C41 and poor water

[sly]

So the local store that sent colour film off to the big city for developing, has had their big city developer disappear. I've tried saving up a bunch of rolls and mailing film to the big city, but the postage ends up costing as much as the developing. Driving 2 hours to the next biggest city is another option, but I'm not driving 4 hours just to deliver film. Time to reconsider developing colour myself.
I've always figured that my crappy, unpotable well water precluded c41 developing. I've got LOTS of water - my choices are - the river across the road, the salty well, the sulphury-very-alkaline well, and the orange-coloured iron-rich well. We use reverse osmosis for our drinking water. If you use 2 litres, it's about an hour before you can get any more. I use osmosis water for mixing B&W chemicals, and salty water for washing. The orange water is good for watering the garden. The sulphur water gets used at the end of a dry summer - it's the deepest one and never seems to get low.
So, should I attempt c-41? I can mix chems up with osmosis water, but no way I can wash with it. Whaddaya think? Would it be smarter to save up many rolls and get that thrill of picking up a dozen rolls and looking at negs I can't remember shooting?

 

[NedL]

We have an RO filter under the kitchen sink for drinking water. The tank holds 3 gallons. It takes about 5 or 6 hours to refill if we use it all, but that rarely happens. I use it to wash my b&w film, and don't push the limits at all, but then I usually only develop one or at most two rolls in a day. A couple years ago, the tank developed a leak at the valve on top, and I thought I would have to replace it. A new one was not very expensive, maybe about $30. ( I was able to repair the leak without replacing the whole tank, but not thrilled to find out you cannot buy the valve separately! ) So you might look into buying a larger tank for your RO filter.

 

[MattKing]

sly:

Look at XpressPost through Canada Post.

For 35mm, has London Drugs stopped developing film in Nanaimo.

 

[Xmas]

Our (and Canadian navy home built) flower class ASW corvettes in WWII had limited drinking water so used sea water with a reused bottle of drinking for final rinse.

Post war their negs were in perfect condition.

Ilfords archival 3 bath wash is ok for c41 large poly container of osmosis topped up before gong to bed.

On local well water Id treat all the used liquid as hazmat and tank to local facility after removing silver.

Jnorian will sell you a silver revovery tool, but I'd still treat residue as hazmat.

 

[George Nova Scotia]

How about the water that falls from the sky? I hear it rains a bit on the west coast. A couple rain barrels, a small pump and filter might be the perfect setup.