We have all heard the stories about people having date rape drugs slipped into their drinks while out at bars and nightclubs, but how many have heard of THIS? A male co-worker put his own…. ‘seed’…. into a female co-worker’s water bottle. Twice.

Just… Wow. What a flippin’ disgusting individual!

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) — A 31-year-old Fullerton man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly ejaculating twice into a co-worker’s water bottle.

Authorities said Michael Kevin Lallana was linked through DNA to the crimes.

Lallana allegedly entered the victim’s office and deposited his ejaculation into a water bottle that was on her desk in January. Police said the unsuspecting victim later drank the water, which made her feel sick, so she threw it away.

In April, investigators said Lallana did the same thing, but this time, the victim saved the water bottle and sent it to a private lab for testing. She then reported the results to the Orange Police Department.

Lallana is charged with two misdemeanor counts each of releasing an offensive material in a public place and assault, with sentencing allegations for committing a crime for sexual gratification.

If convicted, Lallana faces a maximum of three years in jail with mandatory sex offender registration. He is free on $500 bond and will be arraigned next month. ( source )

If this little bit of news does not make you want to take proper precautions to guard your water, whether in the bottle you leave on your desk at the office or as the drinking water that comes up from the aquifer and into your home, then perhaps nothing will.

Do you have control over the quality of the water in the aquifer supplying your well? Most likely not, but you always have the chance and opportunity to test the quality of water for unwanted contaminants. Periodic use of a well water test kit helps to ensure that no changes in the quality of your well water have taken place.

What sort of well water testing should well owners consider? At the very least we suggest they test for naturally occurring contaminants such as bacteria, nitrates/nitrates, heavy metals like mercury and lead, arsenic, etc.

Huh? Test for arsenic? Why? Is someone trying to poison us? Most likely not, but we have good reasons to suggest well owners test their water for arsenic. If you want to know why arsenic testing for well owners makes sense, take a look at Arsenic-Test-Kit.Com and ArsenicQuick.Com.

Getting back to the topic of well water testing, the United States Environmental Protection Agency as well as public health officials on State and Local levels urge private well owners to have their well water tested by a certified water testing laboratory annually. Qualified water testing labs like National Testing Laboratories typically provide reliable test results in under two weeks.

Oh, and before we forget, you paranoid folks out there may want to invest in a Cyanide in Water Test Kit… ‘cuz you never know. Maybe your neighbors really ARE out to get you!

Water Testing Blog loves to hear about local health departments taking the initiative to try and get residents to test their well water for potentially harmful contaminants. In this case, the health department in McHenry County, Illinois has stepped up to the plate by offering coliform bacteria and nitrate testing at a reduced cost until the end of August.

WOODSTOCK – McHenry County Department of Health will offer reduced fee water testing for individual well water users during the month of August.

Residents can have their well water sampled for coliform bacteria and nitrate for $18.

Testing wells regularly is the only way to determine whether well water is safe to drink, as many contaminants are colorless and odorless.

Water from a public or municipal water system regularly is tested for contaminants regulated by federal and state standards.

Bacteria and chemicals can get into well water and contaminate it in different ways.

Some bacteria and chemicals occur naturally.

Contaminants, such as nitrate, can come from animal waste, wastewater, flooded sewers, polluted storm water runoff, fertilizers, agricultural runoff, or decaying plants. High levels of nitrate in drinking water can cause illness in young children and pregnant women. Coliform bacteria are microbes found in the digestive systems of warm-blooded animals, in soil, on plants, and in surface water.

For a nominal charge, the health department also will sample private wells for nuisance chemicals resulting in water hardness, iron, discoloration and odor.

Sampling kits can be picked up at the health department in Woodstock or at one of eight drop-off centers. Samples can be dropped off for testing Tuesday mornings between 9 a.m. and noon at the following centers:

• Algonquin Township Office, 3702 Route 14, Crystal Lake; 847-639-2329.

• Dorr Township Office, 140 Newell St., Woodstock; 815-338-0125.

• McHenry Township Office, 3703 Richmond Road, McHenry; 815-385-5605.

• Nunda Township Office, 3510 Bay Road, Crystal Lake; 815-459-4011.

• Marengo City Hall, 132 E. Prairie St., Marengo; 815-568-7112.

• Harvard Police Department, 201 W Front St., Harvard; 815-943-4431.

• Richmond Township Office, 7812 S. Route 31, Richmond; 815-678-0077.

• Grafton Township Office, 10109 Vine St., Huntley; 847-669-3328.

