If your home relies on water from a private well, one of the most important tests you can do is a check for heavy metals. In a city, municipal services test drinking water for heavy metals but no one checks well water except the owner. Therefore, it is especially important that private well owners monitor their water for heavy metals and other contaminants.
This doesn’t mean that city water is exempt from any heavy metal contamination. While cities do monitor water quality, these systems fail far too often. These examples of failures might convince you that you should perhaps test your city water supply from time to time:
- Baltimore, Maryland in 2022 and Los Angeles in 2023: Aging plumbing added lead to drinking water distributed to schools.
- Reno, Nevada in 2001-2004: Naturally high arsenic levels required new treatment plants to meet limits imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Jackson, Mississippi in 2021-2022: Lead and manganese were added to drinking water due to an aging water system.
- Chicago at the present moment: The city has more than 400,000 lead water service lines and some homes receive water with excessively high levels of lead. Pipes are gradually being replaced.
As you can see, heavy metal contamination can come from naturally occurring metals and minerals in the ground and from corrosion that leaches metals from pipes, plumbing systems or municipal water treatment systems. Some metals can also reach groundwater or municipal water supplies as a result of industrial pollution. When doing these tests, it’s essential to track down the correct source of the contamination so you can eliminate the right problem.
What Heavy Metals Could Be in Your Water?
There are more than 30 heavy metals in all, but a dozen are of the greatest concern when they appear in drinking water. That’s because of their toxicity, persistence in the environment, and ability to accumulate in human bodies (and your pets’ bodies).
Here are the primary heavy metals that are found in drinking water in different parts of the United States, along with the reasons you don’t want high levels of these metals in your water.
- Arsenic: Arsenic occurs naturally in bedrock, especially in the Western U.S., Midwest and parts of the Northeast. Long-term exposure can lead to bladder, lung, skin, kidney or liver cancer. Individuals of any age can suffer memory and concentration problems and peripheral neuropathy.
- Lead: This metal can occasionally be found in groundwater, but it usually leaches from plumbing fixtures in older homes. Acidic water is more likely to cause lead to be drawn from pipes or soldered joints. Lead is especially harmful for children and pregnant women. Exposure to lead in drinking water interferes with the normal development of a child’s brain and nervous system. It can also lower IQ and affect learning and memory.
- Mercury: Industrial runoff, mining operations, coal or waste burning, and cement production can release mercury into the environment. Mercury also occurs in rocks and minerals. From any of these sources, it can make its way into drinking water. When mercury is in the water drunk by pregnant women, it can interfere with fetal development. Effects include impaired brain development, lower IQ, poor speech and language skills and learning disabilities.
- Cadmium: Industrial operations, improper battery disposal, phosphate fertilizers and pollution can all add cadmium to drinking water supplies. The harm from elevated levels of cadmium in water can be extensive, affecting bones, heart and liver. Cancer is another possible effect of cadmium exposure.
- Chromium: There are two kinds of chromium that can be found in drinking water—trivalent and hexavalent. Trivalent chromium is needed in very small amounts for health. If too much is in the water, it can cause skin irritation and respiratory problems. Hexavalent is far more dangerous and can enter water from metal plating, pigment production, wood preservation and other industrial activities. The results can be stomach, liver, small intestine and mouth cancer, liver or kidney damage. Reproductive and developmental harm are also possible.
- Manganese: This is a naturally occurring mineral found in soil and rocks. As water moves through the rock, it can pick up manganese and carry it into drinking water wells. Very small amounts are helpful for health, but higher levels can cause neurological damage that is similar to Parkinson’s disease. The mineral can also cause reproductive and developmental harm to babies. High levels can also cause nausea and vomiting, along with liver, heart and kidney damage.
- Iron: Iron is naturally occurring in many parts of the country, so it is easy to make its way into drinking water. Iron can also enter drinking water from iron pipes or plumbing fixtures, especially if the water is acidic. Low levels are healthful, but high levels can cause digestive upsets. Chronic high levels can harm the liver, heart, pancreas and endocrine system. Babies ingesting high levels of iron can suffer vomiting, diarrhea, extreme fatigue and blood in vomit or stool.
- Copper: While copper is a naturally occurring mineral, it most often gets into drinking water from the corrosion of copper pipes, especially if water is acidic. Too much copper in water can result in stomach irritation, liver and kidney damage and neurological effects like headaches, dizziness and fatigue.
- Nickel: Nickel is also naturally occurring in rock and soil and can also be added to water from plumbing fixtures that are plated with nickel. Industrial activities such as producing stainless steel or manufacturing batteries can also add nickel to the environment. Some people are allergic to nickel and can suffer skin rashes, itching and asthma-like symptoms. Gastrointestinal distress, organ damage and cancer can also result from prolonged exposure to high levels of nickel.
