Earlier posts on WaterTestingBlog.Com advised well owners to test their wells for contamination after flood waters receded and that opinion comes from other more recognized sources as well. See below for an excerpt from a University of Iowa News Release issued on June 25, 2008.

University Hygienic Lab answers question about who should test well water

Should I be testing my water? Many people who are on private well systems are asking that question because of the recent flooding.

Nancy Hall, supervisor of environmental microbiology for the University Hygienic Laboratory (UHL), explains that the focus for testing is on wells that have been directly impacted by floodwaters.

“People whose drinking water comes from private wells should have their water tested if their wells were covered by flood water or if the well is located close to flood water, which are those located in the 100-year and 500-year flood plain,” Hall said. “We have sent the message for years that people should have their well water tested once a year, and people should do this. But our priority now is to first make sure that we test the water for those families impacted by the flood who may be without safe water.”

The UHL distributed hundreds of water testing kits to all county health departments affected by the flooding for this testing. These kits include supplies and instructions for collection and mailing of samples to the lab on the Oakdale Campus, just north of Iowa City. Contact your county health department to obtain a kit.

The UHL provides consultation on disease prevention, water and food safety, and disinfection of environmental surfaces. These services are particularly helpful to homeowners and businesses as they resume operations following a flood. The toll-free number for the Hygienic Lab is 800-421-IOWA (4692).

Additional information about health concerns related to flooding is also available on the University of Iowa Flood Information blog and on the UHL home page.

The Iowa Department of Public Health provides detailed information about precautions to following recovery and clean-up following a flood on its website.

The question now becomes HOW to test wells after flooding. For the safety of all parties involved, WaterTestingBlog.Com suggests that well owners seek professional laboratory testing due to the potential severity of well water contamination.

While home test kits like the ones offered by companies such as Industrial Test Systems, Inc., LaMotte, Hach and others work quite well for everyday screening purposes, WaterTestingBlog.Com believes strongly in using certified laboratories in situations where natural disasters may have tipped the scales in favor of life-threatening drinking water contamination.

Tomatoes and salmonella poisoning made the news again and with them came some startling scientific revelations. An article written by Lauran Neergaard (AP Medical Writer) and released/published on June 23, 2008 revealed new information about how tomatoes may possibly trap, carry, and incubate salmonella.

“WASHINGTON – Pick a tomato in the blazing sun and plunge it straight into cold water. If that happened on the way to market, it might be contaminated. Too big of a temperature difference can make a tomato literally suck water inside the fruit through the scar where its stem used to be. If salmonella happens to be lurking on the skin, that’s one way it can penetrate and, if the tomato isn’t eaten right away, have time to multiply.

That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t wash their tomatoes — they should, just probably not in cold water.

But as the Food and Drug Administration investigates the nation’s outbreak of salmonella from tomatoes, the example shows the farm isn’t the only place contamination can occur — and checking things like water quality and temperature control in packing houses and other supply stops is one key to safety.”

This raises the question of what sorts of water quality parameters packing houses should monitor on a regular basis.

Sanitizer and Disinfectant Levels — If the water used to wash, rinse and cleanse the tomatoes contains enough sanitizer, then theoretically no salmonella or other forms of bacterialogical contaminants could survive in the water. No contaminants in the water means no contaminants that a tomato could ’suck up’ if submerged in cold water.

“Water is an automatic first suspect. Was clean water used to irrigate, mix pesticides sprayed on crops, wash down harvest and processing equipment, and wash field workers’ hands?

Then in packing houses, tomatoes often go straight into a dump tank, flumes of chlorinated water for a first wash. To guard against salmonella washed into the water in turn being sucked into the tomatoes, producers often keep wash-water 10 degrees warmer than the incoming crop, says food-safety scientist Keith Schneider of the University of Florida, also part of FDA’s tomato initiative.

Beyond packing houses, the industry points to cases where suppliers were shipped unwashed, warm tomatoes and dunked them in ice-water baths to firm them for further processing.

Another question: How often does the water have to be changed? Dirt, leaves and other sediment reduce the chlorine’s effectiveness.”

Produce handlers and packing houses could reduce the chances of accidentally passing fresh produce through improperly disinfected wash water by implementing test procedures and protocols which make use of simple, inexpensive chlorine test strips such as SenSafe^TM Free Chlorine Water Check, a product approved by the USEPA and by several states for drinking water compliance monitoring.

