<p>The water at my house comes from a rural water system. There has been lots of natural gas drilling in the area, and since a gas well was recently drilled near a water well last year, our water has had a metalic/chemical oder at certain times. They recently fracked that well and drilled another gas well near a different water well. Ever since, our water has been orange to brown and had the smell I discribed above. It also will turn blue-green when you put soap in it. The water system has done just about everything it can for the color, and discoved today that the blue-green tinge is due to the fact that the water has a ph of 3.
Could this be because of the drilling? What will they add to the water to raise the ph?</p>
<p>Oil and gas refining can produce highly acidic runoff, and it seems like that these people are not cleaning it up.
To neutralize a weak acid one needs a base; soap is a base, and as such raises the pH back up.</p>
<p>yes, since saponification involves a strong base, your best bet is to arm yourself with soap.</p>
<p>saponification involves fat and usually something like NaOH.</p>
<p>a pH of 3 is NOT a weak acid. that’s very strong.</p>
<p>a pH of 3, Damn.</p>
<p>I had noticed that it was striping my hair really bad and burned if you got it in a cut. Now I know why!
It’s clear this evening, but it still smells weird and turns blue-green when soap is put in it (slight tint out of the tap, but it looks like you dropped a marker in it when soap is added). The water system has told us not to drink it.</p>
<p>pH of anything but one (100% ionization in water) is considered weak. A strong acid by definition must dissociate entirely in water.</p>