Although most of the mainstream media outlets have moved on to new topics of interest, many people still find themselves dealing with the issue of natural gas drilling where they live and others, yet, find themselves faced with a tough decision: to allow a gas company to drill on their land or not.

No matter what side of the fence you sit on, enough data exists out there to make even the most adamant proponent of natural gas drilling agree with the idea that water testing needs to take place before, during and after natural gas drilling — if for no other reason than to prove a problem does not exist.

Recently we came across the second portion of an article posted by the Penn State Cooperative Extension which gives some solid advice on the topic of private well testing, when and by whom it ought to get done.

Moral of the story?

Unless you have a baseline reading of, at the very least, basic water quality parameters before any drilling activity takes place, anything that shows up in your water after drilling starts could, as far as the gas company’s lawyers will say, have existed in the water before their client’s employees ever set foot on the property.

Also, the more thorough the analysis, the better. Spring for the most comprehensive water test you can afford because the more you know about your water before drilling takes place, the better your chances of convincing a Court of Law that a problem exists as a result of drilling later.

We absolutely LOVE posting about free water testing… and this free water testing announcement comes to use from Scott County, Minnesota where the Minnesota Department of Agriculture will offer free nitrate testing for County residents beginning at 8 am this Saturday (7/30/11) at the county Highway Garage at 600 Country Trail E. (located next door to the county hazardous water facility).

Directions: Take Highway 282 a half-mile west of the intersection of County Road 17, Highway 282 and Highway 13.

Homeowners should bring at least a half cup of water in a clean plastic or clean glass container. Run the water for five to ten minutes prior to collecting and if you have a water filtration system installed, make sure you take a sample of water both before and after the filtration unit. People with water softeners need only take one sample, though.

Make sure you refrigerate the sample(s) if you do not intend to go and have them tested right away. Also, make sure all testing gets done within 24 hours of sample collection.

And… if my well contains nitrates? What then?

If you test your water for nitrates and find that it does, in fact, contain nitrates, you will most certainly want to have your water tested by a certified water testing laboratory in your area or by a reputable mail-in water testing lab such as National Testing Laboratories to see if any other problems exist.

Then, using the results of your comprehensive water test, select the correct water filtration system to remove and/or reduce the levels of unwanted drinking water contaminants found in your water.

We believe more people need to ask that question — especially if they have well water in their homes or rely upon municipal water systems that may have older, potentially damaged water mains to deliver water to their homes. In both scenarios bacteria could suddenly, and without warning introduce itself to water supplies and put the health of entire families at risk.

So… What can $6 a month do to help? Simple: For around just $6 per month homeowners can now perform testing for coliform bacteria at home using a test kit such as the WaterWorks EZ Coliform Test Kit which uses an EPA Compliant test procedure to test for the presence of coliform bacteria in drinking water and, with assistance of a UV light source, will positively identify E. Coli, a particularly unpleasant type of coliform bacteria associated with fecal matter, if present in the water.

Boil Water Advisories….

If you found yourself saying, “I don’t need to worry about bacteria in my water supply. My city/town/village issues ‘boil water advisories if a problem exists in the water supply.”

Very true since the law requires public water systems to issue public warning in the event of a water main break or other noticeable problem with the system that could possibly allow unwated contaminants (like bacteria) to infiltrate the water supply.

Problem: What if officials don’t KNOW about a cracked line miles away from the water treatment plant on a low pressure leg of the water delivery system that runs under an area where a bit of added moisture in the ground really wouldn’t catch anyone’s attention?

Problem: What if the pipes connecting your home or business to the public water supply have somehow become damage?

Not too Likely but Still a Potential Problem: What if the folks assigned to take care of water testing in your local water treatment plant decided to skimp on testing because of budgetary constraints — or just plain laziness — and a contamination issue caused by a failing check valve goes unnoticed for a period of time.

Moral of the story?

No one but YOU has ultimate responsibility for the purity and safety of the water that you and your family consume and as you can clearly see, that applies to folks on municipal water supplies as well as folks on private wells.

Conducting a simple $6 test every month on your water could potentially keep you and your family from suffering the ill effects of E. Coli contamination.

As the debate over fluoride in the public water supply rages on with no apparent end in sight, many people opposed to the idea of fluoridated drinking water have started installing specialized water filtration systems to remove and/or reduce fluoride levels in the water coming out of their faucets.

