Most of us take for granted that we will have safe, clean tap water coming out of our faucets and think nothing of the dangers presented by not filtering and/or purifying our water prior to use.

• Cryptosporidium, a gastrointestinal parasite, contaminated the municipal drinking water of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1993 and caused one hundred deaths. ( source )

• A deadly strain of e.coli bacteria found its way into the municipal water supply of Walkerton, Canada in 2000 causing hundreds of residents ill and eventually taking the lives of seven people. ( source )

It sounds shocking that such horrible water quality tragedies could happen in modern times given the frequency of municipal water testing, but two very important facts stand out if you take the time to think about the way in which municipal water systems operate:

1. Municipal water systems test for a set number of water quality parameters and sometimes rare, unusual, and often not-tested-for water vermin like Cryptosporidium can easily slip past even the most stringent water testing programs. Example: Milwaukee, WI in 1993.

2. Municipal water systems test water at the point of distribution, not use. This means the water leaves water treatment facilities fully tested and approved for consumption… but keep in mind that the water must travel through many miles of piping and plumbing with literally thousands of joints and welds where harmful contaminants could find their way into the water if only one of those places has cracked or otherwise become deficient.

So as you can see, even the best water treatment plants in the world with the best records for drinking water quality cannot issue a 100% guarantee that your tap water will contain no unwanted contaminants. Once water leaves their grounds its quality can change for innumerable reasons and in innumerable ways… so ultimate responsibility for making sure you have safe, clean tap water falls on… your shoulders.

Installing the correct point-of-use water filtration and/or purification system (i.e. countertop, undersink, whole house, shower, etc.) can negate pretty much all the possible risks associated with water contamination between the distribution point and your favorite glass.

Take the time to learn about the different point-of-use water treatment options you have available and, of course, don’t forget to test your drinking water periodically, even after installing a filtration/purification system, to make sure it continues to function properly!

Amy wrote in with a few questions about city water testing…

Hi ~ thanks for this blog! Do cities provide free water testing as a service?

How would I know if my apt building has lead pipes?

Thanks!

Amy

To our knowledge most cities and municipalities do not provide free water testing as a service, though we have read that some areas will offer deeply discounted testing rates through local laboratories, or their own labs, in response to localized events such as regional flooding.

You can, however, call your local water company and request a copy of its most recent Annual Drinking Water Quality Report. Some cities opt to post their reports online and you can check to see if your area water company posts its report online at the EPA’s Safewater Project Web Site.

With regard to your question regarding whether or not your apartment building contains lead pipes, first determine the approximate age of the building.

Older houses are more likely to have problems with lead than houses built since 1988. Before that time, lead piping and lead solder were widely used in household plumbing systems as well as in the service lines that connect houses to street water mains. In 1986, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the use of lead pipes and lead solder in plumbing systems because lead is an insidious and dangerous poison. The EPA set an “action level” of .015 milligrams per liter of water for lead, stating that levels higher than that in water could pose a risk to human health. ( source )

In all honesty, though, even if your building does not have lead someplace in its water delivery system, lead can enter your drinking water other ways…

Lead rarely occurs naturally in drinking water. It’s far more common for lead contamination to occur at some point in the water delivery system. It isn’t well known, but household plumbing is usually the culprit when it comes to high levels of lead and copper in drinking water. Lead and/or copper pipes, fittings and other components are commonly found in many plumbing systems. Metallic alloys such as brass and bronze often contain lead, so brass faucets or plumbing fittings may also release lead into home water systems. ( source )

With so many ways for potentially harmful levels of metals such as lead and copper to enter one’s drinking water, the only way to know for sure if you have lead in your water (which is what REALLY matters) involves testing your water.

Now of COURSE we suggest using a certified water testing lab such as Suburban Water Testing Laboratories, or another similarly qualified water testing service, but that does not mean you cannot test your own water from time to time for dangerous metals such as copper and lead.

