains CaCO3/gallon Calc.
Hardness 46 ppm CaC03 Calc.
Alkalinity 323 ppm CaC03 Calc.
Total Dissolved Salts (TDS) 1266 ppm Calc.
SAR 26.9

Can I have ideas on particular companies that sell systems and how often filters are typically changed, etc? I have seen some small mom and pop places online sell RO systems for less than $3000. They appear to have quality components such as the booster pump which sells for about almost a grand alone.
I understand you have to oversize them, maybe 2-4x expected use?
I have heard people make some systems also, I am open to that if it is feasible enough

 

[TJanak]

Where are you located? Your analysis is very similar to mine. I went through this same issue over the past year in Rockport and ended up finding significantly better quality water at 60' instead of the 180'-200' that everybody uses around here. It required me drilling our first well to 180', finding out the water was junk, then doing lots of investigating looking at well logs and reports on the TCEQ site, etc. Drilled a second well to 65' and went from conductivity of 1757 to 1006, TDS 1192 to 681, sodium of 336 to 152, and SAR of 24.5 to 5.8 (shallower water has more calcium). The high SAR is what kills you on irrigation with this type of water.

From all of my research, the only real option to make the poor water usable is RO. I looked into some of the "water changer" technologies that advertise for irrigation use in the crop/grower magazines that I receive, but couldn't ever get comfortable with them. My next option was going to be rainwater collection and storage (which would still be nice), but the problem is you run out of water precisely when you need it, in a drought.

I would probably have ended up doing a RO system for the whole house plus irrigation which would require several thousand gallons of storage capacity (easy enough). The issue is the wastewater discharge. I had one company tell me to put it back down the well, which seems quite counter intuitive. But as you know, anywhere you discharge on the ground will look eventually like Bonneville. I was told the large property across the FM road from me had a RO system put in for their entire house plus other uses and they built a dedicated building to house the equipment. The place has been abandoned since the hurricane in 2017 so I was tempted to try and contact someone about the equipment but never did.

As for companies, I've used SpectraPure for RO in my greenhouses previously, and used Canature (through a local dealer) for our current ion exchange and carbon treatment setup.

 

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[Dave21]

Where are you located? Your analysis is very similar to mine. I went through this same issue over the past year in Rockport and ended up finding significantly better quality water at 60' instead of the 180'-200' that everybody uses around here. It required me drilling our first well to 180', finding out the water was junk, then doing lots of investigating looking at well logs and reports on the TCEQ site, etc. Drilled a second well to 65' and went from conductivity of 1757 to 1006, TDS 1192 to 681, sodium of 336 to 152, and SAR of 24.5 to 5.8 (shallower water has more calcium). The high SAR is what kills you on irrigation with this type of water.

From all of my research, the only real option to make the poor water usable is RO. I looked into some of the "water changer" technologies that advertise for irrigation use in the crop/grower magazines that I receive, but couldn't ever get comfortable with them. My next option was going to be rainwater collection and storage (which would still be nice), but the problem is you run out of water precisely when you need it, in a drought.

I would probably have ended up doing a RO system for the whole house plus irrigation which would require several thousand gallons of storage capacity (easy enough). The issue is the wastewater discharge. I had one company tell me to put it back down the well, which seems quite counter intuitive. But as you know, anywhere you discharge on the ground will look eventually like Bonneville. I was told the large property across the FM road from me had a RO system put in for their entire house plus other uses and they built a dedicated building to house the equipment. The place has been abandoned since the hurricane in 2017 so I was tempted to try and contact someone about the equipment but never did.

As for companies, I've used SpectraPure for RO in my greenhouses previously, and used Canature (through a local dealer) for our current ion exchange and carbon treatment setup.

Thanks excellent info. I am close to you actually, south of you, in Linn (north/central Hidalgo County). Sounds like you did alot of research same as me. You hit it on the dot regarding the SAR, I have low calcium relative to salt content. Your solution of a shallow well is actually something I am contemplating. Current well is at 130ft, water table is at 28 ft plus or minus a couple of feet. Some wells in the area are 60-90 ft.

I also looked into the magnetic water treatment like the CareFree Water Conditioner which claims to help salts pass through easily into the soil, therefore not negatively affecting plants much. There are some local growers such as in Premont, Texas who are listed to have good success but I can't find much scientific info backing it up and its super overpriced at almost 1k for the smallest model which is such a simple device.

Before going via the RO route, I will try to do another well, I will try shallow this time, I found a driller that did my first well pretty cheap anyways. I know for a fact there is great water around here but its hit or miss in my exact location. Two miles east of me, it is consistently good water but in my exact location its hit or miss. My neighbor has a well about 500 ft from mine and his is pristine, I think the TDS is like 40, its almost like the RO water after treatment, lol.

