Ericdc,
You may be seeing the effects of the 1st big spring rains and the impact that has on organic loading in your part of the country. i am very familiar with the NE Texas and NW Louisiana water quality issues that comes from the 1st large springs rains. That part of the world has a lot of tanins and lignins from decaying leak material due to the heavy natural forestation you have. Combine that with a relatively mild winter with higher than typical decay rates, and you will have a big influx of color bodies as well as turbidity. We have been anticipating that impact on the river water in that part of the country this spring, and the negative effects it will have on water quality for industrial and minicipal water treatment. If you are seeing water with a dark tea colored stain rather than a red tinted turbid water, this is more likely an organics issue. You can get a sample in a jar and look to see if the water is translucent but stained, or is it cloudy and turbid (TSS rather than color) Another way to determione this is to add a mineral acid to the sample. Organics will coagulate and separate. You will need to drive the pH below 1.0 to accomplish this ( sample only; this is to test for what is causing the color and not to remediate the issue). If it is color, only time and dilution will clear up the problem. If it is color from organic decay, then you likely also have low pH from the organic acids. Adding lime will raise pH and act to clear the water some from the resulting pH rise.
As always, it is best to get a complete water analysis to determine the best path forward. My suggestions above are meant to get you some additional information to go along with the water analysis. Once you have an analysis completed (get samples from several locations and make a composite sample for best results), I will be glad to look over and give you my two cents worth. That may be all it is worth however.