Water Metals Test Kit

Water Quality Test Kit

Lead in Water Test Kit

A recent report by the Environmental Working Group, often abbreviated as EWG, stated that after reviewing millions of records from state water officials across the country they believe nearly 54 million Americans have ‘polluted’ drinking water coming from their taps.

After examining the water quality in a selection of 100 cities, each containing more than 250k residents, the EWG put together a list of the Best and Worst Water Systems. Below you will find the highlights and low points from that list:

Cities w/ 3 Best Water Systems:

• Arlington Water Utilities in Arlington, Texas
• Providence Water in Providence, Rhode Island
• Fort Worth Water Department in Fort Worth, Texas

Cities w/ 3 Worst Water Systems:

• Emerald Coast Water Utility in Pensacola, Florida
• City of Riverside Public Utilities in Riverside, California
• Las Vegas Valley Water District in Las Vegas, NV

Didn’t see your city’s water system on the list? Don’t worry. You can view the full list of citeies surveyed here.

The EWG published another handy tool for determining the relative safety and purity of your drinking water:

• EWG Drinking Water Quality Database

In that document you will find the EWG’s findings on the quality of drinking water in more than 45,000 communities across the country.

Why Should You Test Your Own Water?

Even if your local water department makes the top of EWG’s or any other organization’s list the possibility still exists that human error, human negligence, or pure chance could result in the accidental contamination of your drinking water.

Events such as water mains developing leaks and/or breaking, someone performing water testing at the water treatment facility with outdated reagents, and someone simply ‘fudging’ test reports because of laziness, budget cuts, or maybe because that person has a massive hangover, could all very easily result in unwanted contaminants getting into your drinking water.

We suggest that people test their tap water periodically for chlorine levels (free & total), pH, metals (lead, copper, etc.), and coliform bacteria — just in case.

Many people believe that the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act by Congress a while back guarantees the safety and purity of drinking water for everyone in the United States. WRONG!

• The Safe Drinking Water Act contains regulations governing the levels of specific contaminants in drinking water but not ALL of the potential contaminants that could find their way into drinking water.

• The Safe Drinking Water Act contains rules and regulations which municipalities should follow if some municipalities cannot afford the equipment to bring their water into compliance with those rules and regulations then they get fined… and the out-of-compliance water continues to flow to customers’ faucets.

• Water can leave a drinking water treatment facility in full compliance with all the guidelines specified in the Safe Drinking Water Act and pick up contaminants between the facility and your faucet because of water line breaks, old plumbing, etc.

So what does all of that mean? Simply put, while the Safe Drinking Water Act does give municipalities incentive to ‘do the right thing’ when it comes to making sure the water they distribute does not contain harmful contaminants, a definite possibility still exists that the water coming out of your faucet may not comply with the provisions set forth by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Just as in the case of well owners, individuals on a public water systems should perform periodic checks on the quality of their drinking water, too. Having a certified water testing laboratory check the quality of your water every once in a while and performing occasional water tests for critical parameters (i.e. metals, bacteria, chlorine, nitrate/nitrites, etc.) between laboratory tests yourself using an at-home drinking water test kit will provide you with peace of mind when it comes to the quality of your drinking water.

Another town has received notification that their drinking water may contain levels of lead and copper higher than deemed acceptable by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

A few residents have experienced lead in their drinking water in recent weeks, prompting discussion of Belleville’s aging infrastructure and a warning to people about how to protect their health.

Township Manager Victor Canning said that “a couple of samples” of tap water tested positive for lead, and by law the township had to send notices to those residents. He said there is a bigger picture problem.

“This is something that has to be addressed in areas with older infrastructure,” Canning said.

For now, he has this advice: “People should let the water run for a couple of minutes to remove any lead or copper issues.”

The substances come from old underground water pipes that need replacing, an expensive proposition, he said.

“We are trying to address this, spending a couple of hundred thousand [dollars], but we’re talking millions and millions to fix it all,” Canning said. ( source )

As stated in the article, tearing up and replacing older copper water lines joined together with solder that contains lead costs a pretty penny and a lot of towns like Belleville simply cannot come up with the money. Therefore residents in these towns owe it to themselves to test their drinking water for dangerous heavy metals such as copper and lead on a regular basis.

