I know that some people with wells do occasionally have their water tested, but they mostly just do the basic $10 bacterial test.

Does anyone do (even once every ten years or so) a full test for biological and chemical contaminants?

Do you contact your local Water Board and ask about the results of other people's/companies tests? Would they tell you?

I have met so many people who are sure their well water is pure, but they've never had it tested. Ignorance is bliss?

Just curious.

Sue

Around here, and in most places with similar authorities, the county health department requires all residential wells serving more than one residence to be tested regularly. Most will test well water if you think the testing is missing something. In this area the county will run a test a well for free to check but charge a nominal fee for more testing.

You might start by calling the county health department and simply asking what they recommend if you have suspicions about your well.

We had ours tested when we purchased the house... just for 'safety' for drinking. Came back safe.

I want to get an entire test done on mine.
If you find out where let me know.

Even more interesting... I want to get mine tested @ the well, and also @ my kitchen sink.

I want to see what kind of particles I`m getting from my old copper pipes that have had sediment moving through them for years.

We stopped drinking the well water after I got my kidney stone last year. ONce I get the stone tested, and the water tested we`ll decide what to do. I know for a fact that our water has a HUGE amount of particles, and I`m not sure if that has to be filtered b your kidneys or not... and after that expensive and painful ordeal I`ve decided to wait

-Todd

The fact that you ask the question means that you would benefit from the test....if for nothing else but peace of mind. Well water testing is pretty cheap, and can be done by county health departments. There are private labs too. Whole house reverse-osmosis systems are not too expensive, so why not put them in where they are needed for safety? Water is a universal solvent, so it carries many substances (mostly good ones) in it, depending on the area. The local counties know what 'indiginous' pollutants to test for, including e coli, radon, nitrates, lead, copper, organic compounds and on and on. Even in areas where the aquifers are pure, your house plumbing might be adding harmful elements such as lead, copper, or metal-eating bacteria.
When I had a well, I tested it semi-annually. The area I live in now conducts a full-spectrum annual water test and sends us the results and a chart showing the 'allowable' concentration of the tested pollutants. My brother lives on a pristine looking ranch in a scenic river valley miles away from any city or obvious pollution source. His well is 25 feet deep, and hopelessly polluted with nitrates (farm country). They drink bottled water.
I know you don't live in Minnesota, but here is a link with a lot of valuable information that would apply anywhere.


http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/wells/waterquality/test.html
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I may be wrong but I believe at the house I grew up in we would test it every 5 or 10 years and whatever battery of tests my father would have performed ran in the several hundred dollar range. No idea what he was testing for though!

I will ask.

R

I don't have a well, but my sister does. We live in a community of about 2500 (a one-signal-light town) that is basically a bedroom community surrounded by farms. There isn't much intensive farming (mostly the Mennonites, who are organic. Most of the farmers graze a few cattle or just grow nutritionally-deficient native grass and cut/sell it for hay. I doubt that they see any need for much in the way of chemical fertilizers, because the grass grows without it. No real industry except fading logging.

We have our own local water association, and they have a full test every year and send out the results with the water bill. It looks pretty good.

There is a farmer in the next town who is probably the major polluter, with a high-density cow/calf operation. You can smell his place from a mile away, and he's always getting fined for something. I wonder about the water quality around him. I read of a livery stable in MA that was in business for 60 yrs (up to about 1930), and the place is still contaminating the local water supply after 70 yrs.

It is because of ETS that I think about well water (and I just watched Erin Brockovich again). People ask all these questions about water filters, purifiers, how to pump w/o grid electricity, and how much bleach to add to tap water, but it seems that they have no interest in checking their own most-local source of water, except for that basic test which is probably just for coliform bacteria.

In other areas of heavy chemical farming, high-density feedlots, and industrial polluting, I am surprised that people are so unconcerned about their source of water.

Sue

It has pretty much slid down the memory hole but way back in the 70s tap water was commonly drank and tap water was pretty universally considered good and healthy. Public fountains were common and well used. Bottled water was a rarity. You could find Perrier and a few boutique bottled water but other than snooty fashionistas and people using tonic water to mix with their gin water was used from the tap.

The funny thing is that municipal tap water was, with a very few exception, very good and, almost without exception, safe. The same is still, for the most part, true today.

The shift was a result of a protracted advertising campaign by bottlers to demonize municipal water supplied and sell bottled water.

The result has been that people now happily pay more for water than gasoline on a per ounce basis and that the water in the bottles is less safe and poorer quality than most municipal water. But there was another result. One that directly applies to well water and protection of aquifers that the wells draw off. A side effect is that when people think of drinking water a majority think of a plastic bottle full of "spring" water.

Like people who are not viscerally aware that beef comes from cows many people fail to intuitively make the connection that the water they drink ultimately comes from ground or surface water. That protecting streams and lakes and aquifers is all about protecting their water supply.

Edit for spelling.

+1. What Art said. Bottled water is (except for certain emergency situations) a scam/idiot tax of the first order. (Actually, though, it's so awesome in scope, hypnotizing millions of otherwise capable and rational people, that you almost have to admire it for its utterly shameless, insanely profitable, breathtaking infamy. Big, big wow. Al Capone had nothing on these guys.)

But regarding the OP: yes, I'm getting a fresh test done, including chemical. Being on a relatively shallow well in farming/oilfield country, I should really be doing it yearly. It's free up here, so there's no excuse for my dumb-arse laziness.

Interesting thing about nitrates: a symptom is a perpetually loose digestion (trying to be delicate). Might explain a few things around here (TMI! TMI!).

Nitrate issues can occur anywhere: in the '70s, oil exploration crews in the far Canadian North complained about perpetual diarrhea. Their water source was pure glacial meltwater; but the geology of the rocky soil that the streams ran through added a massive load of dissolved nitrates.