Many people believe well water cannot become tainted by contaminants because it typically comes from locations far beneath the surface. Water Testing Blog strongly suggests that you DO NOT BUY INTO THAT LINE OF THOUGHT.

We ‘yelled’ that last bit for a reason. Unwanted and potentially harmful contaminants can find their way into well water regardless of how far below the surface it comes from.

Hence the reason why well water professionals and health officials suggest having one’s well water tested yearly.

Today’s story about well water contamination came from Kansas where residents of Butler County have had to all but abandon the use of their drinking water wells because of an unpleasant chemical smell.

Specifically, the water coming out of the private wells has a gasoline like odor to it.

A bad odor and taste in the well water has some residents in a neighborhood east of Andover concerned. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment and a water testing lab are working to find the source of the problem, but residents in the area are becoming frustrated.

Eric and Brittney Hauck say the well water at their house in Butler County smells terrible and they fear it could be unsafe.

“There was the smell of gasoline, kind of a paint-thinner kind of smell,” said Brittney Hauck.

The Haucks immediately stopped drinking the water and contacted the KDHE. Ash Creek Associates out of Portland, Oregon came out to their house and tested the water.

Last week, the Haucks received the results which showed elevated levels of benzene and other contaminants. The testing company gave the Haucks bottled water and installed a charcoal filter at no charge.

A week later, the family and many other neighborhood residents are still waiting for answers from the KDHE about what’s causing their water to become contaminated. KAKE News attempted to contact both the testing company and KDHE but could not get a response because the offices were closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Some residents suspect the contamination may be coming from a petroleum pipeline that runs through their neighborhood. Until they can get some definitive answers about the safety of their well water, residents say they’ll continue to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing. ( source )

We feel very bad for the Haucks and all the other folks in that area affected by the suspected contamination of the aquifer from which they draw their well water. Hopefully the KDHE will determine the source of the well water contamination quickly and make it so the Haucks and their neighbors can once again perform simple tasks like cooking and bathing with their well water.

Testing for benzene in drinking water?

The average person cannot obtain an off-the-shelf test kit capable of testing for the presence of benzene in drinking, tap or well water. That sort of testing must get done in a laboratory using advanced analytical techniques and equipment.

AS usual at this point we suggest contacting your local water department or board of health to see if they can provide you with a list of certified water testing laboratories. For those wishing to use a mail-in water testing service, you may want to take a look at the 83 water quality parameter test package offered by National Testing Laboratories.

Can you get orange hair from tap (or well) water? Some residents in the Boulder Hill area of Illinois have presented their local water department with evidence that it can happen… and have water test results documenting the presence of three times the normal level of iron in their tap water.

Last week, residents complained about the water quality at a Village Board meeting and brought pictures of children with orange hair, damaged pipes and water sample results that documented the iron content was some three times the normal level.

This week, after action taken by the village, residents say things are looking up.

“It is looking better, this is good news,” Karol Armbruster, one of the residents affected by the rusty water, said Tuesday.

Her daughter has had to visit a hair salon on two occasions due to the rust in the water, she said. “It was turning orange and a had a little green tint,” she said,

“It doesn’t seem to be as bad,” said Debbie Way, another resident.

The water problems began Nov. 19 when the motor that runs Well 14 broke. At that time, village officials began sending water to the area from other wells.

The rust is the result of a change in direction of the water flow in the pipes.

“The cause of the rust was a build-up of iron deposits inside the pipes for some 50 years,” said Michael Pubentz, Montgomery public works director. ( source )

For these folks water conditions will improve once the new well pump comes online, according to the article, but what about YOUR water? Do you know how much iron or other metals it contains? While some metals (like iron) usually pose more of an aesthetic problem, other metals such as lead, mercury, chromium, etc. can have lasting detrimental health effects.

Moral of the story?

If you notice sudden changes in water quality could mean problems with the safety of your water and only testing the water for its purity will let you know for sure if the changes mean action needs to get taken by your water company or, if your water comes have a private well, you need to take action.

In this case the water district had a pump fail and needed to redirect water through different lines that had not seen a lot of use in a long time and years of corrosion got pumped to people’s homes. We believe that local residents’ seeking testing and banding together to lobby for prompt action on the part of the water company resulted in the situation getting cleared up a lot faster than may have happened if residents had not presented test results along with their complaints.