Reports of a company using fake water testing techniques as part of their sales pitch for water purification systems has once again surfaced, this time in a community called Port Hope, Canada. Apparently the company’s sales representatives use chemical trickery to demonstrate how (usually elderly) homeowners’ water desperately needs remediation — in the form of a $3,500 water purification system.

Then, if the in-home water testing trick does not work, the sales representatives allegedly resort to good old fashioned bullying until the homeowners agree to buy a water purification system.

PORT HOPE – There appears to be a water scam happening in town again, says Ed Symons, Water Distribution Supervisor for the Municipality of Port Hope.

“We seem to have to deal with this issue every year lately,” he said.

He says elderly people are telephoned and told they should have their water tested, then set up appointments and try to convince them that their water is unsafe to drink. They use “very persuasive selling tactics” to pressure them to purchase a $3,500 water purifier from their company.

“These people are not licensed to test Municipal water supplies nor do they use accredited labs as we do,” he said. “They use an old trick by setting up an accelerated corrosion cell that would make you think your water is bad (it turns black) when actually they are causing a piece of metal to rapidly corrode causing the water to turn black.”

If you hear of anyone getting these calls please contact Ed Symons at 905-885-7461 or the Port Hope Police Service at 905-885-8123. ( source )

All of us here at Water Testing Blog hope law enforcement officials in that are catch up with the con artists responsible for these phony water testing sales techniques and throw them under the dirtiest, most wretched jail in the region… giving them only unfiltered, dirty sewer water to drink.

Arm Yourself Against Water Purification Con Artists:

First of all, make sure the company whose sales pitch you will entertain sells quality, reputable water purification systems. Whenever possible, see if the company sells water filters bearing NSF Mark and/or the WQA Gold Seal, as the technologies in those filtration systems will have passed third-party inspection by recognized organizations in the water quality community.

Next, never go into the meeting with a sales representative without first doing some homework on your water because the water filter company’s representative makes money based upon the size and dollar value of the water purification system you buy. Arming yourself with simple water quality knowledge can stop you from unknowingly buying too ‘large’ a system and spending money unnecessarily.

By simply testing your water with a do-it-yourself water test kit such as the WaterSafe All-in-One Water Quality Test Kit or the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit before meeting with a sales rep you may have the ability to see through a water purification con artist’s game if they try to say your water contains things or has characteristics that you know it does not.

Complete Water Test Kit

WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit

WaterSafe All-in-One

An honest water purification system representative will not need to con you. The merits of their product line will speak for themselves and you will have the opportunity to purchase the correct system for your water quality situation.

Do we have any Harvard Haters in the house today? If so, you will take great delight in the knowledge that students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts got to cope with brown, dingy water from their faucets and in their toilets for a while recently.

And no, we don’t mean some MIT students, known rivals of the Harvard students, broke into the local water treatment plant and poured rust colored food coloring into the water supply.

Instead, members of the local fire department tested and flushed fire hydrants near one of the Harvard University housing units.

Hydrant testing may disturb the sediment that naturally occurs in the water piping system. Water from your faucets and toilet may appear rust colored from this disturbance. Rust discoloration may last for several hours after the tests have been completed. Discolored water does not usually present a health hazard, however; it is recommended that anyone who has doubts about the rust colored water should not drink it. If you do not have bottled water, you may wish to store tap water in your refrigerator for the day of the test.

We also suggest that dorm residents check their water before doing laundry because the discolored water may stain clothes. If you would like to know when the hydrants are being tested in your area, please review the schedule shown below or call the FMO Fire Safety Services at 617- 496-4075 for daily test locations. If you have any questions on water quality Jim Cullity at 617-894-6841. Locations: River Area | Date: Tuesday September 15, 2009 ( source )

“OK, but what if a person has rust colored drinking water at times other than when the fire department test and/or flushes the hydrants?”