While attending a birthday party for a young child recently a fellow parent attending the party remarked how the restaurant’s water ‘tasted an awful lot like pool water’ and later ‘that it probably had a ton of fluoride in it, too.’

Several other parents chimed in about the quality of the water of the water at the restaurant and eventually the conversation worked its way around the table until finally some asked if we knew of an inexpensive filter that would remove fluoride and get rid of ‘that nasty chlorine taste’.

Apparently one of our other friends spilled the beans about our interest in water quality at some other gathering we couldn’t attend.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to share a bit of water quality knowledge with an eager audience, we pulled out the laptop (since the restaurant DID have free wireless service… despite its lousy water!) and visited a few sites that we knew carried water filters to reduce fluoride in drinking water.

One noteworthy thing we noticed right away: Although genuinely interested in improving the taste of their water and having the option of whether or not their families consumed fluoride via tap water, few seemed willing to cross the $200 mark for a system. Whether a sign of economic hardship in average families or an indicator that people really don’t care THAT much about the quality of their water, we do not know and we dare not get too involved in topics like that.

At this point we would like to point out that we had more than enough parents in the restaurant watching the kids play in the ball pits, blast aliens on the video games, etc. that our small little group’s conversation did not in any way jeopardize the safety of any children OR result in the disruption of others’ peaceful enjoyment of the establishment.

So… With THAT declaration out of the way, our searches and discussions brought us to the doorsteps of two products that seemed to meet our audience’s needs: the Undersink Fluoride Filter Triple and Pentek RO-3500 Water Filter System.

Both water filter systems claimed to reduce fluoride levels — and on that note we want inform all of you that pretty much NO fluoride filter we came across totally removed fluoride from drinking water — and so we’ll flip a coin to decide which system we discuss first.

* flip * . . . . . Heads. The Crystal Quest Triple Under Sink Water Filter wins.

Cost: Ringing in at the cash register between $173 and $213 depending upon how long you want the multi-stage filter last. You have the option of 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 gallons. Last time we checked, Filter Water had the unit available (with all three third cartridge options to choose from) with free shipping in the Continental United States.

Fluoride Reduction: In this unit’s second filter cartridge, water travels through fine-mesh ‘pre-resin media’ (SIR-900) to reduce fluoride below 0.5 ppm. At the same time, this filter also reduces arsenic levels if present.

Other Contaminants: In the first cartridge water passes through a carbon block which removes and/or removes volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), insecticides & pesticides (such as atrazine and simazine), and a number of industrial solvents commonly found in drinking water. Chlorine taste and odor also get reduced in this stage.

Our ‘Final’ Opinion: If you want a simple under sink water filter system that will do a lot to improve the taste and safety of your drinking water, the Crystal Quest Triple Under Sink Filter stands as a solid contender from what we have read. Well worth taking a look at if you want to keep spending down and still reap the rewards and benefits of a fluoride (and other contaminants) water filter.

In closing we’d like to offer the testimony of an actual Crystal Quest Triple Under Sink Filter user:

On 2/16/2011 ‘Lynn’ said, “The Undersink Fluoride Filter is a grand product. With the filter your water goes through a cleaning series of 8 stages to prevent all the harmful government added substances from entering the body. It comes with 3 cartridges two that need to be replaced every 6 months to a year. The filter was simple to install and works wonderfully! I would recommend this filter to all citizens who want ‘Big Brother’ out of their water.” (on FilterWater.Com web site)

And now we shall discuss the Pentek RO-3500 Water Filter System. . .

Cost: Ringing in at the cash register at either $199 and $259 depending upon whether or not you want an electronic monitoring system keeping an eye on the effluent stream (water treated by your unit), this unit packs quite a punch for the money.

For around $200 or $260 dollars homeowners can get their hands on a reverse osmosis water system certified and tested to NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for the following: Arsenic (Pentavalent) Reduction, Barium Reduction, Cadmium Reduction, Copper Reduction, Chromium (Hexavalent) Reduction, Chromium (Trivalent) Reduction, Cyst Reduction, Fluoride Reduction, Lead Reduction, Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction, Radium 226/228 Reduction, Selenium Reduction, TDS Reduction, Turbidity Reduction, Chlorine Reduction – Aesthetic, and Taste & Odor Reduction.

