A neighbor of ours just happens to be in the household water biz and she came by to test our water for chlorine. Yes indeed, there is a ton of chlorine in our water right now.
As soon as I told her that we had a crew out looking at the well, she knew exactly where the Cl came from. Whenever they open a well for any kind of maintenance, they'll hit it with some chlorine to kill any contamination they may have introduced!
And it did a hell of a job of clearing out the iron-eating bacteria!
But the water people never told us they were going to do that.
But I assume that does not mean “problem solved” sadly?
no, not even close.
there’s enough Cl in the water that we can’t drink it. works for doing dishes, but we can’t do laundry. it cleans toilets, though! i’ll shower in it, but Mrs won’t because she’s afraid it will bleach her hair out. it has more chlorine than a swimming pool!
but the Cl will dissipate eventually, and then we’ll be able to drink it. but the iron eating bacteria will probably come back, too.
so, we’re still looking at big expensive fixes.