If your family depends on a private well for their water, knowing the quality and purity of that water becomes a very high priority. You wouldn’t bring contaminated food into your home, so ensuring that your water is free from any contamination is just as important. Water contamination can cause many different symptoms such as digestive upsets, headaches, allergies, fatigue and much more so it has no place in your home.
Therefore, annual testing of your water is essential. Then if testing shows any impurities or contamination, the right solution for that source of contamination must be found and addressed. If you have the right advice and support, this process becomes both easy and routine.
At ETR Laboratories, these are services we provide to our customers all the time. We know it’s not that easy to find someone to advise you without trying to sell you their water purifiers or other services. We are simply interested in helping you know what’s in your water and the steps to take to provide your family with pure water.
Important Guidelines for Getting the Right Water Quality Test
- To determine if there is a water quality problem, you should have the right type of water test for your type of well, your geographic location and your situation. For example, is it a new well? Has it recently been repaired? Are there certain contamination problems common to your region, such as radon? Are you located near an airfield, industry, farm, landfill or other possible source of contamination? We can help you choose the right type of test.
- When there are choices of water tests, choose the most comprehensive test you can afford if you are testing for the first time ever or the first time in many years. There is no other way to determine if heavy metals, industrial chemicals or toxic minerals are entering your well water. Many water tests only look for a few of the most common contaminants, such as nitrates, nitrites, coliform bacteria and lead, but there are more than a hundred other contaminants that could cause problems for your family.
- The results of your test will point out what contaminants are in your well. The next task is to determine the cause. In the case of bacteria in the well, is there an opening into the well that is allowing animals or insects to enter? If there are pesticides or nitrates in the well, could the casing of the well be damaged or inadequate? It takes an expert to zero in on the right cause so it can be eliminated, enabling the water to become pure again.
- The right test will be executed by a company that has a long history of accurate tests and has all the right advanced equipment and experience to provide complete results.
- Some home improvement stores offer free water testing but their test may only check for hardness and pH, leaving your family vulnerable to all the other possible toxins. Their intention is primarily to sell you their equipment and services, not provide an accurate laboratory result. Using a reputable and experienced water testing lab provides a much greater margin of safety.
Avoiding the Health Risks Associated with Contaminated Water
The health problems that can result from water contamination are incredibly diverse. Some symptoms show up as illnesses for which doctors may have a hard time identifying the cause. For that reason, any illnesses or allergies in the home should prompt new water testing.
Here are some of the symptoms that can result from contaminated water and examples of the contaminants that could cause it:
- Skin rashes and sores: arsenic (mineral), nickel (mineral), propylbenzene (industrial chemical), parasites (organisms), polychlorinated biphenyls (manufacturing chemicals), pseudomonas (bacterium), silvex (pesticide) and more.
- Respiratory irritation or problems: surfactants (foaming agents in soap), Suriella (algae), butylbenzene (solvent), dichloropropane (solvent and fumigant), antimony (mineral).
- Cancer: arsenic (mineral), asbestos (natural or industrial mineral), bisphenol A (manufacturing chemical), bromide (mineral and industrial chemical), hexavalent chromium (industrial sources), glyphosate (herbicide) and many, many others.
- Harm to developing fetuses or children: xylene (industrial chemicals), chrysene (industrial chemical), cadmium (heavy metal), lead (mineral), manganese (mineral), methoxychlor (pesticide), metribuzin (herbicide), naphthalene (industrial chemical), perchlorate (industrial chemical), cyanide (mineral and industrial chemical).
- Endocrine disruption: toxaphene (pesticide), triclosan (disinfectant), perchlorate (industrial chemical), bromide (industrial chemical), cyanazine (herbicide), cyanide (mineral and industrial chemical).
- Organ dysfunction (especially liver and kidneys): heptachlor (pesticide), cresol (solvent), xylene (industrial chemicals), nitrobenzene (industrial chemical), Oscillatoria (bacterium), permethrin (pesticide), butylbenzene (solvent).
These are only a few of the hundreds of contaminants we test private wells for. If you need help tracking down the source of contamination or if health problems among family members seem to have a mysterious cause, call us at (978) 840 2941 or check out our water test packages here. We can help by recommending the right water test for your purposes. We can also recommend the right type of filtration system or well repair to eliminate water quality problems.