Whether you rely on municipal water or you have a private well, knowing the quality of water served to your home is vital. To get this knowledge, you have to test your own water. If you are in a city, you have a relatively good assurance that basic standards of water quality are met. But if you rely on well water, the responsibility to analyze your own water for contaminants is all yours.
The truth is that even city dwellers are very smart to test the water provided to them. There’s three reasons for this.
- Your city is only required to meet the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Some organizations and states feel these standards should be stricter. If you test your own water, you can make your own decision about whether or not you need to filter, purify or treat your water.
- Even if your city water quality is good, your own plumbing system could be adding lead, iron, copper, or even bacteria to the water served to your family. You need to know if this is happening.
- It’s also possible that your city system can serve you poor-quality water. While municipal managers do their best, tests show that contaminated water does sometimes make it to homes.
Two Towns Where Residents Should Have Tested Municipal Water
According to testing done by the Environmental Working Group, some cities or townships receive municipal water that fails to meet the EPA’s standards. Coraopolis, Pennsylvania is one such city. The EPA set the standard for how much of a toxic chemical referred to PFOS can be served in drinking water. The EPA says that no more than 4 parts per trillion of PFOS are acceptable. Coraopolis was served water with 7.14 parts per trillion of PFOS by their municipal utility.
Why is this important? Because very low doses of PFOS are associated with suppression of the immune system, increased cholesterol, reproductive and developmental problems and even an increased risk of cancer.
Monroe Township, New Jersey, had a similar problem. In their case, it was another toxic chemical, PFOA. The citizens in Monroe Township were served water with 5.86 parts per trillion of PFOA when only 4 parts per trillion is acceptable according to the EPA. PFOA has similarly harmful effects as PFOS.
Chemicals like PFOA and PFOS and others in their class are used to make hundreds of water-repellent items, non-stick cookware, carpets, furniture and refrigerants. Traces of these chemicals are just about everywhere in our environment and are stored in almost every American’s body. But they are toxic and should definitely not be present in your household’s drinking water. If you want to ensure that your city is not serving you water with these or other toxic substances, you need to do your own tests.
Why Is It Important to Test Your Well Water?
Don’t for a minute think that cities are the only locations where these (and hundreds of others) toxic chemicals are found. From industrial spills, airports, agriculture, firefighter training, manufacturing, leaking landfills and other sources, chemicals seep into the soil and make their way into groundwater. Then, slowly, this water can travel many miles to contaminate private water wells far from the original contamination. Regular testing of your well water enables you to monitor the quality of your own water supply.
Once you test your private water well, annual follow-up tests are needed to ensure that the quality stays consistent. Many events can change the quality of a water well:
- Damage to the wellhead, casing or cap
- Construction or landscaping done nearby
- New industrial or agricultural activities nearby
- Leaks from landfills
- Leaks from working septic systems
- Poorly decommissioned wells or septic systems
- Severe storms, floods, or snowmelt
- Infiltration by insects or animals
- A buildup of biomass in the well
- Earthquakes or land shifting
Therefore, once the quality of the water has been verified, annual testing is vital. There is, factually, no other way to ensure that your family receives clean, healthy drinking water from your well, year after year.
Which Is the Right Kind of Water Kit for Your Test?
There are several types of water test kits available, each with its own strengths and limitations. Understanding these options helps you choose the most appropriate test for your situation.
Do-It-Yourself Test Strips: DIY test strips are the most basic and affordable option for water testing. These paper strips change color when exposed to certain substances in water. Test strips will inform you of the presence of between five and 22 different contaminants, such as nitrate, iron, manganese, copper and mercury.
This is an inexpensive way to get a general idea of water quality but they do not inform you of the quantity of each undesirable element. They also fail to check for hundreds of other toxins that could be in your water.
Home Test Kits: Home test kits are slightly more comprehensive than simple test strips. They often include separate tests for different contaminants and may require you to collect water samples and perform simple chemical reactions. Still, these tests only give you a negative/positive result and do not provide accurate numerical measurements.
Digital Water Testers: Digital water testers use electronic sensors to measure various water attributes. They can provide more precise readings for specific qualities such as hardness or electrical conductivity (an indicator for salt, other minerals and some chemicals or metals). However, it might be difficult for the average person to understand the results, and the meter may not be able to differentiate between, for example, a harmful substance that makes water hard and a harmless one.
Professional Laboratory Testing: When you want an accurate, thorough understanding of what harmful contaminants might be in your water, professional testing is the way to go. This option is more costly, however, there is no other way to find out if your water contains cancer-causing or hormone-disrupting chemicals like the PFOS or PFOA mentioned above. There is generally a few days wait to get your results.
Unfortunately, the drinking water in America all too often contains industrial, manufacturing or agricultural chemicals along with harmful levels of naturally occurring substances. A test by a professional lab is the best way to find out what is in your well water. A professional test involves taking water samples exactly as specified by the testing company and sending them to the lab for analysis.
What Harmful Substances Could Be in Your Water?
Both well water and municipal water can contain a variety of contaminants, each with the potential to impact health. Here are some of the most common substances you should be aware of.
