Plumber Question about Salt Water Intrusion

[critta]

So I have a question for any plumbers on the site. We live in St. Bernard and have a house in Metairie also and are supposed to see salt water in the St Bernard parish’s water system sometime around the 10th-13th of October with sodium becoming above safe drinking levels of 250ppm around the 19th or so. I really don’t care about the drinking water problem. That’s a non issue. My worry are our pipes throughout the house. They are all made of copper and from what I’ve read copper is the least resistant to salt water. Supposedly this could possibly go on though January or longer. So I have somewhat of a plan just want to see from a plumber’s perspective if doing what I want to do would mess up anything more than the saltwater in the lines.

I want to add another shutoff above the one already going into the house. In between the two shutoffs I want to put in a hose bib to be able to still use whatever the parish is pushing out but without it going through the house pipes for how many weeks or months this could possibly last. Would have an ample supply of water for flushing toilets, washing pots and pans etc…, can fill camping showers and hang in the shower to still get clean and all. Was going to run the hose to the washing machine to still be able to wash clothes. My question is without water running through the house lines for that long would anything get messed up once we the opened the main back up again after all this crap is over. I’m especially wondering about the hot water heater. We wouldn’t be using any water from faucets or tubs or anything. Just what we could pull in from the hose bib. Any issues that might arise?
I replaced all the pipes in our Metairie house 20 years ago when I bought it. Had to switch all galvanized to copper. Luckily all pipes were run through the attic. In St. Bernard they are all in slab and would be a nightmare to deal with. I don’t want to have to replace them in either house after this debacle and realize a short term with salt water in the lines isn’t much of a problem. I’m just thinking it may not be a short term problem. Ideas or info would be appreciated.

 

[Manimal]

Just curious, is it a known temporary issue or is there the possibility of it being permanent?

 

[critta]

From what I understand it should only be temporary. With the drought in going on pretty much everywhere there’s not enough water flowing down from upriver to wash out the salt water. No major rains expected in the Upper River Valley but they do expect a wetter than normal winter which leads me to believe that although it will be temporary it will be a prolonged event.

 

[shrxfn]

Funny you are asking about this as I just saw a piece about this on the news during my lunch hour. I figured that it had to do with the lack of rain we have been getting so not enough fresh water flowing downstream to stop the salt from coming back upstream. They were talking about how this was going to mess up the water treatment plants in NO and some places above there.

 

[foz1359]

So I have a question for any plumbers on the site. We live in St. Bernard and have a house in Metairie also and are supposed to see salt water in the St Bernard parish’s water system sometime around the 10th-13th of October with sodium becoming above safe drinking levels of 250ppm around the 19th or so. I really don’t care about the drinking water problem. That’s a non issue. My worry are our pipes throughout the house. They are all made of copper and from what I’ve read copper is the least resistant to salt water. Supposedly this could possibly go on though January or longer. So I have somewhat of a plan just want to see from a plumber’s perspective if doing what I want to do would mess up anything more than the saltwater in the lines.

I want to add another shutoff above the one already going into the house. In between the two shutoffs I want to put in a hose bib to be able to still use whatever the parish is pushing out but without it going through the house pipes for how many weeks or months this could possibly last. Would have an ample supply of water for flushing toilets, washing pots and pans etc…, can fill camping showers and hang in the shower to still get clean and all. Was going to run the hose to the washing machine to still be able to wash clothes. My question is without water running through the house lines for that long would anything get messed up once we the opened the main back up again after all this crap is over. I’m especially wondering about the hot water heater. We wouldn’t be using any water from faucets or tubs or anything. Just what we could pull in from the hose bib. Any issues that might arise?
I replaced all the pipes in our Metairie house 20 years ago when I bought it. Had to switch all galvanized to copper. Luckily all pipes were run through the attic. In St. Bernard they are all in slab and would be a nightmare to deal with. I don’t want to have to replace them in either house after this debacle and realize a short term with salt water in the lines isn’t much of a problem. I’m just thinking it may not be a short term problem. Ideas or info would be appreciated.