Fluoride Reduction: As stated in the last paragraph, the Pentek RO-3500 Water Filter System has passed rigorous testing by an independent laboratory proven that it’s fluoride reduction capabilities meet the requirements of NSF/ANSI Standard 58.

Other Contaminants: We already discussed how the Pentek RO-3500 has tested and certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for the reduction of a bunch of potentially dangerous and definitely unwanted drinking water contaminants so we won’t bore you with the full list a second time.

Our ‘Final’ Opinion: Before we tell you much we like the benefits this system offers, we do want to mention a few reasons why a reverse osmosis water filter system like the Pentek RO-3500 and others may NOT work well for everyone:

1. Some people feel they waste water since not all of the water that goes into the system will wind up as usable drinking water and gets discharged as waste.

2. The water generated by reverse osmosis systems tends to have an aggressive nature.

3. Reverse osmosis water treatment systems produce ‘flat’ tasting water that some people find a bit unpleasant. Because of that taste many owners of reverse osmosis systems choose to install a simple post-ro re-mineralizing cartridge that adds important minerals for taste and nutrition while also balancing the pH of the water before consumption.

OK, so having said ALL that, we found the Pentek RO-3500′s NSF Certification extremely appealing since it ‘guarantees’ the performance of the unit for at the very least, its ability to reduce concentrations of a known list of contaminants.

Today’s question comes from ‘Mohamed’ who asked, “How much should be the free chlorine in the irrigation water? We are treating sewage water and sending it to farm lands. What is the international standard of the irrigation water in respect to free chlorine?”

We do not know of an International Standard for free chlorine levels in irrigation water but we do know that most States in the US require wastewater treatment plants to neutralize TOTAL chlorine levels before discharging water into the environment and that wastewater treatment facilities must test for total chlorine residuals in their effluent streams on a regular basis to make sure the chlorine concentrations stay virtually non-existent.

Why worry about chlorine in the environment?

If allowed to enter the environment chlorine can and will effectively kill or damage biological organisms that it comes in contact with. In great enough concentrations chlorine will wipe out all plant life in a body of water as well as any animals or fish in the water.

We use chlorine to render safe (i.e. KILL) biological contaminants in our drinking water and if released into a natural habitat the chlorine will render safe (i.e. KILL) any and all plant an animal life until it loses its effectiveness.

Testing for free & total chlorine?

Whether you prefer test strips, wet chemistry kits or a water testing meter… you have plenty of choices when it comes to testing for both free and total chlorine levels in drinking and treated waste water.

Do not let a clever sales pitch or catchy marketing jingle fool you. Many common drinking water filter systems do NOTHING to remove or reduce chloramines in water. They simply lack the technology in their filtration media to do so.

We mentioned this filter (the Pentek ChlorPlus) in the past and now feel the need to mention it again since we continue to receive inquiries from people asking why their water filters fail to remove all of the chlorine smell from their water.

The majority of water filters readily available in the marketplace do NOT remove chloramines, also known as combined chlorine. Most carbon filters remove free chlorine only. It takes a specialized type of filter like the Pentek ChlorPlus to cleanse water of unwanted chloramines.

Does my water contain chloramines?

Whether your municipal water system uses free chlorine or chloramines as its primary sanitizing agent we cannot say, but in either case your water will certainly contain chloramines. Unsure why? Take a look at this brief tutorial on free chlorine, total chlorine and combined chlorine.

That’s just a cartridge… What sort of housing does it go in?

A very keen observation followed by a very good question! The Pentek ChlorPlus filter for chloramine removal fits in most standard sized 10″ (by 2.5″) filter housings including, but not limited to, models manufactured by companies like Pentek, Ametek, US Filter, Bruner, American Plumber, Cuno, Filterite, Keystone, Water Resources and most Harmsco filter housings.

As always before purchasing a replacement cartridge for your water filter system, check, double check and TRIPLE check to make sure your housing will accommodate the filter cartridge you wish to buy!

First off, we’d like to thank each and every one of you that pointed out a glaring omission in our last posting: We failed to list the VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) that water treatment systems bearing NSF/ANSI Standard 53 Certification reduce and/or remove.

