Sewer Gas / Independent Living Home

Go back to the facility's management immediately and get them to fix their problem, withholding payment if possible as leverage. It would be a wise precaution to either remove the affected individual from the area or move the individual to somewhere the problem is absent.

In the UK, the relevant local authority has inspection teams that can issue improvement notices and enforce closures should the need arise. It's worth a phone call to find out more, the number for which may be found by visiting the relevant website.

<...Some inspector failed to do his job...>

Not necessarily. The problem may have arisen since the last inspection was completed and simply hasn't been addressed since that date.

<ExampleQuote>

"Production of an MoT Test Certificate is not evidence of the roadworthiness of any vehicle"

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"Not necessarily. The problem may have arisen since the last inspection was completed and simply hasn't been addressed since that date."

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"Finally new maitenance guy said it was the trap in his bathroom - his words "the whole building" was not plumbed right and no traps exist."

How do missing drain traps 'arise' after an inspection? The last time I checked, plumbing does not spontaneously reconfigure itself outside of sci-fi/horror movies, or Water Heater Explosions, but there's solid science explaining how and why the plumbing 'spontaneously reconfigures' in that last example.

"If the building does not meet code, it should not have been given a license for occupancy. Some inspector failed to do his job."

Or, they were 'paid, not to'...

H2S. Is the home heated or is cooking done with natural gas?

Everyone - thank you so very much. Going to rent a unit with a recorder ASAP and contact Management.

If this has affected my father's health - I may take legal action.

Somewhat of a bad situation as this might displace many an elderly resident for a while. But necessary.

Just as an aside, living here in Florida I'm sure anybody who has relatives that are on wells, or use well water to water the lawn, are aware of the smell associated with well water, which is very much like sulfur and has been described as rotting eggs....mineral water is good for you, but smells bad.....let's not jump to conclusions here, it could be any number of things causing this odor....but it doesn't hurt to check...good luck

The first people to contact are the local utility provider if you are on a municipal system. The will have the equipment and authority to sniff out the problem.

The second people to contact will be the health unit, authority, or environment board or department. They will also have the expertise and equipment.

Sewage can generate lots of sulfide if the BOD loading is very high hydrogen sulfide. However, "Rotten egg" odours suggest that the odour may be coming from the water supply rather than the sewage system. If that is the case, the problem can be resolved relatively cheaply with injection of hydrogen peroxide into the bottom of the well. Some filtration in the form of Activated carbon should follow the peroxide injection. This work is the responsibility of the authority running the home. Ask to see a set of test results of recent water sampling and includes all the parameters needed not just coliform tests.

That "Rotten Egg smell" is, most likely REAL Natural gas!

Get everyone out of the apartment, Notify your neighbors to do the same and call 911 plus the local gas supplying utility...ASAP!

Until the smell and source are identified..Do Not turn on lights, appliances or strike a match or smoke!

If and when you are notified officially that there is no hazard and the smell is not natural gas or propane, then, do what you must to improve your father's living conditions.

If no success with eradicating the smell, after the above, then, MOVE!

If this is a basement unit or ground appt. unit basement floor drains that have no primer can exhaust sewer gases after the water dries up in the drain. also if venting pipes are missing or connected to stack incorrectly after flushing toilet or draining a sink can move gases to other nearby nearby drains and exhaust there. Get them to get a licensed plumber. Like you said in your post, trap guards can work. They are a quick fix for places you cannot put a drain. ( Shallow floor to drain where a U-trap places drain to high on concrete floor). Otherwise get your father out of there. Or get tenants to start a petition for healthier living enviroments.

Op has not disclosed his location. Is he living in some backward country? where such thing is tolerated. He should collect all documentary evidence, contact good lawyer, approach local civil authorities, take legal action.

Hello Again All,

This is in the US. The following has been done:

- An appropriate Attotney contacted

- Father advised of issue (he was unaware) Asks that facility be notified first. Which I will do upon the advice of Councel.