Situations like that require immediate water testing and we suggest having the water analyzed by a certified water testing laboratory. If not possible to have that testing done right away we suggest at the very least testing the water with an at-home drinking water test kit.

When confronted by rust colored water most people immediately think their drinking water contains iron and purchase a test kit for iron in drinking water.

A good idea, yes, but some people do not know the differeence between free dissolved iron and total iron and inadvertently purchase a test kit that does NOT test for total iron.

So therefore, always make sure you test for total iron and not just free dissolved iron when worried about iron contamination in drinking water.

The title of this blog probably caught you attention because now you want to know what cities have tested, what cities found in their water, and what cities have not reported what they found in their water.

Here’s the list of metropolitan areas, with the number of pharmaceuticals detected and some examples of specific drugs that were found, or where tests were negative, not conducted or awaiting results:

Albuquerque, N.M.: tests negative Arlington, Texas: 1 (unspecified pharmaceutical) Atlanta: 3 (acetaminophen, caffeine and cotinine) Austin, Texas: tests negative Baltimore: no testing Birmingham, Ala.: no testing Boston: no testing Charlotte, N.C.: no testing Chicago: no testing Cincinnati: 1 (caffeine) Cleveland: no testing Colorado Springs, Colo.: no testing Columbus, Ohio: 5 (azithromycin, roxithromycin, tylosin, virginiamycin and caffeine) Concord, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and sulfamethoxazole) Dallas: results pending Denver: (unspecified antibiotics) Detroit: (unspecified drugs) El Paso, Texas: no testing Fairfax, Va.: no testing Fort Worth, Texas: no testing Fresno, Calif.: no testing

Honolulu: no testing Houston: no testing Indianapolis: 1 (caffeine) Jacksonville, Fla.: no testing Kansas City, Mo.: no testing Las Vegas: 3 (carbamazepine, meprobamate and phenytoin) Long Beach, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin) Los Angeles: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin) Louisville, Ky.: 3 (caffeine, carbamazepine and phenytoin) Memphis, Tenn.: no testing Mesa, Ariz.: no testing Miami: no testing Milwaukee: 1 (cotinine) Minneapolis: 1 (caffeine) Nashville, Tenn.: no testing New Orleans: 3 (clofibric acid, estrone and naproxen) New York City: no testing Northern New Jersey: 7 (caffeine, carbamazepine, codeine, cotinine, dehydronifedipine, diphenhydramine and sulfathiazole) Oakland, Calif.: no testing Oklahoma City: no testing Omaha, Neb.: no testing

Orlando, Fla.: no testing Philadelphia: 56 (including amoxicillin, azithromycin, carbamazepine, diclofenac, prednisone and tetracycline) Phoenix: no testing Portland, Ore.: 4 (acetaminophen, caffeine, ibuprofen and sulfamethoxazole) Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, Md.: no testing Riverside County, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin) Sacramento, Calif.: no testing San Antonio: no testing San Diego: 3 (ibuprofen, meprobamate and phenytoin) San Francisco: 1 (estradiol) San Jose, Calif.: no testing Santa Clara, Calif.: no testing Seattle: no testing Southern California: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin) Suffolk County, N.Y.: no testing Tucson, Ariz.: 3 (carbamazepine, dehydronifedipine and sulfamethoxazole) Tulsa, Okla.: no testing Virginia Beach, Va.: tests negative Washington, D.C.: 6 (carbamazepine, caffeine, ibuprofen, monensin, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole) Wichita, Kan.: no testing.

About the study:

At least one pharmaceutical was detected in tests of treated drinking water supplies for 24 major metropolitan areas, according to an Associated Press survey of 62 major water providers and data obtained from independent researchers.

Only 28 tested drinking water. Three of those said results were negative; Dallas says tests were conducted but results are not yet available. Thirty-four locations said no testing was conducted.

Test protocols varied widely. Some researchers looked only for one pharmaceutical or two; others looked for many.

Some water systems said tests had been negative, but the AP found independent research showing otherwise. Both prescription and non-prescription drugs were detected.