Certified water testing data gets results. So, as we like to say, “It’s your water, your health… and ultimately your LIFE.”

Take an interest in the quality of your water and perform spot checks from time to time — especially if you notice a ‘change’ in the color, taste or smell of your water. Doing so could, in some cases, possibly save your life or the life of a loved one.

Interested in removing iron from drinking water? Whether you need a replacement 10″ iron filter cartridge, replacement 20″ iron filter cartridge or a whole house iron removal system, we believe FilterWater.Com may have the perfect solution for your water quality situation.

A plethora of water quality improvement products exists and sometimes the choices seem overwhelming — even to folks with more than a little knowledge on the topics of water quality and water quality improvement.

Today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Ric C’ who asked a very wise question about a water filtration unit he may wish to purchase (HomePure AP-0930):

Hi
Am dealing with a product that has an NSF certification, and below is the address;

http://www.nsf.com/Certified/DWTU/Listings.asp?TradeName=homepure&Standard=&ProductType=&PlantState=&PlantCountry=&PlantRegion=&submit3=SEARCH&hdModlStd=ModlStd

Does this mean the product is good?

Quite honestly, we have never seen the HomePure AP-0930 before but as we said previously, the marketplace has a ton of water filtration units out there and we seriously doubt that anyone could know the in’s and out’s of every single water filtration unit currently available for purchase.

With that said, we looked at the NSF credentials supplied by Ric and saw that this unit has tested and certified to NSF/ANSI STANDARD 042 (Drinking Water Treatment Units – Aesthetic Effects) for the reduction of chlorine taste and odor as well as NSF/ANSI STANDARD 053 (Drinking Water Treatment Units – Health Effects) for the reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s).

While having NSF Certification does give the HomePure AP-0930 a bit of credibility, please keep in mind that not every water filter will work in every application — even with NSF, WQA, etc. certifications to back up its capabilities.

Think of it this way: A high quality hammer won’t do you a bit of good when you need to turn a screw.

Testing your water first?

Yes! Do it! Test your drinking water before spending money on a water filter!

Before investing in a water filter for your home or office make sure you test your water for as wide a range of potential contaminants as possible. Doing so could save you the expense and aggravation associated with installing a filter that addresses the wrong water quality issues.

Anything specific about the HomePure AP-0930 catch your eye?

We like the fact that the HomePure AP-0930 has NSF certifications. As we said before, it means the unit certainly has some credibility.

One thing we did not like about the unit dealt w/ it inability to filter out heavy metals such as lead, copper, iron, chromium, etc. In our opinion a well-rounded, general purpose water filter would also have the ability to remove/reduce levels of heavy metals in drinking water.

Older homes most likely contain metal piping and the majority of public water systems contain metal pipes, as well. “But, we live a newly constructed home.” Does not matter (in our opinion). Newer homes, while mostly containing PVC or some other type of plastic piping, still get connected to public water systems that contain miles and miles of metal pipes.

Depending upon the quality of the water when it leaves the water treatment plant, it has the opportunity to pick up anywhere from traces of metals to noticeable levels of metals as it travels through those miles of metal pipes to homes and offices on the water system.

Interesting fact: The literature for the HomePure AP-0930 water filter system did mention metals and say that metals in water may cause problems, but the HomePure AP-0930 does not remove/reduce metals.

Replacement filters for the HomePure AP-0930?

According to the NSF web site, the HomePure AP-0930 uses a replacement filter element with model number “AP-0931″. A quick search of three popular online water filter web sites (FilterWater.Com, FiltersFast.Com and WaterFilters.Net) and a google search yielded no locations where a person could purchase replacement filters.

Not a particularly good sign! What happens in 3 months or a year when the original filter kicks the bucket?

Moral of the story?

Not all water filter systems are created equal and even though some bear seals of certification and/or endorsement from well-known, reputable organizations such as NSF or WQA, not every one of those ‘certified’ products will clean up every possible water quality condition.

So, test your water to see what problems/issues it may have and THEN set about the task of locating the correct water quality improvement device for your water.