Microorganisms: Bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites can cause gastrointestinal issues and infections. Your test might look for these microorganisms that are harmful to humans:
- Coliform bacteria
- E. coli
- Giardia
- Cryptosporidium
Heavy Metals: Heavy metals can cause acute and chronic toxicity, liver and intestinal damage, anemia, and cancer. They don’t belong in your drinking water. You should note that some of these metals can come from naturally occurring deposits in the rock around a well but they might also be leaching from your plumbing pipes, solder or other plumbing components. Important heavy metals to test for include:
- Lead
- Arsenic
- Copper
- Cadmium
- Chromium
- Selenium
Nitrates and Nitrites: These contaminants can be particularly dangerous for infants, potentially causing “blue baby syndrome.” Nitrates make it harder for the blood to carry a normal amount of oxygen, with the result that babies exposed to nitrates can turn bluish. Babies often drink formula made with tap water, and drink more fluids for their weight than adults do. Therefore, nitrates and nitrites can have a more profound effect on babies than adults. Nitrites and nitrites often originate from fertilizers and animal waste.
Organic Chemicals: Pesticides, solvents, and other organic compounds are known to cause liver and kidney damage as well as hormone disruption and reproductive harm. Common organic chemicals to test for include:
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), a group that includes benzene, ethylene glycol, formaldehyde, tetrachloroethylene, toluene and xylene
- Pesticides like chlorpyrifos and diazinon
- Herbicides like atrazine, metolachlor, and 2,4-D
Inorganic Chemicals: Various inorganic chemicals can affect water quality, taste and health. Some important ones to test for include:
- Chlorine
- Fluoride
- Iron
- Manganese
- Sulfate
Physical Attributes: Physical characteristics of water can indicate future problems such as metals leaching from plumbing or a buildup of minerals inside appliances and pipes.
- pH is a measurement of acidity or alkalinity—the more acidic your water is, the more corrosive it is on your plumbing system
- Hardness is a measurement primarily of calcium and magnesium in your water. High levels can cause early failure of appliances or parts of your plumbing
- Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is an index to the total quantity of contaminants in your water which could include calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, arsenic, fluoride, sulfates, nitrates, herbicides, lead or aluminum
- Turbidity or cloudiness of your water—a possible indicator of pathogens
What Problems Can Be Caused by the Most Common Well Water Contaminants?
Well water quality is monitored by no one but the well owner. Here are some of the most common well water contaminants and the problems they can cause.
Bacteria, Viruses and other Microorganisms: Microorganisms in well water can lead to gastrointestinal illnesses, including diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. In an immunocompromised person, infections resulting from this contamination can be fatal. For example, Legionella and some types of E. coli infections can be life-threatening.
Nitrates: In addition to the harm nitrates can do to infants, nitrates can also increase the risk of colorectal cancer, harm the thyroid or increase the risk of birth defects or preterm births.
Arsenic: Long-term exposure to arsenic can increase the risk of skin, bladder, and lung cancers, as well as cause skin lesions and cardiovascular issues.
Lead: The U.S. EPA states that there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. Exposure to lead can cause developmental issues in children, kidney problems, and high blood pressure in adults.
Radon: The EPA estimates that 21,000 cases of lung cancer are caused by exposure to radon. It causes harm when it’s drunk in water, but also when it is released into the air during showers or cooking.
Iron and Manganese: While these do not typically appear at high enough levels to be harmful, they can cause staining of plumbing fixtures and laundry, as well as affect the taste and odor of water. However, if manganese gets too high, it can cause behavioral, motor skills, memory and neurological problems.
Why Is Professional Water Testing the Right Choice for Well Water?
While do-it-yourself water test kits provide some limited and basic information about water quality, they are insufficient for ensuring the safety of your well water. Here are some of the reasons that professional testing is the best choice for well owners:
- Comprehensive Testing: Professional labs test for a much wider range of contaminants than at-home test kits. This is essential because well water can contain hundreds of different pollutants depending on local geology and nearby industrial, manufacturing or agricultural activities.
- Higher Accuracy: Professional testing labs use highly advanced equipment and techniques. Your tests are performed by experienced technicians. Your results will be more accurate than a home test kit that may only give you a negative/positive reading on a handful of contaminants.
- Expert Interpretation: Some labs also offer expert analysis of the results, helping you understand the implications for your health and guiding you on necessary water treatment options.
- Regulatory Compliance: When you’re selling a property with a well, professional testing may be required to meet local or lender regulations. Professional verification that your well provides high-quality and healthy water is also a great way to help make the real estate sale go smoothly.
- Detection of Subtle Issues: Many contaminants, like arsenic, lead or radon, have no taste, odor, or color. Professional testing can detect these hidden threats that at-home test kits could miss.
- Long-term Monitoring: Professional testing can establish an accurate baseline for your water quality, allowing for more effective long-term monitoring of any changes.
- Peace of Mind: With your professional test results in hand, you’ll have the best information possible about the quality of water your family is drinking.
Your Best Provider for Water Testing: ETR Laboratories
For many years, ETR Laboratories has been helping well owners, municipalities, state boards of health, and industries that rely on pure water know exactly what’s in their water supply. ETR Labs not only helps homeowners and businesses with these tests, they also supply the lab results other water testing companies need. Cut out the middleman and go directly to the source of fast, accurate water tests. Choose your ideal water test today!