So, without further ado, get ready for a list of chemicals and chemical compounds that call into the VOC category of NSF/ANSI Standard 53:

Note: While the NSF/ANSI Standard 53 for VOC Reduction deos specify just 43 compounds, the list above contains extra entries because the Standard considers three ‘families’ of compounds single entries and then goes on to specifically call out the names of individual compounds within those chemical families.

Where do these things called VOC’s come from?

The VOC Fairy brings them while you sleep… but not really. On the NSF Web Site we found the following definition which we think does an excellent job of describing the origin of VOC’s:

“The category of VOC (Volatile Organic Chemical) includes a number of chemicals that are both man-made and naturally occurring. Water from wells and utilities may contain some of these contaminants. Some VOCs are pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides that seep into the ground water after application. Other VOCs enter the water supply through industrial or other waste disposal. This category also includes total trihalomethanes, which are a by-product of chlorination.”

For those who believe VOC’s cannot get into their water supply because you don’t live in close proximity to industrial complexes or agricultural areas, think again. Once these things enter the environment they, like many other categories of drinking water contaminants, could possibly travel many miles before dissipating to a ‘safe’ level.

Thanks for the chemistry lesson, but…

“Why does any of that matter to me?”

In a nutshell, scientists and health officials have agreed that the presence of any of those chemicals in too high a concentration in water poses a potentially serious health risk to people if they consume the water. Devices that have tested and certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 for the reduction of VOC’s must satisfactorily reduce levels of all the chemicals on that list to ‘safe’ levels.

The double meaning of ‘fracking’ in this instance makes us chuckle. It could either serve as a replacement word for a curse word or as an accurate description of the chemicals in question.

The other day we received an email inquiry from ‘Wesley’ who asked a question that no one, surprisingly enough, has ever asked: “If drinking water was contaminated by fracking chemicals, would a reverse osmosis remove them and make the water safe to drink? If not, what would remove these chemicals from the water?”

Very good question! Too bad we don’t have a definitive answer.

Why no definitive answer?

Quite honestly, until gas companies come clean with the full list of ingredients they put in fracking fluids we will never really know what method of water filtration will work best to remove them. We do know, however, that properly functioning reverse osmosis water filter systems will put a serious dent in the concentrations of commonly found drinking water contaminants… including a number of the compounds currently identified as fracking fluid components.

Will reverse osmosis save your bacon, if fracking fluid somehow makes its way into your water supply? As of right now we don’t know for sure, but we bet water treated using reverse osmosis will contain far fewer contaminants and we, if given the option, would rather drink the RO (reverse osmosis) water!

Please note, however, that as we conducted the research for this blog posting we uncovered something that we did not, previously fully understand… reverse osmosis units on their own do an excellent job of improving water quality by cleansing it of SOME unwanted contaminants potentially found in fracking fluids (i.e. dissolved metals), but a person looking for a water filter certified to remove other common fracking fluid components like VOC’s (volatile organic contaminants) should seriously consider purchasing a unit equipped with pre and/or post filters that scrub the water for VOC’s.

As an example, of what we just talked about, the Pentek RO-3500 reverse osmosis system has tested and certified to NSF/ANSI to Standard 58 for the reduction of Pentavalent Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Copper, Hexavalent & Trivalent Chromium, Cyst, Fluoride, Lead, Nitrate/Nitrite, Radium 226/228, Selenium, TDS and Turbidity in water, but not VOC’s.

Don’t get the wrong idea about the Pentek RO-3500, though. The reviews we found for the unit speak VOLUMES about its ability to clean up otherwise unpleasant drinking water. It just may not work as well for the purpose of removing fracking fluids from drinking water.

So… If not reverse osmosis, then WHAT?

Again we want to stress that until gas drilling companies must reveal the full list of potential ‘nasties’ they put in fracking fluid, no one will really know the best way to remove fracking fluid from drinking water.

Having said that, we came across a non-RO unit called the Pentek US-1500 Chemical/Lead System that uses two different types of filters to clean drinking water… and it has tested and certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for the reduction of reduce 43 different VOCs, lead, cysts, mercury, asbestos, chlorine taste and chlorine odor.

No, the Pentek US-1500 will not filter out the contaminants that a good quality reverse osmosis unit will. . . so we suggest TESTING YOUR WATER before investing in a water filtration unit!

If you plan to buy a water filter, also plan to have your water tested by a certified drinking water testing laboratory. Whether you choose use a mail order water testing service like National Testing Laboratories or you opt for the services provided by a local laboratory, a water test may keep you from foolishly spending your hard earned money on the wrong type of water filtration system!