The manufacturer of this product also has dip-n-read test strips capable of detecting chlorine concentrations as high as 2,000ppm and as low as 0.005ppm.

The temperatures have gotten a lot warmer in the past few weeks and swimming pool operators now must meet the public’s demand for a place to ‘cool off’. Swimming pool season has arrived!

Problem: Some pools just don’t pass muster.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s the right season to take a dip in the neighborhood pool, but WCNC found almost half the pools in Mecklenburg County fail their first inspection.

The problems were serious enough at 15 percent of Mecklenburg County pools that inspectors shut them down immediately. (source: 6/25/2008 article by Stuart Watson WCNC)

An ‘open’ pool does not necessarily mean a safe pool. Visitors of public swimming facilities, especially those which have privatized maintenance, as in the case of an apartment complex, may want to test the pool water for basic parameters before going for a swim.

Taking a few minutes to use one of the Pool Check^TM brand or Aquachek brand of test strips will tell you right away if the pool contains the right amount of necessary chemicals. Properly maintained pool water will have a perfect balance of pH, Total Alkalinity, Hardness, and Sanitizer(s). Too much or too little of each parameter may result in potentially unsafe swimming conditions.

Pool service companies and/or maintenance technicians reading this entry may want to take a look at the FAS DPD Service Kit and/or the Taylor Pool Service Test Kit since those kits use more traditional (liquid test kit) testing methods.

Most local health inspectors do not allow pool operators to rely solely upon test strips and require that public swimming facility operators use either liquid test kits like the ones just mentioned or more sophisticated meters.

In need of replacement test reagents for Taylor Swimming Pool Test Kits? You can find a full selection of replacement Taylor Test Kit Reagents on the PoolCenter.Com web site.

The majority of people in the United States already know that our country sends a lot of aid to foreign countries in the form of water purifiers and water quality test kits in the wake of heavy rains or other natural disasters which result in massive flooding… and now we must turn our attention to the plight of millions of Americans whose homes, neighborhoods, schools and places of business have fallen victim to the mighty power of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

As flood waters begin to recede back towards the river banks which once held them in place, the returning residents of recently flooded areas face seemingly endless hours of cleaning, millions of dollars in property damages… and uncertainty as to what sort of contaminants the flood waters have left on their lawns, on their roads, and in their wells.

The same millions of gallons of river water which burst through levees also tore through landfills, soaked up runoff/drainage from septic systems, picked up debris from swere systems, scrapped up trash from the streets, and carried the carcasses of countless animals and bugs whose lives it claimed.

Large amounts of that ‘dirty’ water may have found its way down into aquifers through open wells and other means so now the water getting pulled from wells could contain any number of natural and/or manmade chemicals.

Individuals and companies looking to perform multiple tests on numerous water sources may want to consider picking up a water testing kit like the Well Drillers’ Master Kit, as it contains a good number of tests for items which can have and adverse effect on human health:

Well Drillers’ Master Water Test Kit

Each Well Drillers’ Master Water Testing Kit contains:

• 50 Free Chlorine Test Strips
• 50 Ultra Low Total Chlorine Test Strips
• 50 Hydrogen Sulfide Test Strips
• 50 Total Hardness Test Strips
• 50 Nitrate/Nitrite Test Strips
• 50 pH Test Strips
• 24 Manganese Tests
• 50 Water Metals Test Strips
• 10 Arsenic Test Strips
• 50 Iron Tests
• 50 Copper Test Strips
• 2 Lead in Water Tests
• 2 Pesticide Tests
• 1 bottle of Bacteria Test

You can find full kits, refills, and extra tests for most parameters found in the Well Driller Master Test Kit on the Test Products web site.

“Salmonella in Tomatoes”

Article Written by MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer.

ATLANTA – An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, U.S health officials said Tuesday. Lab tests have confirmed 40 illnesses in Texas and New Mexico as the same type of salmonella, right down to the genetic fingerprint.

An investigation by Texas and New Mexico health authorities and the Indian Health Service tied those cases to uncooked, raw, large tomatoes.

At least 17 people in Texas and New Mexico have been hospitalized. None have died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 30 people have become sick with the same Salmonella Saintpaul infection in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Illinois and Indiana. CDC investigators are looking into whether tomatoes were culprits there, too.

