An acid neutraliser will solve the problem without tearing down walls.
Even if you replace with CPVC, PEX or the like, you will still have metal in the system (valves, mixers, etc.)

First off, I think you have to step back and look at where and how the water test was performed. It sounds unusual to me that high levels of copper would be coming from the piping. Are you sure it is not coming from the well/ground water? If it is coming from the piping, water treatment will address the problem, whereas piping replacement adresses the symptom.

Hope that helps,

Dan Martyn

Millions of homes have copper plumbing with no ill effects. I suspect the problem lies with your well water. Changes in the weather (as in more rain or less rain) can affect the quality of ground water. If your water has unusually high in levels of copper, it must be leaching into the ground water. Are you living someplace that might have old mining trailings or slag from smelting lying around? All sorts of bad stuff can leach out of those sorts of things for many decades or even longer. It seems highly unlikely your plumbing would the culprit.

"It sounds unusual to me that high levels of copper would be coming from the piping."

Low pH water is well known for attacking copper.

The old pipes may have formed an internal coating before the water pH changed protecting them.

The new pipes have no coating and cannot form one in an acid environment.

The same thing actually happens with lead pipe.
A coating forms and the water never touches the lead.

In Washington, DC they cleaned up the water a little to well and started having huge lead problems.
They are now adding orthophosphate to the water and the lead levels have fallen back to essentially zero as the coating was restored.

The place where I am living dates back to the late 1600s. There were two previous houses on this field stone fondation, that had burnt to the ground. The records date back to when this house was homestead to the surrounding 100 acres (I have 5.1), where is was all farmland. I don't think there was any mining operations or smelting going on, but I don't know for sure. My well is directly next to several huge pine trees (if that helps). I know pine trees are said to make the soil around them acidic, but would that be enough to be causing the large copper deposits I'm experiencing?

I was also told by my state well inspector, that the new copper piping does not have that protective layer that the old pipes have. Therefore, I may be seeing an increase in copper deposits due to that.

So, what do I do? Do I rip out all the new copper pipes, and replace them with PVC? I can't wait 2 or 3 years for this microbial protective layer to grow within the pipes. My thoughts are that I have to get an acid neutralizer (to treat the incoming well water which is naturally acidic), and then slowly replace the copper pipes with PVC (to prevent future degeneration of the pipes, pinhole leaks, etc.).

Now, I'm thinking I may need a water softener on top of the acid neutralizer. Man, I never knew all the problems with well water and I wish I did, because it would have factored into the purchase and sales agreement.

What would you all do?

Thanks in advance for your response and the insightful responses I've already received.

A calcite neutralizer is no big deal. Ours does make the water a little bit hard, but not so much that we have to soften it.

I agree with the other posters here on the possible problems. I would suggest you get another test of the well water by taking a sample from a source BEFORE the repair. If the metal content is low, then a water conditioning system would help. It's my personal opinion you should stay away from sodium systems. They are very effective but the health ramifications are becoming widely known. The calcite as mentioned by "suburbanmd" would be a better choice. Do you have a swimming pool? Chlorine will do the same to blonde hair...turn it green or give green highlights. Where you live in the country can also be an issue. Copper is quite abundent. Here in Maryland, there are areas where any well you drill, will be through copper ore. Most rocky or shale beds will be acidic also. While you're at it, you should have the well checked for radon also since acidic wells are prone to radon because of the pockets caused by rocky or clay substrate.

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