DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

So the water-treatment guy says, “How long has it been since you flushed the holding tank?”

I said, dumbly, “It needs to be flushed?”

After several months’ delay, we’d finally found someone to service the ozone generator on our water-treatment system. I had previously been led to believe that at least this part of the system was maintenance free. (I’d like to think I’m not that naive, but I am often faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary.)

The technician laughed, but not in a friendly way. It was more of an “I’m writing your invoice in my mind” sort of laugh. He explained that the injection of ozone into our raw well water causes all the dissolved (ferrous) iron to solidify into ferric iron, which comes out of solution and collects in the bottom of the holding tank. This iron needs to be flushed out every month or two, or it will clog up the rest of the treatment system. Even though this was not part of the plan for the day’s maintenance visit, I asked the technician if he could flush our tank.

He said he could, and then did something unexpected — he reached down to flip open the drain valve, which would have poured 200 gallons of orange muck onto my driveway.

“Whoa, hang on!” I said, just in time. “Can’t you put a hose on that and run it out to the drainage ditch?” In reply I heard some mumbo-jumbo about fittings and hose sizes and so on, although in the end the technician agreed to come back later to drain the tank without trashing my driveway or flooding my yard.

I missed the best photo opportunities, when the fluid was completely opaque, pouring out of the hose with the viscosity of latex paint. This image was taken a few seconds later: still pretty nasty. I was equally surprised when the same hose ran clear, about five minutes (and two rinses) later.