- Zinc: Both natural deposits and industrial processes can add zinc to drinking water. Galvanized pipes that have become corroded can also add zinc to drinking water. Elevated levels of zinc can cause gastrointestinal distress, copper deficiency by interfering with the body’s ability to absorb copper, organ damage, anemia and neurological effects.
- Uranium: From natural sources, mining activities and radioactive waste, uranium can enter drinking water supplies. Uranium is hard on kidneys and can cause kidney failure. Cancer, bone and liver damage and developmental and reproductive harm can result from exposure.
- Aluminum: Natural deposits of aluminum, industrial processes and water treatment processes can all add aluminum to drinking water. Any aluminum pipes in a water system that suffer corrosion can also leach this metal into drinking water. Aluminum is neurotoxic and has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease and poor cognitive function. Aluminum also harms kidneys, bones, and reproduction.
How Can You Find Out if These Metals Are in Your Water?
The only way to tell if your well water contains unacceptable levels of these metals is to run your own professional water test. As noted above, professional water tests are also a good idea for those on city water supplies because municipal water systems can deteriorate and add metals to drinking water.
What About Inexpensive Water Tests at Home Improvement Stores?
You could purchase an inexpensive test from a home improvement store but it will only tell you if a few metals are present. These inexpensive tests will not provide information on the quantity of these contaminants so you will have no way of estimating the hazard to your own or your family’s health. Only a professional water testing lab can give you exact results.
What Are the Limits for Heavy Metals in Drinking Water?
Once you have precision results from a professional lab, you can compare them to the standards for water quality established by the Environmental Protection Agency. Here are some of the limits dictated by the EPA for these metals:
- Arsenic: 0.010 mg/L (10 parts per billion)
- Lead: 0.015 mg/L (15 parts per billion)
- Mercury: 0.002 mg/L (2 parts per billion)
- Cadmium: 0.005 mg/L (5 parts per billion)
- Chromium: 0.1 mg/L (100 parts per billion)
These extremely low limits (parts per billion) indicate how harmful these substances can be. When families rely on private water wells for their water supply, it is very important to know that this supply is healthy. When it is, or when it can be corrected to a healthful purity, you have a wonderful resource for your household.
How Can You Remove These Toxins from Your Drinking Water?
Your first step in removing heavy metals from drinking water is to find out which metals (or other contaminants!) are in your water. You then need to choose the right filtration or water treatment system for those contaminants. Once you know what you need to remove, you can locate a filtration or treatment system that is capable of removing those exact substances.
What Is the Best Way to Ensure You Are Getting an Effective Water Filter?
Check for a National Science Foundation (NSF) certification that a filter can remove your contaminants of concern. An NSF certification also ensures that the filter itself will not leach chemicals or metals into your water.
Which Filters Are Most Effective for Heavy Metals?
Your choices for water filtration include these:
- Point-of-Use Filters: Reverse osmosis systems and distillation units are effective at removing heavy metals from drinking water. These systems treat water at a single faucet.
- Point-of-Entry Systems (Whole House Filters): These filtration systems treat all water entering the home and are ideal if you want protection for bathing, laundry, and cooking. Options include ion exchange and whole-house reverse osmosis systems.
If acidic water is causing heavy metals to be leached into your drinking water from plumbing equipment or pipes, a pH adjustment system can raise the water’s pH. Adjusting the pH makes it less acidic so the water stops corroding your plumbing components. In a few situations, the only solution may be to replace old metal pipes in a home with newer PVC or PEX pipes.
Is It Important to Repeat Water Testing After the First Test?
Changing seasons, surface water contamination, land shifts, and nearby industrial or agricultural operations can affect the purity of your water. Once you have a baseline measurement of your private well water, it’s very smart to perform a more basic water test annually. Once you correct the cause of any negative test results from your first test, a basic water test done annually can help you monitor any changes.
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency recommend that private well owners test their wells annually. If there is any flooding, repair or maintenance on your well, or unexplained illness in your household, that is the right time for a new water test.
Unfortunately, many sources of water contamination have no color, taste or odor. The only way you can know that your water is healthy is by testing it at regular intervals. You can also ensure that your municipal water is good quality with periodic monitoring.
Let ETR Laboratories Help You Monitor Your Water Quality
ETR Laboratories has helped tens of thousands of private well owners analyze the quality of their well water. In addition, cities and states also rely on ETR Laboratories for fast, accurate water test results. Every test comes with exact instructions on the right way to take samples of your water that are to be mailed back in a prepaid box.
Some online water testing services you may find actually sent their samples out to ETR Laboratories to get tested. Because ETR Laboratories performs all its own tests, meaning that there is no middleman, you can receive faster results. If you need help understanding your well water problems, ETR Laboratories has experienced staff who can help. Sometimes detecting the real cause of water problems can be challenging and require expert advice.
