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 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 Well Driller Master Test Kits on the FilterWater.Com web site an we carry replacement (or extra) tests in our Water Test Kit Store: Shop.WaterTestingBlog.Com.
Test strips have proven to be very in accurate in measuring PPB levels of Arsenic and other trace metals and this might give false security to people concerning their health risk.
In no way, shape or form do test strips qualify as the ‘final word’ when testing for life threatening water contaminants. They do, however, provide valuable on-site water test data that people can use to determine whether or not they ought to consider additional, more involved laboratory testing.
With regard to the accuracy of test strips and their ability to detect arsenic, I refer you to nn article published in the December 2006 AWWA Journal entitled “Evaluation of arsenic field test kits for drinking water analysis”.
Where perfect arsenic detection results would have a slope of exactly 1.0 and an intercept of 0,
Both the LaMotte and Quick II methods utilize test strip technology to detect arsenic.
The article went on to say,
While no one in their right mind would suggest people rely solely upon test strips or any other ‘in-the-field’ test procedures, many such testing methods do provide valuable, real-time data in an inexpensive manner. It makes no sense to write all test strips off as wholly inaccurate when solid empirical data suggests otherwise.