We often get asked if people who have city/town water ought to test their drinking water from time to time. If you live in the city of Edgewood, Iowa, you no longer have to ask that question.

While the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says they do not believe any dangerous water safety issues avoided detection, the fact that a city employee responsible for testing the city’s public drinking water supply on a regular basis purchased only enough supplies for 100 tests — despite claiming to have performed 3,889 water tests between January 2006 and July 2009 — would make just about anyone curious.

A former Edgewood city employee has been sentenced to probation after he admitted that he failed to test the town’s water supply and submitted false reports to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

…

Harris, 43, pleaded guilty in April to one count of making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In the plea agreement, Harris admitted he sent false monthly reports to the DNR from February 2008 and July 2009. He falsely claimed testing for fluoride, chlorine and manganese. DNR tests showed less chlorine in the water than the 1.5 milligrams per liter required by state law to kill bacteria.

The review found lower-than-acceptable levels of fluoride, which reduces tooth decay, and manganese oxide, which helps remove cancer-causing radium from the water. Residents in the eastern Iowa town were not exposed to any short- or long-term health risks, a DNR officer said.

The DNR originally alleged that Harris claimed to have done 3,889 water tests between January 2006 and July 2009, but bought enough material for only 100 tests. Harris resigned in August 2009.

The investigation began after some residents complained about declining water quality. ( source )

OK, now having read that, does the statement, “DNR tests showed less chlorine in the water than the 1.5 milligrams per liter required by state law to kill bacteria.” make you feel… safe?

How about “The investigation began after some residents complained about declining water quality.” Does that give you any sense of security?

Can individuals test their city/town/tap water?

Of course they can! While only certified water testing laboratories can give the absolute last word on the safety and potability of drinking water, at-home drinking water test kits from companies like SenSafe and WaterSafe allow the average homeowner to test critical water parameters on their own, whenever they want, and for little money.

What water parameters should homeowners test?

Given the number of possible drinking water contaminants, the average homeowner would find it difficult (and expensive!) to test for them all… but as a general rule, if typically makes sense for people on city/town/tap water to test for water parameters such as:

• free chlorine residual
• total chlorine residual
• lead in water
• copper in water
• iron in water
• total hardness
• bacteria in water
• hydrogen sulfide

Should homeowners with city water test for other things? That all depends on where their water company gets its water. As an example, if the water comes from a well, other potentially harmful water contaminants such as pesticides and arsenic could find their way into the water supply and an ill-equipped water treatment facility may not have the proper technology installed to remove them.

As always, though, if you have serious reason to suspect that your tap water has ‘issues’, seek advice from certified water quality experts. Home water test kits serve as great field tests, but the final word regarding a water supply’s potability should come from a certified water testing laboratory.

Today we received a question from NicholasG asking about something called… ‘a sulfur water test’.

Don’t know if you can help, but what in the world is a sulfur water test? An older couple came by to look at our house today and before they left the man asked us the last time we had a sulfur water test done. So what is a sulfur water test and why did he ask that?

NicholasG

Given that he asked about a ‘sulfur water test’, we will assume your home has a private well as its water supply. The term ‘sulfur water test’ usually refers to any test that detects dissolved hydrogen sulfide in water.

Why would drinking water contain hydrogen sulfide?

Pinpointing the exact source of hydrogen sulfide in water sometimes takes a bit of effort. The gas occurs naturally in groundwater and may come from microorganisms referred to as ‘sulfur bacteria’. That same type of bacteria may also exist in a well and or in the water distribution system after a well. To make matters even worse, sulfur bacteria may also live in water heaters and chemical reactions within certain types of water heaters can also result in the addition of hydrogen sulfide to water.It can be produced also by sulfur bacteria or chemical reactions inside water heaters.

Though not nearly as common, specific types of pollution may also add hydrogen sulfide to a water supply.

Sulfur bacteria and hydrogen sulfide… Dangerous?

Most times a rotten egg smell coming from water does not mean the water poses a significant health risk. But, in the absence of other contributing factors, one should always remember that in rare cases hydrogen sulfide may occur as a result of a contamination from sewage or other types of pollution — and in those cases serious and/or life-threatening health hazards may exist.

As a precautionary measure, we suggest that anyone whose water suddenly develops a rotten egg smell have their water tested for other water parameters such as coliform bacteria and nitrates, as unsafe levels of either in water make the water unsafe to drink non-potable and unfit for human consumption.

Another thing to remember about hydrogen sulfide gas, at high levels in the air it poses a danger. Therefore one should always take steps to properly vent any area where the gas may build up, such as around the well head, basements where well water enters, etc. Entering an area that has a built up hydrogen gas in the air could very well prove fatal without the right protective gear so if a you suspect a buildup, call in a professional.

Testing for hydrogen sulfide in water… Difficult?