Look for products that bear the NSF and/or WQA logos, but do not assume the logo automatically means that a particular device will do what you need it to do.

Oh, and one last thing: Check to make sure you can easily acquire replacement filters for any water filter you consider buying.

Today’s question came to us from ‘Malli’ who asked, “tell me simple method to find out the flourine percentage .Thanque”

For the sake of this article, and because it would make his/her inquiry make more sense, we will assume that Malli intended to ask for a method of testing for FLUORIDE levels in water.

Regretfully we have not heard of any ‘new’ methods a person can use to detect fluoride levels in drinking water since we last addressed this topic. Therefore we will continue to suggest using a meter such as the eXact Micro 7+ Water Testing Meter that uses Fluoride (SPADNS) Reagent to detect fluoride levels in water as low as 0.1 ppm and as high as 1.1 ppm.

One could also use the mail-in fluoride testing services of a company called National Testing Laboratories to determine how much, if any fluoride their drinking water contains.

So, Malli, once you determine if your water contains fluoride, next you will need to decide if you wish to remove or reduce that fluoride level… assuming you have fluoride in your water to begin with.

Removing/Reducing Fluoride Levels in Drinking Water?

When it comes to finding an effective means of reducing fluoride levels in drinking water, thus far our ‘research’ always points us down the same path… towards reverse osmosis water filters. The unit you see on the right, the Pentek RO-3500, has gone through testing and gotten certified by 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.

Though definitely NOT the most expensive unit on the market, this filter has successfully passed third party testing, can produce nearly 8 gallons of crystal clear, filtered drinking water per day, and does so while reducing fluoride levels by more than 90%.

Moral of the story?

You will never know exactly how much fluoride, iron, copper, manganese, chlorine, salt, or other unwanted contaminants your water contains until you perform the appropriate tests on your water. Then, and only then, will you have the ability to make an educated decision regarding water treatment options.

Today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Mike L’ who asked about ways to soften his water without having to use a salt-based softening system.

I live in a small twin (3 bed/1.5 bath) that I lease. When we moved in, we noticed the water was particularly hard (10 GPG) and it was causing dry skin after showers and other issues. We don’t use a lot of water and we don’t have much space (1,300 sq. ft.). I also don’t much prefer the saltiness of “softened” water. My landlord gave me the OK to install a simple filtration system. I’m looking for something cheap, compact and simple. I don’t need 0gpg either, if I can lower down to a 3-4 GPG I would be happy.

Seems simple right? I was thinking maybe a 400GPD RO system but they all come with faucets which makes me think they may not be usable to throw in-line on the water system.

Do you know of anything (under $1,000) I can do to clean up my water and make it just a little softer?

Good news, Mike! Recent developments in the water softener industry include water softeners that do not use salt as the primary treating agent. Reasons for the salt-free water softeners range from States like California putting a ban on them for environmental reasons to people (like yourself) simply not enjoying the taste and/or texture of the water produced by salt-based water softeners.

Eagle A1000AS Anti-Scale Saltless Water Conditioner

To the left you will see an example of a water softener that uses a special filtration media to remove calcium and magnesium from source water instead of salt. The unit also comes equipped with a sediment filter, solid carbon block filter for VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) and an Ultrafiltration Filter good for removing particles as small as .01 microns.

Mike, you mentioned reverse osmosis as a possible option and based upon what you said you wanted from the water treatment system, we don’t think that will work out as well as you’d like, though we do agree that reverse osmosis water filter do an excellent job of filtering water.

Reverse osmosis units do not connect up as inline filters as neatly and tidily as it sounds like you’d prefer. They require drains for ‘waste water’ that gets rejected by the membranes and flushed out during backwashing. Also, reverse osmosis water filters require power which means running a power line to the unit.

The Eagle A1000AS Anti-Scale Saltless Water Conditioner uses no power, requires no drain, uses no salt or environmentally harmful chemicals, and supposedly will help to remove existing calcium and magnesium deposits already clogging water lines.

Moral of the story?

Mike, we suggest having your water tested by a certified laboratory in your area or having a mail order service such as National Testing Laboratories perform a thorough analysis of your water. From the sounds of things, your faucets could possibly have more than just calcium and/or magnesium coming out of them and you will not know for sure until you test.