In Texas and New Mexico, raw large tomatoes — including Roma and red round tomatoes — were found to be a common factor in the 40 illnesses. But no farm, distributor or grocery chain has been identified as the main source, said Casey Barton Behravesh, a CDC epidemiologist working on the investigation.

“The specific type and source of tomatoes is under investigation,” she said.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.

Most infected people suffer fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps starting 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness tends to last four to seven days.

Many people recover without treatment. However, severe infection and even death is possible. Infants, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk for severe infections.

In Texas and New Mexico, the patients ranged in age from ages 3 to 82. Of the 40, 38 were interviewed. Most said they ate raw tomatoes from either stores or restaurants before becoming ill between April 23 and May 27.

Another 17 cases are under investigation in New Mexico, CDC officials said.

As a result of this recent outbreak of illnesses related for foodborne contaminants, many restaurants and supermarkets have pulled tomatoes off the shelf and/or stopped serving them until they hear an official OK from Federal, State and Local Health Officials.

So if you thought water testing had very little to do with the handling and processing of fresh produce such as tomatoes, you thought wrong. At each step of the handling process the quality and nature of the water used to sanitize/disinfect, wash, rinse and clean the dirt off of fruits and vegetables needs continuous monitoring.

Monitoring Free Chlorine Levels in (Produce) Wash Water:

Many fruit and vegetable packing houses rely upon the WaterWorks^TM Free Chlorine Check test strips with a detection range of 0-25ppm to let them know if the wash water contains enough free chlorine residual to effectively keep their finished product free of contaminants.

Monitoring Free Chlorine Residuals Used to Wash Equipment:

Healh officials on every level require the operators of fruit and vegetable processing plants to clean off their machinery with a strong disinfectant solution. WaterWorks^TM Free Chlorine (High Range) test strips have a detection range of 0-120ppm, a range well suited for monitoring the free chlorine residual levels in the solutions used to hose down (wash) the equipment in a fruit and vegetable processing plant.

Making Sure No Chlorine Remains on the Fruits and Vegetables:

The presence of chlorine residual on fresh produce leads to premature rotting of the product so workers in fruit and vegetable processing plants check the total chlorine levels in water used in the final rinse stage with products like the WaterWorks^TM Total Chlorine test strips before allowing the produce to go into its final packaging.

Lead, Lead and more Lead. . . For the longest time many water professionals viewed lead as a problem only if the water lines from the treatment plant to the house contained inappropriate amounts of lead — but not any more.

Ivars Jaunakais, chief analytical chemist, founder and President of Industrial Test Systems, Inc. uncovered interesting data which suggested that lead comes from other sources and was able to prove his hypothesis by testing for the presence of lead in faucet aerators. He found that particulates which had accumulated in the nozzles and faucet aerators sometimes contained and, in turn, produced substantial amounts of lead far in excessive of the EPA’s 15ppb ruling for drinking water.

Older testing methods involved testing procedured best carried out in a laboratory setting. Through the use of groundbreaking LEADQuick^TM ReagentStrip & Reagent technology and the Hach’s already established LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II, Ivars greatly reduced the cost per test and total test times while making the test safer, simpler and easier to perform.

No longer do water samples have to get hauled back to a laboratory for analysis in order to get laboratory grade test results. Field samplers and field technicians can now safely and easily test for lead concentrations in water at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.

LEADQuick^TM Lead Test for the LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II

(More Information on Ivars’ New Lead Test Coming Soon!)

An article published in the Health section of the http://www.dailymail.co.uk web site on June 2, 2008 stated that a study done at Birmingham University (in England) found a correlation between pregnant women drinking certain types of tap water and the occurence of serious birth defects in their unborn children.

“Drinking or even showering in tap water can double the risk of having deformed children,” says study.

Drinking tap water while pregnant may double the risk of serious heart or brain defects in the unborn child, research suggests.

A study of almost 400,000 babies found a clear link between chemicals formed during chlorination and the occurrence of a trio of birth defects.

Drinking water, showers, swimming pools and even the steam from a boiling kettle can all contain the problem chemicals called trihalomethanes, or THMs, the researchers said.

While the study was carried out in Taiwan, it is thought up to one in six British homes is exposed to levels even higher than those found to cause concern, with concentrations tending to be particularly high in the spring and autumn.

The researchers stressed it would be impractical for pregnant women to avoid tap water and said the onus was instead on the use of disinfection methods which limit levels of the chemicals.

The Birmingham University study compared details of birth defects with the level of THMs in tap water.