Before you can choose a hydrogen sulfide removal systems you must first know how much you have present — or risk purchasing and installing the wrong size or type of filter!

While the majority of people will have the ability to pick up the distinct aroma (odor!) of rotten eggs in a sample of water, most people do not know that it takes only a small amount of hydrogen sulfide gas in water to make quite a huge stink. Therefore you will need a test kit for hydrogen sulfide to determine how much you have.

For drinking water applications, the Low Range Hydrogen Sulfide Test Kit will work quite well since it has a low detection level of 0.3 parts per million hydrogen sulfide and an upper detection limit of 2.0 ppm. Most people with a hydrogen sulfide problem will have a level somewhere in that range.

Testing for hydrogen sulfide in industry?

OK, since we know some people in industry have uses for water containing much greater concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, we figure they, too, may want to test hydrogen sulfide levels — and for them we suggest the WaterWorks Hydrogen Sulfide Test Kit which has a detection range of 5 ppm to 80 ppm and gives results in under a minute.

Got a problem w/ iron in your water? If so, you have joined the millions of other folks who have the same problem.

Iron occurs naturally in the environment and as water passes across it in rock formations small amounts of iron dissolve into the water. Over time the amount of iron dissolved into the water can grow to a large amount and in too great a quantity iron in water can result in stains on fixtures, metallic taste, the formation of precipitates which can clog plumbing and filters, etc.

You can find additional information on iron in drinking water on an earlier blog posting… here

For those reasons, and more, most people prefer to filter iron out of their water before using it in their homes, schools and places of business. The Pentek RFFE20-BB Iron Reduction Filter helps people accomplish that goal.

Configured as a 20″x5″ radial flow ‘Big Blue” cartridge, the Pentek RFFE20-BB reduces iron in drinking water and has a genuine Pentek part number of 155263-03. This product effectively removes up to 3 ppm of dissolved iron from water and in doing so reduces the metallic taste caused by iron and reduces orange/brown staining found on sinks, tubs, toilets and other plumbing fixtures.

Size of Filter: 20″ x 5″, w/ actual measurements of 19 3/4″ x 4 7/8″

Optimal pre-filter water conditions:

• pH: greater than 7.0 (test for pH)
• Silica: less than 100 ppm
• Manganese: less than 1 ppm (test for manganese)
• Iron: less than 3 ppm (test for total iron)
• Iron Bacteria: None
• Hydrogen Sulfide: None (test for hydrogen sulfide)

Using the Pentek RFFE20-BB Iron Reduction Filter to treat water outside of specified limits may result in shortened filter life.

Everyone loves a bargain, right? Well if you have waited to purchase a test kit for drinking water because you could never find one on sale, well, you no longer have a reason to wait.

FilterWater.Com recently dropped the price of Sensafe’s most popular test kit for drinking water quality, an easy-to-use test kit that tests for 15 critical water quality contaminants and does not require users to mix powders, crush tablets, or have a degree in chemistry to figure out the directions.

Considered by some the most complete do-it-yourself Water Quality Test Kit on the market, this water test kit tests up to 2 water sources for 15 critical water quality parameters and allows you to quickly and easily test your drinking water and/or check to see if your water filter does a good job.

In this particular drinking water test kit you will find the only available USEPA Approved Free Chlorine Test Strip as well as color-coded, visual, on the spot tests for 13 other parameters. The bacteria test kit, however, requires 48 hours, just as it does in kits manufactured by all other companies.

In total, the Water Quality Test Kit contains the following:

• Free Chlorine – 2 tests
• Total Chlorine – 2 tests
• Chloride – 2 tests
• pH – 2 tests
• Total Alkalinity – 2 tests
• Total Hardness – 2 tests
• Nitrate – 2 tests
• Nitrite – 2 tests
• Iron – 2 tests
• Sulfate – 2 tests
• Hydrogen Sulfide – 2 tests
• Copper – 2 tests
• Lead – 1 test
• Pesticide – 1 test
• Bacteria – 1 test

Included with the kit you will receive a chart so that you can compare your results to USEPA recommended levels is included.

And remember…

Despite the great price on this home drinking water test kit, no at-home testing can ever take the place of having a certified water testing laboratory such as National Testing Labs analyze your drinking water if you have serious reason to suspect contamination.

With all the talk about oil washing up on the shores as a result of the BP oil platform disaster, some people have started to ask a very smart question:

Could some of that oil somehow end up in my well water if I live close to the shore?

At this point no one can answer that question definitively, but rest assured plenty of people would prefer to err on the side of caution and have a water filter system capable of removing any trace elements of the BP disaster that may find their way into their water supply.

The Crystal Quest Mega Triple Undersink Water Filter, known by manufacturer’s part number CQE-US-00309 and good for proper filtering of up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water, uses a combination of three separate filter chambers:

1. Water flows through a sediment filter cartridge that removes sediment, silt, sand and dirt. This helps to extend the life of water softener and water filters and prevent damage to control valves and/or pumps.

