Blue Water

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jdes913

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My daughter moved into a newly built home in a small sub-division in Suffolk County NY. She and some other, but not all people in the sub-division have found that their domestic water has a blue tint. The water company says the water is safe, the utility company says it checked their grounding and it is all OK. Their suggestion was to have the grounging in the house checked. I met with the builders electrician and went over the grounding in my daughter's home and it looked fine to me. Has anyone had this problem? If you did what was the solution? Any information would help at this point, as no one is stepping up. In 33 years as an electrician, I have never seen this before. Thanks
 
Has anybody checked the acidity of the water at the tap? High acidity will cause this blueish tint by eroding (very slowly) the copper piping.

Many times this is blamed on grounding.

Roger
 
This is an interesting subject. I have red water. Seriously, I have a red ring in the toilets and was wondering what can cause it? I can understand red with coroding copper pips not blue.
 
Red is sometimes caused from high Iron content.

As far as copper being red when it oxidizes, take a look at old copper roofs or flashing, they are green.

Roger
 
Usually, for about 20 bucks, you can take a sample to a local lab and they will give you the true scoop on your water. Other than that, we're just guessing.
 
You could probalby take your water to a local pool store.
Most good ones will test the water and have the ability to test for copper, iron, PH, etc.

(edit): a lot of pool places test for free, or very minimal cost.

The blue tint comes when oxidation of copper occurs. Copper in the water alone doesn't really show up, but add a little trace of chlorine, and you get anything from blue to purple. The shade depends on some other things.
 
blue water

blue water

Thanks for your ideas. Roger's answer is interesting in that on another site,
www.finishing.com, people that had this problem for a few years are having pin hole leaks in their copper water lines. The water company was out to check a house near my daughter's and told the owner that the water was safe but their copper water lines had a slight potential to ground. If anyone thinks of anything else, I'm all ears, or all eyes in this case. Thanks again.
 
jdes913 said:
The water company was out to check a house near my daughter's and told the owner that the water was safe but their copper water lines had a slight potential to ground. If anyone thinks of anything else, I'm all ears, or all eyes in this case. Thanks again.
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Yeah, but electroloysis (and the subsequent "plating out" of the copper) only happens with DC. Where would the DC come from? Do they have some sort of cathodic protection system on the city's water lines.
 
mdshunk said:
Yeah, but electroloysis (and the subsequent "plating out" of the copper) only happens with DC. Where would the DC come from? Do they have some sort of cathodic protection system on the city's water lines.
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Perhaps a mix of copper and iron piping without dielectric-insulation joints.
 
mdshunk said:
Yeah, but electroloysis (and the subsequent "plating out" of the copper) only happens with DC. Where would the DC come from? Do they have some sort of cathodic protection system on the city's water lines.
Click to expand...

maybe an unerground facility nearby? tanks and such have cathodic protection systems, and some ferrous transmission lines have strong cathodic systems- makes u/g tankage swiss cheese in a couple years.
 
Most likely its due to agressive water with a low pH. The low pH dissolves the corrective oxide film on the copper. The EPA's lead and copper rule, adopted in the mid 1990s' requires treatment of water to prevent leaching of lead and copper by sources with a low pH.
Our drinking water has a pH of about 7.5, we inject sodium hydroxide (Draino) and raise the pH to 8.5.
If it was an electrical problem, which is not likely, it would be due to DC corrosion, not from AC. Is there a light rail nearby?
Your first step would be to have your water company test your pH and find out what they have done with the lead and copper rule. Thats all public records and you can ask for the annual water confidence report.
 
Update.

My daughter spoke to some one at the EPA, they said to have the water checked for a corrosive agent and copper particulate. They don't know the far reaching effects but health could be an issue. The water company was out today and took a water sample. She is also going to have a sample tested by an independant lab. While the water co. rep was at her home she got him on the phone with the power co. it seems they haven't talked before. Two houses away they found the water main in the house to have a 4 volt reading. My daughter is going to contact the Public Service Commision, the DEC and the Congressman from the area.
Thanks for your comments and ideas, any others are welcome.
I'll update as I get information.
 
I don't know macmikeman, maybe the guy from the water company said they found 4 bolts reading. I didn't know bolts could read. Unless they were eye bolts, that I could understand. I wonder if they have enough light, being in the basement and all. I could go on and on, insanity does run in the family but I'll stop here.
 
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