[Leica] Film processing in almost clean water?

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

My house in Maine has water from a well. Wells just deliver the water 
that is down there. If water sits there long enough it absorbs from the 
surrounding material. Pine needles and some leaves infuse tannin into 
well water, which is extremely hard to filter out and which is quite 
harmless. And it is yellow. I've taken yellow well water in for analysis 
many times, and they always say the same thing: tannin.

I use a 2-stage filter, but it can't get all of the yellow out. I 
haven't developed film in that water in a decade, but it always worked 
fine. I drink it and cook with it. My wife is afraid to drink it when it 
gets yellow.

There has been 12 inches of rain there in the last couple of months. I 
expect the well water to be perfectly clear as a result. It takes a long 
time for tannin to leach into ground water, and 12 inches of rain means 
that the water table will be new water, hence clear.