Since we started this site a few years ago we have discussed a wide range of topics, but none has attracted more of a following than Hydraulic Fracturing (AHA: ‘Fracking’) due to its potential long-term effects on our water supply.

For those not familiar with fracking, the term refers to the act of using high powered pumping equipment to force water, sand and proprietary mixtures of chemicals deep into the Earth’s crust with extreme pressure in an attempt to literally shatter (fracture) formations of shale, a type of rock, and in doing so liberate natural gas trapped in the rock. Other high powered and very complex equipment then collects both the fracking solution and any freed natural gas at the surface.

Advocates of fracking claim their equipment has excellent recovery rates of fracking fluid and liberated gas while opponents of fracking say they have indisputable proof that fracking causes potentially irreversible damage to fresh water deposits, through which fracking fluids and equipment must burrow, and that this damage comes from equipment failures and in some cases a lack of environmental responsibility on the parts of drilling companies.

Whether you side with the drilling companies (and their investors) or environmentalists and members of communities claiming that drilling companies have destroyed the water supply in various regions of the country, the fact remains that fracking has happened and probably will continue to happen until someone comes up with solid, irrefutable evidence that fracking causes wholesale damage to underground aquifers.

Moral of the story?

Until more private citizens begin testing their well water on a regular basis no one will ever know the true extent of damage potentially or actually caused by hydraulic fracturing and gas companies will have the ability to possibly walk away from ‘environmental situations’ their activities may have caused.

You simply cannot prove an After without proof of a Before. Sounds stupid, sure, but in the grand scheme of things, and when it comes to the quality of drinking water, Water Testing Blog strongly suggests that more people take an interest in the quality of the water coming up and out of their private wells… because others who see only dollars, cents and profit may not care — or may not care enough — about the safety of your drinking water.

Testing options?

Obviously you WILL need to use the services of a certified water testing laboratory. First and foremost we highly suggest consulting the US EPA Web Site which features a list of State Certification Officers for Drinking Water Laboratories. Simply locate your State’s officer and call to get a list of currently certified drinking water testing laboratories in your State.

For those not interested in having a ‘full-blown’ water test performed — which could cost many hundreds of dollars if per formed and documented (important!) correctly — non-local companies such as National Testing Laboratories offer decent, comprehensive and certified water testing services in most US States.

While we do like to hear that the legal system has taken an interest in prosecuting those who threaten the safety and potability of water supplies, public or private, through acts of negligence or on purpose, it still bothers us that people would actually do things on purpose that could put the water supply of others at risk.

Today we stumbled across an article from a Chicago area paper talking about how a Federal Judge must decide whether or not a water company and also two of its employees should face charges for allegedly raising free chlorine levels intentionally right before taking readings and then allowing them to drop to potentially unsafe levels at other times throughout the day.

In the spirit of allowing both sides to present their case, we will post the entire article… which left us with more than one nagging question.

Our first question…

… deals with the frequency of testing: “Why did the plant only need to test in the mornings?”

Our second questions deals with the real results of the raising chlorine levels (supposedly) to pass inspection and then lowering them to potentially unsafe levels: “Did anyone get sick or suffer any form of harm as a result of these actions?”

Don’t get us wrong based upon that second question. We just want to know more about how these folks got caught. If someone got sick as a result of what the water company did, then this case would have ended in a guilty verdict without the need for the judge to deliberate longer… right?

Bitter truth about public water systems?

While few people would argue that the United States of America, when examined as a whole, has one of the most technologically advanced network of public water distribution systems in the world. This does not, however, mean that all of the systems do all of the testing they should at all the right times.

The article above, as well as articles we’ve read over the years about public officials and private firms fabricating water test results in an effort to save money, makes us leery of our great system… yet grateful as heck that for the most part our greatest fears about our public water supply deal mostly with ‘minor’ breaches in protocol rather than instances of blatant disregard for the maintaining of sanitary practices in our water treatment facilities.

Testing for chlorine in drinking water at home?

Do average people have the ability to keep tabs on the amount of chlorine in their drinking water? Absolutely! Companies like WaterSafe and SenSafe make reliable, accurate and completely affordable test kits for detecting levels of both free and total chlorine in tap/drinking water.