Because coffee and tobacco are so widely used, researchers say their byproducts are good indicators of the presence of pharmaceuticals. Thus, they routinely test for, and often find, both caffeine and nicotine’s metabolite cotinine more frequently than other drugs.

Source: The Associated Press ( our source )

So naturally the question many people may have at this time sounds a lot like, “OK, well can we test for these pharmaceuticals and other things ourselves?” Sadly, we report that we do not know of any at-home test kits for complex molecules such as pharmaceuticals.

You can, however, contact an independent water testing laboratory if you have concerns about the possibility of these items existing in your drinking water.

You can get the names and contact information for State Certified Laboratories in your area by calling 1-800-426-4791 or visiting http://www.epa.gov/safewater/labs/index.html.

Think we made that up? Not a chance! Read the full article here or catch a few highlights, or LOW lights, in this Water Testing Blog update.

The Illinois attorney general filed suit June 9 against the village of Crestwood, several officials and the village’s former certified water supply operator for allegedly using a contaminated well and knowingly providing false information about the water supply to residents and state regulators.

The nine-count complaint, filed in the Cook County Circuit Court, charges that Crestwood officials became aware in late 1985 that one of the village’s wells was contaminated with volatile organic chemicals, including vinyl chloride and dichloroethylene.

Despite this knowledge, village officials continued adding the contaminated water to the public water supply until 2007, the lawsuit says.

During this time, Crestwood officials assured residents and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that the village’s only supply of water was Lake Michigan and water purchased from another nearby Chicago suburb, the complaint says. ( source )

We feel this article should give people MORE than enough reason to keep a watchful eye on the quality of their drinking water. It saddens all of us at Water Testing Blog to think that government officials would commit such crimes against the very people that elected them, but power and greed can can make people do a lot of very bad things.

You can easily keep tabs on your local water authority by calling them up and asking for a copy of the most recent water quality report. To verify the accuracy of the report’s contents in a simple manner you can use a kit like such as the WaterSafe Drinking Water Test Kit or the Water Quality Test Kit from Industrial Test Systems.

Please note, though, that if you suspect a serious or potentially life-threatening problem with your water at ANY time you should have a thorough water analysis performed by a certified water testing laboratory.

Not many people actually enjoy the taste or smell of chlorinated drinking water, but did you know that recent studies have unofficially linked birth defects to chlorinated drinking water? It seems as though a pregnant woman’s exposure to chlorine byproducts called trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water, bath water, etc. may play a part in causing serious health problems for her unborn child:

“Expectant mothers can expose themselves to the higher risk by drinking the water, swimming in chlorinated water, taking a bath or shower, or even by standing close to a boiling kettle, say researchers.

The finding, based on an analysis of nearly 400,000 infants, is the first that links by-products of water chlorination – chemicals known as trihalomethanes, or THMs – to three specific birth defects.

Exposure to high levels of THMs substantially increased the risk of holes in the heart, cleft palate and anencephalus, which results in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp.” ( source )

Most water systems chlorinate the water they provide in an effort to eliminate parasites and bacteria in drinking water which could lead to waterborne ailments and illnesses.

Not sure if your water contains THMs? Maybe the next few statements will help:

• Public water supplies that use free chlorine as their primary disinfectant (instead of chloramines) may contain THMs. The compounds form when free chlorine molecules lock horns with a biological contaminant during the disinfection process.
• Public water supplies that use chloramines as their primary disinfectant (instead of free chlorine) typically do not contain THMs. However it should be noted that these water systems do periodically ‘burn’ their water lines with free chlorine in an effort to get rid of any biofilm that has formed and THMs do result from those ‘burn’ sessions.

Still unsure as to whether or not your drinking water may contain THMs? You have three options:

1. Call your local water authority and ask them if they use free chlorine as the primary disinfectant or chloramines. If so, then your water most likely contains chloramines.
2. Have your water tested by a certified water testing professional.
3. Use reliable drinking water test kits for both free chlorine AND total chlorine.