For information about private well water, call the health department’s Environmental Division at 815-334-4585. ( source )

Many people believe coliform bacteria only get into OTHER people’s wells because THEY did something wrong… but in reality, something as simple heavy periods of rain causing a rise in the water table supplying a person’s well could result in the introduction of potentially harmful contaminants.

Also, the slightest crack in a well’s casing, which could come from age or a shifting in the ground surrounding the well, could serve as a very convenient point-of-entry for bacteria or other well water contaminants.

We recently received an email inquiry from Lisa containing a question about water treatment systems for people with compromised immune systems.

My son has just been diagnoses with an immune deficiency, and I should be sterilizing his drinking water -which I am doing by boiling for him. I am wondering if distilled or reverse osmosis, bottled water would effectively remove bacteria from the water, and be a safe alternative. Would one be better then the other.

Thank you for your time,

Lisa

Thank you, Lisa, for your question and it pains us to learn of your son’s condition. We hope that modern medicine can find a way to help your son live a long and healthy life.

Regarding your question about the best way to sterilize water for people with compromised immune systems, the EPA and CDC co-released a document back in 1995 that gives a lot of useful information on the topic entitled Guidance for People with Severely Weakened Immune Systems.

Below you will find excerpts from that document relating directly to the questions you asked:

• Cryptosporidium has caused several large waterborne disease outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness, with symptoms that include diarrhea, nausea, and/or stomach cramps. People with severely weakened immune systems (that is, severely immunocompromised) are likely to have more severe and more persistent symptoms than healthy individuals. Moreover, Cryptosporidium has been a contributing cause of death in some immunocompromised people.

• Although data are not sufficient for EPA/CDC to recommend that all severely immunocompromised persons take extra caution with regards to their drinking water, individuals who wish to take extra measures to avoid waterborne Cryptosporidiosis can bring their drinking water to a full boil for one minute. Boiling water is the most effective way of killing Cryptosporidium.

• Only point-of-use filters that remove particles one micrometer or less in diameter should be considered. Filters in this category that provide the greatest assurance of Cryptosporidium removal include those that use reverse osmosis, those labeled as “Absolute” one micrometer filters, or those labeled as certified by NSF International under standard 53 for “Cyst Removal.” …. Water treated with a point-of-use filter that meets the above criteria may not necessarily be free of organisms smaller than Cryptosporidium that could pose a health hazard for severely immunocompromised individuals.

• Many, but not all, brands of bottled water may provide a reasonable alternative to boiling tap water. …. Any bottled water treated by distillation or reverse osmosis before bottling assures Cryptosporidium removal.

• Neither EPA nor CDC maintains a list of point-of-use filters or bottled water brands that meet the above criteria. NSF International can provide a list of filters that meet the NSF criteria.

We suggest you take a look at the NSF Web Site to see what systems meet their requirements. In a situation like yours, you will want to make certain the product you purchase will accomplish all your objectives — and then some.

One system we came across recently, the Pentek RO-3500 Monitored Reverse Osmosis System,

NSF Tested & Certified Standard 58 for reduction of TDS, Fluoride, Turbidity, Lead, Nitrates, Selenium, Arsenic, Copper, Cadmium, Barium, Cyst, and Radium.

The Pentek R0-3500 features the 3 stage system, one ROM-230TN membrane, a D15 sediment filter, a D20 carbon filter, and one long-reach lead-free faucet. Unit comes with a standard installation kit and instructions.

Another feature of the the Pentek RO3500 which makes it quite nice… an electronic monitoring system that keeps track of the water filters cartridges’ lifespans and informs the owner when they need replacing.

What elements does the RO-3500 Reverse Osmosis System reduce and/or eliminate? The unit has the ability to filter out the following elements as well as many other chemical compounds:

• 90.2% TDS ( test for TDS )
• 98.9% Arsenic ( test for arsenic )
• 90.5% Fluoride
• 98% Phosphates ( test for arsenic )
• 99.99% Cysts
• 99.7% Turbidity
• 98.7% Lead ( test for lead )
• 87.4% Nitrate ( test for nitrates )
• 80.7% Nitrite ( test for nitrites )
• 97.5% Selenium
• 99.9% Copper ( test for copper )
• 97.3% Cadmium
• 86.6% Hexavalent Chromium ( test for chromium )
• 92.8% Trivalent Chromium
• 80% Radium 226/228
• 90.7% Barium
• Chlorine ( test for chlorine )
• Sediment & Particulates

For more information on the Pentek Reverse Osmosis System mentioned above, please read its detailed specifications on FiltersFast.Com.