The analysis of almost 400,000 babies showed those born into regions where levels were around 80 per cent more likely to have a hole-in-the-heart defect and more than 50 per cent more likely to have a cleft palate.

Their odds of suffering anencephalus – a condition that causes much of the brain, skull and scalp to be missing – were almost doubled, the journal Environmental Health reports.

While birth defects are rare – occurring in about 2 per cent of births – the three flagged up in the study are among the most common.

It is thought the chemicals may harm the unborn baby directly. Alternatively they may damage the woman’s eggs. Although the study did not prove that the chemicals caused the birth defects, it is not the first to make the link.

Researcher Professor Jouni Jaakkola said: ‘Our findings don’t just add to the evidence that water chlorination may cause birth defects, but suggest that exposure to chlorination byproducts may be responsible for some specific and common defects.

THMs are the products of a chemical reaction between chlorine and organic compounds common in lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

The amount of THMs made during chlorination vary according to where the water comes from and the disinfection process, meaning highly chlorinated water does not necessarily have the highest levels.

Home water filters may not be entirely effective at removing the chemicals and bottled water may also be tainted.

Professor Jaakkola said the solution was for water companies to use disinfection procedures that keep the production of THMs to a minimum.

He said: ‘Water disinfection has an important purpose in reducing microbial load and reducing acute gastro-intestinal infections.

‘Some have claimed it is the best public health measure ever introduced.

‘We are talking about rare health effects and a modest risk increase.

‘I don’t suggest stopping using tap water but we have to be conscious that at population level some risks may be related to increased levels.’

The Drinking Water Inspectorate, which is tasked by the Government to monitor the safety of tap water, said its own, larger-scale research had failed to find a link between THMs and birth defects.

Principal inspector Sue Pennison said: ‘Obviously we will review this research, engage our health expert colleagues, and look to see if it means we need to do anything more. But there’s no reason for people to be worried.

‘Chlorination is reliable and has been used for centuries. The only reason diseases like cholera and typhoid are not in our water supply is because of chlorination.’

The water industry trade body, Water UK, said it would consider the findings but chlorination in the UK meets World Health Organisation guidelines. ( source )

Testing for Disinfection Byproducts?

There are no ’simple’ ways to test for disinfectionm byproducts (DBP’s), but homeowners can find out if the water supplied by their public water systems possibly contains disinfection byproducts by using a test kit like the WaterWorks^TM Free and Total Chlorine Test Kit. See below:

WaterWorks^TM 2 Free and Total Chlorine

The test strips above have two pads: 1 for measuring Free Chlorine Residual and 1 for measuring Total Chlorine Residual.

• No Color on Either Pad: This typically means the water contains no chlorine at all. If on a residential water system, a person may want to re-test and/or consult your local water authority. Please note, though, that the absence of free and total chlorine does NOT necessarily mean the water does not contain disinfection byproducts. A possibility exists that all of the chlorine (or chloramines) added at the water treatment plant have left the water before getting to where it was drawn for testing.
• Color on Both Pads: This means both free and total chlorine exist in the sample water and a possibility exists that the water also contains disinfection byproducts.
• Color on Free Chlorine Pad Only: This should not ever happen because the total chlorine concentration represents the sum of the free chlorine plus the combined chlorine in the water. You cannot have free chlorine registering w/o it also registering as part the total chlorine concentration.
• Color on Total Chlorine Pad Only: If the public water system uses a chlorine/ammonia based disinfectant system then the water will more than likely NOT contain disinfection byproducts. If, however, the public water system uses a free chlorine residual as its disinfectant, then a good chance exists that the water contains disinfection byproducts.

Don’t forget that you can always find out definitively whether or not your tap water contains disinfection byproducts by simply calling your local water company and asking questions. As a general rule, the law requires them to divulge that sort of information upon request to anyone who asks.

A while has passed since the last outbreak of a foodborne illness struck and made the news and events like this one have resulted in new policies and regulations for produce handlers, growers, packers, etc. getting created in California. See Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA) for additional details.

“In 2007 California farmers came together to raise the bar for food safety. As a result the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA) was formed. Members of the LGMA are working collaboratively to protect public health by reducing potential sources of contamination in California-grown leafy greens.