To address your "mothballing" the water heater you could drain it as normal knowing there'll be a gallon-ish left in the bottom of the tank. That gallon needs to be removed via a siphon tube inserted thru the drain valve (remove the valve 1st). Then some moving air like a small shop vac directed into the drain port (valve removed) with the T&P valve open (or removed) to get it bond dry. Done and done.

 

[Jstudz220]

Funny you are asking about this as I just saw a piece about this on the news during my lunch hour. I figured that it had to do with the lack of rain we have been getting so not enough fresh water flowing downstream to stop the salt from coming back upstream. They were talking about how this was going to mess up the water treatment plants in NO and some places above there.

Yea, this has been pretty big news for the past couple weeks now. I thought I was behind the curve myself when I found out early last week.

 

[BrandonPle]

Just spend the $$ on a quality filtration/ R.O system for the house. Then you don't have to do any of that , and you have a long-term solution in place.
Don't let a plumber sell you a jacked up price system , do your homework , make sure you buy something big enough for a whole home.
Then call the plumber to install it.

 

[critta]

Just spend the $$ on a quality filtration/ R.O system for the house. Then you don't have to do any of that , and you have a long-term solution in place.
Don't let a plumber sell you a jacked up price system , do your homework , make sure you buy something big enough for a whole home.
Then call the plumber to install it.

Looked into that already. RO systems would be even worse in the long run. Learned that when the ultra pure water from a RO system runs through copper pipes it leaches the copper out and can cause high copper levels and small pin hole leaks over time. It may take quite a while but it’s definitely not good for copper pipes either. There’s actually a class action lawsuit in Miramar because their water plant switched to RO for treatment and peoples pipes started failing afterwards.

Reverse Osmosis and Copper Pipes

4perfectwater.com

 

[shrxfn]

all this makes me kind of glad I went with PEX when we did the house but now probably have a ton of micro plastics in my system. If it ain't one thing its another.

 

[Fordfella]

Can you do like your boat and introduce zinc into the system so that the zinc will be dissolved instead of the copper. If I'm not mistaken my water heater has a zinc plug in it.

 

[DBMJR1]

All of this happened in 1988 IIRC.

We were catching redfish and sand sharks in Algiers.

The world, obviously, did not end.

People's appliances did not suddenly fail.

Pipes did not burst.

I don't recall tasting salt in the water, but I've slept since then.

 

[DBMJR1]

Your water heater should have a zinc anode in it.

My wife and I figure our water heater was replaced when I was in the First Gulf War.
She had to have her dad come clean up as she was late for work.

I tried to replace the anode about a decade later, and failed to break the old one loose.

If you can change your anode, I suggest you do that, and call it done.

You should really change the anode anyways. I don't know the interval. I used to. CRS
Interwebs says every 3-5 years, so mine is only a few decades overdue, with a new anode in the corner behind it gathering dust.

 

[Martman300]

Looked into that already. RO systems would be even worse in the long run. Learned that when the ultra pure water from a RO system runs through copper pipes it leaches the copper out and can cause high copper levels and small pin hole leaks over time. It may take quite a while but it’s definitely not good for copper pipes either. There’s actually a class action lawsuit in Miramar because their water plant switched to RO for treatment and peoples pipes started failing afterwards.

Reverse Osmosis and Copper Pipes

4perfectwater.com

You most likely can’t do the RO, for the whole house. I was in the business 20 years. Typically you filter the water coming into the house with a whole house filtration.

Size, cost, usage are the biggest issue to a whole house RO unit. You are correct you don’t want that running through the house. But not necessarily because of what the article says. For many years people run RO water through copper pipes. It’s a very long term thing to cause any real damage.

That is typically a sediment filter followed by carbon filters, with the pores getting smaller in stage as it progresses in the system.

The RO system would be a POU, point of use system. I have one under my kitchen sink for any consumption. This also feed my refrigerator and ice maker.