We knew that this question would come along sooner or later. ‘Lisa’ wrote in and asked, “can my daughter use the arsenic water testing kit on juice? can you recommend any ideas for a science fair project?”

While we have no evidence to support the notion that Arsenic Quick Test Kits will function properly with juice as the test specimen rather than water, we have used the kits extensively and know that the color of the juice ought not affect the results since the test pads react with ‘arsenic gas’ liberated from the sample inside the reaction vessel and not the actual water sample.

Note: We contacted the makers of Arsenic Quick Test Kits about the effectiveness of their Arsenic Quick Test Kits with juice as samples and will most certainly share any definitive information we learn.

Getting back to the topic of using Arsenic Quick Test Kits, at first the process may sound a bit complex — but trust us when we say it really does not take a rocket scientist to perform the testing. Hence the reason why a number of people, including folks at the USEPA and other high profile government (as well as non-profit) agencies, have recommended this kit as a viable and useful field testing option when faced with situations where a water source may contain inorganic arsenic as a contaminant.

At this point you may find yourself asking, “Wait, didn’t you say the test liberated arsenic gas?”

Yes, Arsenic Quick Test Kits do liberate small amounts of arsenic gas in the test vessel but the amounts generated should not pose a problem as long as the testing takes place in an area with proper ventilation. In other words, open a window, test in the garage w/ the door open or perform your testing outdoors.

Arsenic Quick Test Kits do not require typical controlled laboratory environments in order to yield quality results.

What about the science projects?

So glad you asked! Depending on where you live, Lisa, and how many bodies of water you have access to for sampling purposes, you could have quite a few really cool science projects for your daughter to work on.

A company called Water Safe manufactures a test kit called the Science Fair Project Test Kit which gives young (or old!) experimenters the ability to test up to 10 bodies of water for the following important drinking water parameters:

Do other options exist for more testing? Of course they do… but the WaterSafe Science Fair Project Test Kit offers a good sampling (8 parameters for 10 bodies of water) of tests for a reasonable cost — around $80. If that option does not suit your budget, WaterSafe also makes the same kit in a smaller size that tests up to 4 bodies of water for the same water quality parameters for around $40.

Got bigger testing plans?

If you believe you will want to perform long-term testing and will need 25 to 50 tests per water quality parameter, SenSafe manufactures a par of kits called the Well Driller Standard and Well Driller Master test kits which both come with plenty of testing supplies to keep testing projects of longer duration well-stocked.

Today’s question comes from ‘MarquisMark’ who asked,

“My girl and me just bought a new place but the water well it sucks. Got white buildup and other colors of stuff building up in the sinks and the water kit we bought, that sensafe one on your site, says we got all sorts of problems like metals too. A friend says we need a filter and a softener but I don’t know if they make a all-in-one type filter softener thing… but my girl says we gotta do something, so can you help?”

Thank you for your question Marquis and it sounds to us like you and your girlfriend have a real mess on your hands when it comes to the quality of your water.

Question: Well water or city water?

If well water, then we suggest looking in the phone book for a certified well contractor and having them come out to look at the condition of your well.

If city water we suggest contacting your local water department and requesting the latest copy of their Consumer Confidence Report, an annually published document that discusses how good (or bad) a job the department did at keeping its water quality readings in line with Federal Guidelines.

In either case, certainly get your water tested by a qualified water testing laboratory before investing – and yes, we said investing – in a water filtration and/or water conditioner for your home. Otherwise you may run the risk of purchasing the incorrect unit for your specific water remediation requirements.

In other words you may buy the wrong tool for the job… and that could mean a whole lot of wasted money and continued water quality troubles.

Cost of combination water filter & water softener

Definitely not cheap, but if you have drinking water in desperate need of improvement then investing in a whole house water filter & water softener system such as the Whole House Filter and Anti-Scale Conditioner Combo made by Crystal Quest may make sense.

With pricing for the Whole House Filter and Anti-Scale Conditioner Combo (CQE-WH-02136) starting at around $2,900 you really, really, really want to make certain you 1) Need a water filter; 2) Need a water softener; 3) Know for sure that the unit will correct the specific water quality issues that you have.

Moral of the story?