To date nearly 120 handlers, representing over 99% of the volume of California leafy greens, have joined the LGMA. These companies have committed themselves to sell products grown in compliance with the food safety practices accepted by the LGMA board. LGMA membership requires verification of compliance with the accepted food safety practices through mandatory government audits. These food safety practices were developed by university and industry scientists, food safety experts and farmers, shippers and processors. California leafy greens are now grown under a unique system that has become a model for leafy green growers in other states.” ( source )

What does any of this have to do with water testing? Quite a bit, actually.

• All fresh produce gets rinsed several times during processing with water containing some form of disinfectant. At the end of each rinsing stage, the water must used must get tested to make sure it still has a certain amount of residual disinfectant. This helps to ‘guarantee’ the cleanliness of the product.
• The machinery and equipment (bins, conveyor belts, cutting tools, etc.) used during the processing of the fresh produce must get washed down thoroughly with water containing a certain concentration of sanitizer and then rinsed clean w/ sanitizer-free water until all traces of sanitizer have been removed.
• Gloves, boots, etc. worn by the staff working in produce packing houses must get sanitized with, and later rinsed clean of, sanitizers.

Commonly used sanitizers and disinfectants in the food preparation/processing industries include chlorine, chlorine dioxide, quaternary ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and ozone.

With all the recent talk about lead in drinking water, lead in paint, and lead in just about every darn thing, it comes as no surprise that somebody would begin to question the methodology used for Compliance Monitoring of lead.

Anyone familiar with the Hach LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II knows how much time it takes to complete each test and how many different steps are involved in the procedure. While an excellent tool for determining the concentration of lead in water, its cumbersome procedures keep it from getting used as often as it should out in the field — until recently.

An article in the March 2008 Lab International magazine revealed that Ivars Jaunakais, President of Industrial Test Systems, Inc., has developed a new, faster and less tedious method for determining the concentration of lead in water using the Hach LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II. He calls it LEADQuick^TM.

Users of Ivars’ groundbreaking LEADQuick^TM can now obtain lead in water test results in under 5 minutes and the kit allows for accurate detection of lead in water concentrations as high as 700 ppb and as low as 1 ppb (+/-3ppb).

The United States Environmental Protection Agency set the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) for lead in water at 15 ppb so as you can see, this new methodology has more than enough range and precision to meet the needs of water professionals in pretty much any industry.

Another nice feature of the LEADQuick^TM reagent/reagentstrip test kit is its cost: Less than $4.00 USD per test, meter cost excluded.

For more information on LEADQuick^TM please visit the Industrial Test Systems, Inc. web site or contact a member of their technical sales team at 800-861-9712.

For the longest time pool and spa owners had to rely on the chemical testing skills and expertise of their local pool and spa professionals but those days have passed. Now homeowners can test their own pool and spa water for metals — without having to take a year’s worth of chemistry courses!

* The Pool Check^TM Copper test strips offer fast, accurate test results for copper, pH and alkalinity at a reasonable cost.

* The Pool Check^TM Pro Metals test strips offer fast, accurate semiquantitative test results for ‘all’ metals at once. It does not specify which metal(s) it detects, but it does give pool owners a better idea of how much staining potential their pool water has.

* The eXact^R Micro 7 pool and spa testing meter tests for many parameters including iron and copper.

* Other testing methods include using ‘wet’ chemistry kits from companies like Lamotte and Taylor, but they typically involve slightly more advanced testing techniques such as titrations. Wet kits also make use of messy dpd liquids, difficult to dissolve dpd tablets, and awkward dpd powder pillows.

For those who suspect that their source water contains metals, the SenSafe^TM Metals Check test strip will work quite well. It detects the metals commonly found in tap water and well water and provides accurate metals testing results in under 3 minutes.

Can Metals Stains in Pools be Removed?

For the most part, yes. The task will take effort, though, in some cases.

Vinyl liners typically resist staining quite well but the stains that do set in will not come off without a fight. Pool owners must use sequestering compounds and/or chelating compounds which attach themselves to the metal stains/deposits and more or less pull them back into solution. (See Jack’s Magic)

Owners of concrete and gunite pools suffer even worse fates when it comes to metals staining. Typically they must wash the stains away using diluted muriatic acid — and in some cases that means draining the pool completely before they can begin.

Due to the annoyance, expense and inconvenience associated with the removal of metals stains from pool liners and plastic fixtures, swimming pool professionals recommend testing for metals on a regular basis if the pool has a heater, uses a copper or silver ionizer, or has recently had water added to it that may have contained dissolved metals.