2. In the second filter chamber, water flows through pre one – micron filter pads which remove suspended particles such as silt, sediment, cyst (Giardia, Cryptosporidium), sand, rust, dirt, and other undissolved matter.

   It then flows through a bed of media made of a special high-purity alloy blend of two dissimilar metals — copper and zinc (Eagle Redox Alloy® 6500 and Eagle Redox Alloy® 9500) — that works using electro-chemical and spontaneous-oxidation-reduction (REDOX) principles. At this stage chlorine gets instantaneously and almost inexhaustibly oxidized iron and hydrogen sulfide get oxidized into insoluble matter which attaches to the filter media, heavy metals such as lead, mercury, copper, nickel, chromium, cadmium, aluminum, and other dissolved metals also get removed by the electrochemical process.

   In the next stage, water flows through the ion exchange resin, further reducing heavy metals such as lead, copper, aluminum, and water hardness.

   Next, water passes through granulated activated carbon (GAC), a compound universally recognized and widely used as an effective adsorbent for a wide variety of organic contaminants such as chlorine (99.9%), chemicals linked to cancer such as THM’s and benzine, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), PCB’s, MTBE’s and hundreds of other chemical contaminants potentially found in drinking water. It also works to greatly reduce and/or eliminate bad taste and odors in drinking water.

   The last section of this filter chamber contains another one-micron filtration pad for further reduction of undesirable particles.

3. In the third filtration chamber water travel through a solid carbon cartridge designed to remove remaining volatile organic carbon compounds (VOC’s), insecticides, pesticides and industrial solvents.

Need replacement cartridges for the Crystal Quest Mega Triple Undersink Water Filter?

For some people the idea of a ‘tap water taste test’ makes no sense — because THEIR tap water tastes like chlorine (test for chlorine), smells like rotten eggs (test for hydrogen sulfide), has a metallic taste to it (test for heavy metals), and/or leaves deposits on fixtures (test for water hardness).

For the folks in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, though, this year the idea of a tap water taste test means honors and accolades because a panel of judges appointed by the American Water Works Association (AWWA.org) deemed their water the best tasting water (from a public water system) in North America.

(CHICAGO) – The American Water Works Association (AWWA) today announced that Wisconsin’s Stevens Point Water Department won the annual “Best of the Best” Water Taste Test. The event, composed of regional winners from water-tasting competitions across North America, was held at AWWA’s Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE10) in Chicago.

Stevens Point Water Department, now known throughout North America for its tasty water, has reliably provided Stevens Point residents with groundwater since 1922.

Second place in the competition was awarded to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection while Lincoln Water System of Nebraska and Silverdale Water District of Washington tied for third place. ( source )

So… if an area has the best tasting tap water, does that mean ever person on that water system has great water? Absolutely not!

The water used in competitions like the one above came straight from the water treatment facility… and did NOT travel through miles of water lines and the plumbing in a person’s house — and in those miles or in that plumbing any number of contaminants could enter the water.

As a general rule, most incidents of municipal tap water contamination occur because of a ‘failure’ between the water treatment facility and the faucet.

• Older water lines used metals now known to cause health issues so if your city has really old water mains, well, you do the math — and by do the math we mean wonder if your city still has lead in the walls of its service lines.

• Older homes used copper plumbing… which required solder that contained lead.

• Tree roots can have a tendency to ‘grab hold’ of buried piping and eventually some roots grow strong enough to create hairline fractures in water lines through which bacteria can enter the water supply. Tree roots can also weasel their way into water lines, thus introducing unwanted bacteria.

So whether you live in a town with the best water SUPPLY in the country or an area whose water didn’t make the final cut for this year’s competition, the end responsibility for making sure the water coming from your faucet contains no dangerous contaminants rests squarely on YOUR shoulders.

Granted if you find a problem and can show negligence on the part of the city, town, state, or some business the law will require that party to correct the problem, but rest assured they will not drop by your house periodically to test your water for potential problems.

You will have to do that.

“What causes a rotten egg smell in my drinking water?” asked Susie from Upstate NY. “Is my water safe?”

Most likely the cause of the rotten egg smell has something to do with the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas in your water source or the same gas getting generated somewhere in your plumbing.

How do you verify the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas? Use a hydrogen sulfide test kit, of course!

Now some people will tell you that smelling the rotten egg smell serves as proof enough of a problem and that you ought to just go and get a filter for your water… but did those people know that different types of filters work well for different concentrations of hydrogen sulfide?

Also, before you run out and pick up a water filter system to remove hydrogen sulfide, make sure the source of the gas lies outside of your home and not within your plumbing!

Now back to the matter of water filters used to remove hydrogen sulfide gas…

As a general rule, many water professionals believe:

• Activated carbon filters work well for hydrogen sulfide concentrations less than 1 mg/L.

