The recent events in Flint, Michigan, made me wonder how we can test the quality of our water. In some locations I've lived in, I remember receiving regular water quality reports. I scrutinize them, but I never know for sure. Now I don't know whether I can trust such reports anymore. Is there a simple gadget to tell us how good our water is?

I have a water quality tester that looks like of like an overgrown thermometer. It gives me a number (ppm). It doesn't tell me what's in the water. It seems that my reverse osmosis filter works pretty well.

On Amazon I found listings for water quality test kits that can do tests for specific contamination. These kits aren't infinitely reusable and they don't seem to include a test for lead. I also have no idea how accurate they are.

So what do the sages of our forum say?

My municipal water service regularly mails (with the bill, of course!) the results of water testing, which includes contaminants other than pathogens. In parks where I have worked, similar water testing by an outside lab took place about biweekly.

If there aren't water testing labs available to the general public, the Flint Fiasco should generate such an enterprise.

Anne Arundel County, Maryland where I live, sends us a annual water testing/quality report for the water we get from the County, showing the results of the water quality tests. I assumed that this was common practice. (I know, assumptions, etc.)

Thats kinda odd,
from the tv reports I saw,
their water quality reports were accurate,
but for some reason they just ignored them,
some people complained
but nobody pressed the issue
others asleep on the job
so, not really sure how much if any good is done by existing reports


My local water company publishes monthly reports online

The state of the following websites is disappointing,
data isn't current

ewg whats in your water ny,ny alpine, tx

zip code lookup doesn't work, also have to mouseclick submit button , uncool url, and then no actual reports that I could see, just contact info

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