A neighborhood in the Stamford, CT has wondered about the safety of a piece of property for a while. Now they have has serious reason to question all past actions taken to protect them from the toxins which they believe lie under its soil… and even more reason to plan for a way to deal with those toxins in the future — since they have turned up in a number of local homeowners’ wells.

North Stamford Concerned Citizens for the Environment formed last fall when homeowners near Stamford’s Scofieldtown Park learned their well water was tainted with banned pesticides. The same toxins had been found in the soil of the park, which was built on a former industrial landfill. Many in the area believed commercial waste from the site had leached into the ground water, and they decided to act.

…

Though the EPA had been monitoring the park since 1996 and locals had been complaining about it for a good 10 years prior, Lauricella discovered little had been done.” The reports I was able to unearth showed that the city, state and federal government all let this inquiry fall through the cracks,” she says.

“Over time, there were people who raised various issues,” states Ben Barnes, Stamford’s former Director of Operations. “I don’t think the city ignored them particularly.” Barnes himself spent the waning months of the Dannel Malloy administration dealing directly with the well contamination and investigating the history of Scofieldtown.

Barnes explains the former landfill is subject to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (better known as Superfund), and that prompted testing by the EPA. But the agency’s findings placed Scofieldtown in a nebulous area between an ecological disaster that qualified for a massive amount of federal intervention and an old, abandoned dump that was determined to be “clean enough.” ( source )

If the term ‘clean enough’ used in reference to a potentially hazardous site where hazardous chemicals more than likely found their final(?) resting place does not scare you, then what will? At least in this case the government has decided to step in, as the article mentions later on, but what about all the years before when children played in that park and those chemicals may have found their way into local wells unnoticed?

Something to think about: Even the best intentions of the most honest water quality inspectors go to waste when politics and budgets get involved… and the same goes for the intentions of most homeowners when the subject of decreasing property values comes up.

Testing for Pesticides in Well and Drinking Water…

Most of your traditional at-home drinking water test kits and well water test kits will not contain a test for pesticides for a number of reasons including keeping costs down and the fact that a kit would have to contain way too many different, and often times complicated, testing supplies one would need to test for the 1,000’s of commonly (and uncommonly) used pesticides in the world.

While you can test for two VERY commonly used pesticides, atrazine and simazine, using an at-home pesticides test kit, having your water tested by a certified water testing laboratory like National Testing Labs will provide you with a much better picture of your water’s safety by letting you know if it contains 20 different pesticides, herbicides and PCB’s.

If we had a dollar for every time we got asked the first question below, we’d all drive expensive cars and dine on lobster for lunch… instead of taking the bus and eating Ramen Noodles every day.

T_RadioMan in Clifton Park, NY asked…

Why do I always get staining in my sinks? Is my well water polluted? Is it dangerous?

Slow down, killer. Slow down. One question about the quality of your water at a time, OK?

Staining… of fixtures often happens when water contains dissolved metals. Have you tested your water for metals?

• Iron in Water — may leave brown, yellow and/or orange stains in sinks and on fixtures

• Manganese in Water — may leave dark brown, black or deep purple stains in sinks and on fixtures

• Copper in Water — may leave blue, green or dark stains in sinks and on fixtures

Polluted… drinking water may not ever show any signs of contamination. Only testing the water will tell you if your water contains dangerous contaminants and if you know nothing about the quality of the water, it definitely makes sense to opt for a thorough water quality analysis conducted by a qualified laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories or a local laboratory w/ similar qualifications.

National Testing Laboratories offers three levels of certified drinking water testing and their customers get test results within two weeks.

• WaterTest Basic tests for 27 water quality parameters

• WaterCheck test for 83 water quality parameters

• WaterCheck w/ Pesticides tests for 97 water quality parameters

Dangerous… water also may not show any obvious signs of it malignant nature so having testing performed by a qualified laboratory to find out if the water contains harmful contaminants or a dangerously low/high pH makes sense if you know nothing about the water and have ‘problems’ with it such as skin irritation, staining of fixtures, foul odor, nasty taste, or unexplainable recurring gastrointestinal troubles.

To conclude, T_RadioMan, you really won’t ever know the cause of your water woes until you get that water of yours checked out by a certified water testing laboratory.