Not all water treatment options will work in every application so before you plop down your hard earned money, get your water tested by a qualified drinking water testing laboratory. If you cannot locate a local laboratory we suggest you consider using the testing services of an accredited mail-in water testing laboratory such as National Testing Labs.

One of the most interestingly named water filters out there, KX Matrikx, also has a reputation for excellence and we get a number of people asking where they can acquire KX Matrikx filters for their water purification systems.

Below you will find a listing KX Matrikx replacement filters carried by Filter Water, a leading online retailer of water filters, replacement water filters and water test kits.

KX Matrikx CTO Carbon Filter	KX Matrikx 10-2 Carbon Filter	KX Matrikx VOC Carbon Filter 02-250-125-975
KX Matrikx +1 Carbon Filter	KX Matrikx +Pb1 06-250-125-975	KX Matrikx CTO-2 Carbon 20
KX Matrikx +Pb1 Carbon Filter 06-250-125-20	KX Matrikx +Pb1 06-425-200-20 20 inch Filter	Culligan Compatible Carbon Block 32-175-050-100

A recent study has found a possible link between increased risk of prostate cancer in areas where more women use specific types of birth control — but as usual other recent studies did not find the same correlation.

We feel the importance of the study lies more in how some experts believe people have become overly exposed to estrogen.

Rather than simply stating that the increased estrogen levels come directly from ingestion of birth control medications, the study implied that people re-ingested estrogen that had worked its way out of women on the pill via normal waste channels, wound its way through (or in some cases around) waste water treatment facilities, entered the environment, and finally gotten consumed or absorbed by plants and animals that people then ate as part of their everyday fare.

Removing estrogen from drinking water?

We wish we had better news on this topic, but we must sadly report that we have yet to hear definitively that any one type of water filtration unit does a good job of removing estrogen from drinking water — nor possibly a number of other pharmaceutical byproducts currently entering our water supply every day.

We have, however, seen that some companies tout reverse osmosis as an effective way to remove MANY of those pharmaceutical byproducts, but NOT all — and we would certainly suggest that anyone considering the purchase of a reverse osmosis for the purpose of removing pharmaceutical residuals review the specifications carefully before making an investment.

Moral of the story?

Experts tell us our water supply keeps getting tainted by new things, or possibly by things we could not test for until recently, and the majority of us just sit idly by and say, “Oh well. The government (or someone else) will take care of it.”

Listen folks: The contaminants already exist and just like with soooooo many other ‘newly detected risks’ the responsibility to safeguard one’s self and loved ones will fall squarely on the shoulders of the individual… until those in power agree which bill will do the most good w/o ruining careers of friends, family, etc.

All of us here at Water Testing Blog would love to know if folks in power and/or in big business already have water filtration units installed their homes and offices and/or have their water trucked in from suspected safe sources. How many, if any, will answer that question?

For more specifics on the study, take a look at this page ( Prostate Cancer May be Linked to Birth Control Pills in Water Supply ); one of several we found while doing a search on the topic.

Not too long ago many news outlets contained broadcasts and articles about the presence of BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical, in plastics and how people, especially pregnant women, should avoid eating out of containers containing BPA.

Today we read an article about a study that found a link between the consumption of canned foods and elevated levels of BPA in humans. According to the study’s findings, people who ate canned soup regularly had much higher levels of BPA in their urine than people who ate soup made with fresh ingredients.

People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study. BPA is found in many canned foods — it is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion.

…

“We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them,” Michels told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The study is published online today (Nov. 22) in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ( source )

So there you have it, folks: A good, solid reason to support farmers in your area by purchasing your foods fresh from grocery stores that buy local.

As far as BPA in plastics goes, we will say only that plenty of companies now use BPA-free materials in their containers so the risk of ingesting BPA from plastic containers is one that most of us can easily avoid – if we choose our plastic containers carefully.

Replace older plastic containers

… with newer ones bearing the BPA-Free badge. Oh, and if you routinely use old margarine tubs, cool whip tubs or other plastic tubs (like we do!) you should swap them out for tubs manufactured more recently, too.

And don’t forget to properly recycle the plastic items you decide to get rid of! We don’t want them ending up in landfills where they could possibly leach their BPA content into the environment over time!