• Manganese ‘greensand’ filters work well for hydrogen sulfide concentrations as high as 6 mg/L.

• Oxidation filtration systems work well for hydrogen sulfide concentrations up to and exceeding 6 mg/L.

How do you know what type of filter get? Get yourself a drinking water test kit for hydrogen sulfide and let the results dictate your next move.

As for whether or not you have ‘safe drinking water’, the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas does not necessarily mean that you have UNsafe drinking water, but it should definitely make you want to get your water tested by a certified water testing lab

We recently visited the Filter Water web site to see what new products they offered and discovered that they have LOWERED THE PRICE on the Water Quality Test Kit manufactured by SenSafe to $32 plus shipping.

Why do we keep talking about this particular home water quality test kit? Simple: It offers homeowners the opportunity to easily and safely test 15 different water quality parameters in a matter of minutes — except for the bacteria test which must sit for a day or two.

• Free Chlorine – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Total Chlorine – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Chloride – 2 tests – more info on this test
• pH – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Total Alkalinity – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Total Hardness – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Nitrate – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Nitrite – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Iron – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Sulfate – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Hydrogen Sulfide – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Copper – 2 tests – more info on this test
• Lead – 1 test – more info on this test
• Pesticide – 1 test – more info on this test
• Bacteria – 1 test – more info on this test

Why Should You Test Your Own Drinking Water?

We often get asked that question and our reply typically sounds like, “Have you paid any attention to the news lately? Areas all OVER the country have ‘issues’ with drinking water quality and we know other areas have problems, too, bu they just didn’t make the evening news.”

Need proof? OK, below you will find excepts from RECENT news stories related to water quality issues and water quality testing:

• According to WBZTV, the repairs on the massive pipe that burst over the weekend have been completed and water quality testing has begun. At least two tests have to be performed to determine if the water meets the Federal standards for drinking water.

  According to Boston Globe, State officials are expecting clean water to be available to greater Boston residents within the next 24-48 hours. Ria Convery, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority said “Whoo-hoo, the pipe held. We are back on the regular system and pending water tests, we expect to have (drinking water restored) within 24 to 48 hours.” For now though, the boil water order is still in effect. ( source )

• Park Rapids is issuing the results of monitoring done on its drinking water for the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2009.

  …

  During the year, the city had a violation for Nitrate (as Nitrogen). The nitrate result that was over the MCL was collected from a well that is designated as an emergency back-up source. The system has an agreement with the MDH to use this source only in an emergency situation such as fire protection.

  The city’s system returned to compliance as of Aug. 25, 2009.

  Nitrate in drinking water at levels above 10 parts per million is a health risk for infants of less than 6 months of age. High nitrate levels in drinking water can cause blue baby syndrome. Nitrate levels may rise quickly for short periods of time because of rainfall or agricultural activity. ( source )

• WASHINGTON – May 5 – A new testing method by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reveals that pollutants such as arsenic, antimony, chromium and selenium, can leach from coal ash at levels dozens and sometimes hundreds of times greater than the federal drinking water standard. This news comes on the heels of EPA’s proposal to regulate coal ash, in which the agency offered two options: a plan to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste and another to regulate it as non-hazardous. ( source )

So you see, water testing takes place all the time. Some people do it because they have to, as in the case of municipal water systems, others do it because of a problem, as in the case of city workers after a water main break, and others do it because they want to put an end to some form of pollution… as in the case of the EPA looking to regulate coal ash because of its ability to leach arsenic and other dangerous metals into the public water supply.

Over the past 2 years we have mentioned test strips for commonly tested water parameters such as chlorine, pH, water hardness, bacteria, and heavy metals on a regular basis. Recently someone asked us if we knew of test strips for other, less commonly tested water parameters.

Without knowing exactly WHICH unusual water parameters to look for we just started searching for odd water contaminants and came up with the following:

Some people believe they have to sacrifice creature comforts such as a ‘cool’ showerhead that gives the sensation of standing in the rain if they want to install a shower filter that will reduce chlorine taste, chlorine odor and water harness. Those people clearly have not done their research!

After only a short web search we located a rain simulating showerhead manufactured by Paragon Water that has a built-in (replaceable) filter good for 10,000 gallons of shower water.

The filter uses a mixture of KDF and proprietary media to filter out impurities in the water. KDF stands for ‘Kinetic Degradation Fluxion’ and contains a high-purity copper-zinc formulation which uses a chemical process known as redox (oxidation/reduction) to reduce chlorine, lead, mercury, iron, and hydrogen sulfide levels in water.

For folks who may have other water quality issues, health officials and water professionals suggest using KDF shower or other point-of-use KDF filters in conjunction with other water purification methods since KDF filters alone will not remove potentially harmful contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, fluoride, and nitrates.