- County Dept. of Environmental Health will be contacted today. Have all numbers, names of the people to talk to. All will be done in accordance with law, documented, etc.

Thank you everyone for your concern and advice. I think we can close this thread as the issue is now understood and actions to be taken known. I will update once actions have been made.

Contact the local newspaper or television station. Speak to the producer of the "consumer advocate" or similar and request that they follow up on this story of sewer gases and unhealthy conditions, potential severe illness, possible death, etc., etc. Also add that your father had to evacuate the area and he is still paying rent. Put the blame on the landlord and let the tv station or newspaper get the most mileage for you and coverage for themselves. Good human interest stories sell air time and newspapers. Income is generated by sales. Net $'s come from income. Paychecks come from income! This certainly works in my area!

Good Luck, Old Salt

Good Luck to you.

You are absolutely certain it is sewer gas? The first nursing home my wife worked at reeked of rotten eggs, (in summer you could smell it before you entered the building) and it was the water. Their well had a very high sulfur content.I know you mentioned the "trap block", but the small change noticed could be strictly psychological.

I live in New Jersey where the town has well water. We have a high iron content and rotten egg smell in the water. I have raised the temperature in my hot water heater since I read that the bacteria that often causes the smell can not live in water above about 140 degree F. There is little to no smell coming out of the hot water taps. However, the smell comes out of the cold water taps almost instantly and we need to run the cold water for several minutes before it disappears. The refrigerator cold water filter seems to remove the smell as it never is present there and comes off the same water line as the kitchen sink which has the smell.

Natural gas has no smell which is why mercaptans are added to natural gas to give it a smell so we can detect it. Mercaptans are a thiol and contain sulfur to give it the noxious odor we recognize. You should be able to determine if the H2S smell is coming from the taps. If not, evacuate the buildings until the local gas utility checks it out. Sewer gas is also explosive since it is basically methane, the main component of natural gas.

Sulfate reducing bacteria are really thermophiles. They can withstand temperatures as high as 140 degrees C or 284 degrees farenheit. And some sulfur bacteria can survive very high temperatures and pressure as found in the mid Atlantic ridge. The 140 degree F of your HWT would likely be a more optimum temperature than cold water for SRB. It has been suggested that an ideal temperature for SRB is 130F or 54 degrees C. I am not sure why your hot water does not reek when the cold water does but I doubt if raising the temperature of the HWT is the reason.

The filter in the refrigerator is activated carbon and that media can remove H2S, the rotten egg gas.

SRB are obligate anaerobes and as such will not thrive with the introduction of an oxidizer. In my earlier post I suggested injecting the well with Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The peroxide breaks down to form water (H2O) and oxygen (O). It is an easy product to inject directly into the bottom of the well. The addition of the chemically available oxygen will negate sulfate reducing bacteria within the well.

I am of the opinion the odours in the building are from the water supply as opposed to the sewer system. But without being on site or reviewing chemical testing, I can only offer opinions and advise the OP to investigate both water supply and sewage discharges. A simple test of the water supply can be performed to determine the presence of H2S. SRB are more complex to evaluate but I assure you, if H2S is present, so are SRB.

Natural gas, as delivered to homes, does have sulfur compounds and if that is the odour, yep your right leave the building ASA (Humanly) P.

I was under the impression this was a nursing home or seniors residence. Wouldn't the rotten egg smell from the water supply lines affect all the units in this residence and not just several units? Also, in original post, there was mention of an after market trap that was installed to reduce sewer gas emissions. I have encountered many basement cast iron drains with traps that have corroded over time and have allowed whatever water in trap to seep to soil and drainage stone under the floor slab. Do you think this is a water supply problem?.

Don't know where in Jersey you live but the Northern, NE, and Central areas mostly don't have high H₂S levels since they use mostly river or canal water for drinking water. (That's why Newark used to have the most breweries of any city in the country, the Wanaque reservoir once had the cleanest water and supplied Newark). The rest of the state has medium to high rust and H₂S levels. Surprisingly especially down the shore where almost all water is well water.