One final word

Use of a reverse osmosis systems does NOT guarantee the elimination of ALL possible biological contaminants since some biological contaminants have sizes smaller than the membranes in RO units can filter out.

For that reason you may want to consider adding a UV Sterilizer to your filtration setup. These devices render biological contaminants incapable of reproducing by altering their genetic structure with specific wavelengths of light.

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.

In our experience, four basic groups of people ought to consider installing a nitrate filter on their drinking water line and/or main water line, though other folks may have reason to as well:

   * Anyone who has well water and lives in an area where regional flooding takes place on a regular or semi-regular basis. Nitrates occur naturally in the environment and if a well head gets covered by flood water, any crack or fissure in the well covering could allow nitrates, bacteria and other potentially harmful contaminants to infiltrate the well.

   * Anyone who has well water and lives in an area close to certain types of manufacturing facilities — most notably fertilizer factories. Sometimes runoff containing nitrates from facilities infiltrate local water supplies… by accident, of course.

   * Anyone who has well water and lives in or close to areas engaged in agriculture (farming). Many of the fertilizers used by even the smallest of farms contain nitrates and often times those nitrates will get washed away by rain water and make their way into aquifers. Additionally, farms that raise animals may not always dispose of nitrate-rich animal waste and just as in the case of nitrates from fertilizers, the nitrates from animal waste often find their way into aquifers.

First Line of Defense

Without testing, one will never know if their water contains potentially harmful contaminants. Therefore, a homeowner’s first line of defense against drinking water contamination is and always will be testing their drinking water.

For nitrate and nitrate in drinking water testing, SenSafe manufactures an easy-to-use test strip that measures both nitrate and nitrate concentrations in water at the same time and yields results in about one minute.

Should you rely solely upon a test strip to tell you whether or not your water contains potentially harmful contaminants? Not at all. Certified testing labs such as National Testing Laboratories specialize in analyzing drinking water for contaminants and follow strict government approved and/or recommended protocols when performing any testing.

Once again flooding has potentially contaminated private wells, and this time it happened up in the province of Winnipeg in Canada where government officials recently announced that the Province would pick the tab for well water testing.

Although we hate to hear about areas getting flooded out, we do love to read about governments stepping in to assist victims with making sure they have safe, clean drinking water once the flood waters have gone down.

The provincial government is encouraging people with wells in flood-affected areas to get them tested once flood waters recede.

Officials said the province will cover the full costs of testing.

The province normally subsidizes well-water testing but the well owner’s share is now also being waived for the month of June for flooded areas, said officials.

Manitoba Water Stewardship is also recommending that people with wells in flooded areas boil their water or use alternatives such as bottled water until test results confirm the bacterial safety of their water.

Water samples should be marked 2010 Flood and sent to Maxxam Analytics, Unit D, 675 Berry St., Winnipeg, MB R3H 1A7. More information is also available by calling 204-772-7276 or 1-800-665-8566 (toll-free). ( source )

As a general rule victims of flooding whose wells may have gotten contaminated should, at the very least, test their wells for bacteria, nitrates/nitrites, heavy metals (i.e. copper, lead and iron) and pesticides. Individual situations may merit additional and/or repeated testing.

Interested in having a certified water testing lab take a look at your drinking and/or well water? National testing Laboratories has several different levels of testing available to the general public for reasonable rates.

Once the warmer weather starts to creep into the Heartland of the United States, snow in the high country begins to melt, the ground thaws out, and water flows freely over manure and fertilizer laced soil. As it does, it undoubtedly picks up elements of whatever it comes in contact with.

Potentially harmful drinking water contaminants such as nitrates, nitrites and certain types of bacteria enter the water and may eventually find their way into aquifers tapped for drinking water.

For that reason, along with a host of others, the staff at Water Testing Blog encourage all owners of private wells in agricultural regions to test their wells for nitrates, nitrites and bacteria not just in the Spring, but several times throughout the year.

For the task of testing well water, WaterSafe makes a handy Well Water Test Kit that tests for the following parameters: bacteria, lead, copper, iron, pesticides, nitrates, chlorine, pH, and water hardness.

Bacteria – strains of E.coli can cause serious illness or even death.

Lead – causes developmental harm, neurological and kidney damage.

Copper – causes liver and kidney damage in infants.

Iron – causes staining in laundry, dishes, bathtubs and sinks. Clogs pipes and gives off offensive odor.

Pesticides – from agricultural uses, linked to increased cancer rates.

Nitrates – from fertilizers and animal waste, causes developmental problems.