Before, I drill it I was thinking of renting a device to do a groundwater EMG survey. Apparently, it works. Texas A&M did an aerial groundwater survey in Linn, Tx where I live and it correlates well with existing well logs. The area that was surveyed does not include my property but just adjacent. So I figured I would rent a small EMG machine (Geonics EM-34), its same concept as the air survey but on a small scale. Worse case I lose a few hundred dollars, good case I find that pristine water pocket

And by the way, if I try everything and end up with the same water I will do the RO. I was thinking of discharging to a small pond (kill 2 birds with 1 stone), depending on the recovery ratio, concentrate may be between 2000-6000 TDS. I don't think the pond would be lifeless if properly managed. I know for example Bass and Catfish tolerate high salinity. There is even 2 famous hypersaline lakes near where I live. Now those don't have much life but you can't tell they are hypersaline unless you get very close, then again those are much saltier than the ocean which is 35000 tds

 

[ditttohead]

A cheap whole house RO is going to be far more headache than you will want. These are designed more for municipal water which would typically be far better than your water. In general, your water would be fairly easy to treat with a good RO system. RO's for whole house applications are a little more complex than most people realize. We design and manufacture many different levels of whole house RO's for several companies. The cheap ones are simply not good. Built like a Huffy bicycle... as cheap as possible.

 

[Dave21]

A cheap whole house RO is going to be far more headache than you will want. These are designed more for municipal water which would typically be far better than your water. In general, your water would be fairly easy to treat with a good RO system. RO's for whole house applications are a little more complex than most people realize. We design and manufacture many different levels of whole house RO's for several companies. The cheap ones are simply not good. Built like a Huffy bicycle... as cheap as possible.

If you can link some suitable whole house RO systems it would be appreciated

 

[TJanak]

Thanks excellent info. I am close to you actually, south of you, in Linn (north/central Hidalgo County). Sounds like you did alot of research same as me. You hit it on the dot regarding the SAR, I have low calcium relative to salt content. Your solution of a shallow well is actually something I am contemplating. Current well is at 130ft, water table is at 28 ft plus or minus a couple of feet. Some wells in the area are 60-90 ft.

I also looked into the magnetic water treatment like the CareFree Water Conditioner which claims to help salts pass through easily into the soil, therefore not negatively affecting plants much. There are some local growers such as in Premont, Texas who are listed to have good success but I can't find much scientific info backing it up and its super overpriced at almost 1k for the smallest model which is such a simple device.

Before going via the RO route, I will try to do another well, I will try shallow this time, I found a driller that did my first well pretty cheap anyways. I know for a fact there is great water around here but its hit or miss in my exact location. Two miles east of me, it is consistently good water but in my exact location its hit or miss. My neighbor has a well about 500 ft from mine and his is pristine, I think the TDS is like 40, its almost like the RO water after treatment, lol.

Yeah, I saw the ads with the Premont guy as well.

To be honest I cheated somewhat on the shallow well. There was an existing shallow well on my place that I hooked up a generator to and tested the water to find out it was much better quality. But I didn't use that well because it made sand. Even so, I did quite a bit of research on the TWDB Groundwater Database Report website which correlated with my thinking that the shallower water here is better. You can view well reports with many having water quality data, some being tested on a schedule if I remember correctly. https://www3.twdb.texas.gov/apps/WaterDataInteractive/GroundwaterDataViewer/?map=gwdb
http://www.twdb.texas.gov/groundwater/data/gwdbrpt.asp

I'm not saying the shallow well is your answer, was just mentioning it may be worth questioning the conventional thought in your area. They drill deeper here for reliable quantity, with really no regard for quality. I planted oats on my house pad to keep the sand from blowing and the water from the deep well killed the oats.

Before, I drill it I was thinking of renting a device to do a groundwater EMG survey. Apparently, it works. Texas A&M did an aerial groundwater survey in Linn, Tx where I live and it correlates well with existing well logs. The area that was surveyed does not include my property but just adjacent. So I figured I would rent a small EMG machine (Geonics EM-34), its same concept as the air survey but on a small scale. Worse case I lose a few hundred dollars, good case I find that pristine water pocket

Wow, interesting. Do you have a link to any of the A&M reports on this? I guess I've never seen any information on this. Cool that you could rent the machine.

And by the way, if I try everything and end up with the same water I will do the RO. I was thinking of discharging to a small pond (kill 2 birds with 1 stone), depending on the recovery ratio, concentrate may be between 2000-6000 TDS. I don't think the pond would be lifeless if properly managed. I know for example Bass and Catfish tolerate high salinity. There is even 2 famous hypersaline lakes near where I live. Now those don't have much life but you can't tell they are hypersaline unless you get very close, then again those are much saltier than the ocean which is 35000 tds

 

[ditttohead]

If you can link some suitable whole house RO systems it would be appreciated

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