The normal local way to rid the water of H₂S is to use a filter housing with a replaceable Activated Carbon filter cartridge in it. Most residences use unfiltered water for the lawns and outside uses and a separate line going to the activated carbon filter and then throughout the house. This is the same piping arrangement that many houses use for piping in water softeners. Main service line to meter to "T" and one run of the "T" going to the outside and the other to the filter and/or the water softener.

The rust particles that normally come with the water can be an ugly thing on surfaces. There are several filters/chemical treatments that can be used if a particle filter is used before the activated carbon filter. If the filter is not used you can expect to get an accumulation of rust perhaps up to the vertical middle of your water tank. Instant water heaters also are effected by the rust.

Suggest that you contact the water supplier for assistance or call a lab that does water testing.

All these filters are available at the big orange and blue box stores.

http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/publications/L-5312.pdf

http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/0319.html

God Luck, Old Salt

When my wife complained about the iron in the laundry water causing stains, I installed 3 Big Blue in-line filters in my water supply line. I'm using a Pentek string wound 50/5 to remove major sediment, a Pentek that reduces it to .5 micron (yes point 5) micron and the 3rd is a carbon activated filter to hopefully remove the odors. I've reduced the rust almost completely but the H2S odor in the cold is still there. The higher temperature in the water heater seems to have fixed the problem in the hot. I plan on replacing the first 2 filters soon and before I install a new 3rd filter I was going to remove the old, clean it out using chlorox and then fill it completely with peroxide and flush it through the house and even the water heater since I did find the use of peroxide being effective and safer than chlorine bleach. The town water is from 3 wells and I would classify it as coming from bog like areas which in Colonial days was the raw material for "Bog Iron". I am down in the Pinelands region of New Jersey where the harvesting of bog iron was once prevalent. The Toms River often runs reddish due to a combination of the bog iron and the cedar trees. Not sure which is the main culprit or if it's a combination. Whenever I replace the filters they are a reddish orange hue from the iron. The town really needs to put in green-sand filters at the wells and up the use of chlorine injection to fix the system but after Sandy they're using their resources in other places. I would like to find a means of peroxide injection as I need to find a means small enough to fit into my crawl space that won't break the bank. A water softener unit is not feasible based on layout.

OMG I never expected that such inhuman conditions exist in U.S that also in towns like New Jersy. I have many friends living there.

I have been to India and I'm taking your response as a bit of tongue in cheek or mild sarcasm toward conditions in the USA. When I was in "Bombay" in 1960 we were informed that each morning the "Black Mariahs" came through the streets and removed about 10,000 bodies of dead newborns, old people and the ill who didn't make it through the night. I'm assuming that conditions in now Mumbai have improved but I'm willing to bet that the odor in my water would not convince me that living conditions in India are sufficiently so much better than in New Jersey so that I would move there. After all, if it was that much better, why would so many of your friends move here?

When we sailed up the Chittagong River we could see people peeing and pooping on the downriver side of their huts over the river and drawing their water on their upriver side which of course was the next hut's downriver side. I'll take the iron and the sulphur over the pee and poop anytime.

My dear friend why are you comparing India with U.S, it is like comparing "Raja Bhoj with Gango Teli" I you understand Hindi. India is poor country where as U.S is one of the world's richest country. So I was shocked to hear such problems in U.S.

Someone said "natural gas", and they are right. Get a methane detector and tell us what it says.

If the room has any plumbing fixtures not being used often, the gas traps may have dried out. If there is a floor drain, these are often problem areas in public buildings, as people forget to pour some water into the floor drain periodically. There could be a biological problem in some of the plumbing, but there are drain openers that include pleasant fragrances to take care of that. I suspect the plumbing has dried out, if indeed the facility is up to code.