Green water

We have been noticing, for several months, that our water had a greenish tint.  Sometimes it was barely noticeable and other times it looked like green tea.  I tried several times to identify the source of the green and tried to compare water coming out of the tap with water coming from the ground, where we connect our water hose.  I couldn’t reach a firm conclusion.  Until about a week ago.

One morning last week the water was particularly green, so I did the water test – a glass of water from the tap and a glass of water directly from the water supply, side-by-side in the sun.  This time it was pretty obvious that the water source was clear and the tap water was green.  The problem was in the internal pipes of my RV.

The plan was to, first, replace the water hose and, second, to flush the internal water lines with a sanitizer – a process similar to winterizing the lines.  So I ran off to get the necessary tools and supplies.  The first step was to replace the hose.  Easy enough to do, but I was shocked at what came out – a dark green stream of water that actually stained the concrete.  Shocking!  We were drinking this crud!  I have to assume that it was due to a benign algae as it hadn’t made us ill.  But it was disgusting!

Replacing the hose was trivial.  Flushing and sanitizing the lines was more difficult because I had to use a hand pump.  But in an hour or so the job was done and we once again had colorless drinking water.