Chlorine – can increase cancer risk, gives water bad taste and smell.

pH level – can cause heavy metal (lead) leaching and plumbing damage.

Water Hardness – causes lime scale and higher detergent use.

Or, if you prefer to test for parameters individually w/o having to buy parameters you do not wish to test for, the following links ought to come in handy.

Free Chlorine Water Test	Bacteria Check Test Kit	Mercury Check Water Test Kit
Water Quality Test Kit	Total Hardness Test Kit	Water Metals Test Kit
Well Drillers Master Test Kit	Manganese Check Water Test Kit	Well Drillers Standard Test Kit

A final word… or more accurately a sentence

If you have serious reason to suspect your well water has become contaminated, get your water tested by a certified water testing lab such as National Testing Labs

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.

Kyle from Florida asked,

My company does a lot of plumbing work for residential and commercial customers. Not all the time, but many times we get asked to test the water once we finish a job. I see a lot of test kits that use drops and those test strips on the market, but I want to use something a bit more professional like a meter of some sort. All the meters I’ve seen out there that test for a bunch of parameters have a ton of buttons, vials, powders and an instruction manual you could use to knock out a cow. Do they make a multipurpose water testing meter for the simple guy? Thanks for your help and I love the site. Lot of good info here!

Stop it, Kyle, before you make us blush!

To answer your question directly, yes you can find a reliable water testing meter made for the ‘simple guy’ and no you will not have to attend night school just to figure out how it works.

The eXact Micro 7+ Water Testing Meter offers extreme versatility, has only one button to worry about, does not use vials, and comes with a handy, compact manual barely capable of killing a fly.

Below you will see a quick demonstration of how easily you can test water:

Now Kyle, if that looked like too much work, or like it involved way too much ‘technical stuff’, then you may as well hang up your water testing hat(?) and send all your samples out to a place like National Testing Labs ‘cuz testing water in the field does not get any easier than it does with the eXact Micro 7+ Water Testing Meter.

• Direct read parameters — Total Alkalinity, Bromine, Calcium Hardness, Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Copper, Ozone, Permanganate, and pH

• Additional parameters — Ammonia, Chloride (as NaCl), Chlorine Dioxide (DPD-1), Chromium Hexavalent, Cyanuric Acid, Fluoride, Hydrazine, Hydrogen Peroxide (Low, Mid and High Range), Iodine (DPD-1), Iron (Fe+2), Total Iron (Fe+2/Fe+3), LR Total Hardness (as CaCO3), Magnesium, Manganese, Nitrate (as NO3), Nitrite (as NO2), pH (Acid and Alkali), Potassium, Protein (as BSA), Sulfate, Sulfide, and Turbidity. Kit includes conversion chart for these parameters.

• USEPA Compliant meter for Free & Total Chlorine — 0.01 ppm (mg/L) precision

• Built-in, permanent cell — no loose glass or plastic cells to lose

• Easy fill testing — Simply fill or dip meter into water

• Automatic countdown timer for accurate timing of testing

• 140 test memory — saves 20 tests per menu item

• No-slip grip housing — ideal for wet testing conditions

• Lightweight — weighs only 6 ounces w/ batteries installed

• Waterproof — IP-67 Rated and meter will float if dropped into water

• Easy-to-read LCD display — no color matching required

• Environmentally friendly — recyclable parts & uses 60% less reagents than 10mL sample tests

• CE certification

Lisa wrote in on behalf of her son who wishes to perform water testing on the water in the creek near their home for a science project:

My son is doing a science project on the water in the creek by our house. He wants to measure the runoff contaminants after a rain storm and then measure again a few weeks later to see the change and what was washed into the creek. What test kits should he buy and where should he get it.

thank you.

WaterSafe manufactures a science project test kit which may prove useful for your son’s project. The WaterSafe Science Project Kit includes tests for Lead, Bacteria, Pesticides, Nitrates, Chlorine, Hardness and pH. It comes with enough testing materials to test a total of four separate bodies of water or the same body of water on four separate occasions.

The kit also comes in a larger size which includes ten sets of tests for the parameters mentioned above. See Science Project Kit 10-Pack for additional details.

Testing for Chemical Pollutants and Contaminants

As a general rule, you will not find a test kit that can test for chemical pollutants because testing for such items typically requires the use of advanced laboratory techniques and/or equipment.

This does not mean, however, that you cannot test for other, more natural forms of pollution. The USEPA forbids the dumping excessive amounts of iron, copper, chromium, arsenic, mercury, cyanide, etc. into the environment… and at-home test kits DO exist for those compounds.