Suzanne from Temecula, CA wrote in and asked,

Shortly before leaving me, my ex-husband installed a monstrosity of a water filter for the whole house that he claimed would remove 99% of this, that and the other thing. He said we needed it. Too bad I still have to pay it off… But anyways, I now travel a lot and have noticed that the water tasted funny everywhere I go — and i really don’t like it very much at all. I’ve started carrying bottles and 1 gallon jugs of water with me on my trips but I think there has to be a better option. Do they make a travel-sized whole house filter? Thanks for your time and I look forward to reading your response. — Suzanne

We thank you for your question, Suzanne, and sorry you got stuck paying for that ‘monstrosity’ of a whole house filtration system. At least you have safe, clean, and good tasting water at home, though, right?

We completely understand your not wanting to carry jugs of bottled water around in your car, assuming that you drive everywhere. Although one can usually pick up gallons of purified water for small amounts of money from the local grocery store, the inconvenience of lugging them around all the time definitely sounds like a miserable experience.

You could pick up travel-sized sport water bottles with built-in filtration units, but those typically work better for short trips, hiking trips, etc. and that does not sound like what you want. It sounds to us like you want a portable version of the ‘monstrosity’ you have at home.

After doing a little research, we came across a Countertop Portable Water Filter made by Crystal Quest. It has multiple filtering stages (like your monstrosity at home) and claims to remove hundreds of contaminants (like your monstrosity at home most likely does).

Stage 1 — Water passes through a 5 micron filter pad which remove suspended particles such as silt, sediment, cyst (Giardia, Cryptosporidium), sand, rust, dirt, and other un-dissolved matter.

Stage 2 — Water passed through a specially blended bed of high purity media known commercially as KDF-55D ®, and KDF-85D ®. This media uses an oxidation-reduction process to effectively neutralize chlorine and remove metals.

Stage 3 — Water passes through through granulated activated carbon (GAC), a compound known for its ability to adsorb a wide variety of organic contaminants such as chlorine (99.9%), chemicals linked to cancer such as trihalomethanes (THM’s) and benzine, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), PCB’s, MTBE’s and many of other chemical contaminants which if present in water may also cause bad taste and odor.

Stage 4 — Water passes through a final 5 micron filter pad to filter out suspended particles such as silt, sediment, cyst (Giardia, Cryptosporidium), sand, rust, dirt, and other un-dissolved matter.

Unlike the ‘monstrosity’ you have not, yet finished paying for, the Crystal Quest Portable Countertop Water Filter has a pretty good price (around $70) and will supposedly last for up to 5,000 gallons.

Compare that to paying $1 per gallon for purified water from the store…

Worried about a time-consuming installation? From the looks of things, the Crystal Quest Portable Countertop Water Filter attaches to a common sink faucet via an adapter that screws into where the aerator goes. Should take less than a few minutes, though instinct tells us you may want to carry a pair of pliers in your travel bag — in case no one has removed the aerator in your cabana, cabin, or hotel room in a while.

Spencer wrote in and asked…

Hello,

I am looking for an all-in-one home test kit that will show ppm levels. I thought I saw a product that was around $30 but now I can’t find the web-site.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Spencer

Thank you for your question, Spencer. For the most part all drinking water test kits (worth buying) should the majority of their results in parts per million, with the exception of some tests for metals which report their results in parts per billion. Example: Heavy Metals Check.

Getting to the rest of your question, a brand of home water test kits called WaterSafe manufactures a test kit called the All-in-One and it tests drinking water for the following: Bacteria, Lead, Pesticides (atrazine & Simazine), Iron, Total Chlorine, Total Hardness, pH, and Nitrates/Nitrites.

In our experience the average consumer can pick up the WaterSafe All-in-One Water Test Kit for around $20 from several online vendors including, but not limited to, the following:

• Filters Fast (www.filtersfast.com) — WaterSafe All-in-One Test Kit

• Filter Water (www.filterwater.com) — WaterSafe All-in-One Test Kit

Hopefully we have given you the information you asked for. In the event that you did not mean the WaterSafe All-in-One Water Test Kit specifically, and instead used the term ‘all-in-one’ in a more general manner, you may want to take a look at another brand of home water test kits: SenSafe.

Under the SenSafe brand you will find test kits such as the Drinking Water Quality Test Kit which typically costs a little bit more than the WaterSafe All-in-One Water Test Kit, but tests for additional parameters: Copper, Free Chlorine, Sulfate, Chloride and Hydrogen Sulfide (rotten egg smell).

You can usually find the Drinking Water Quality Test Kit by SenSafe selling online for around $32 to $36 depending upon where you look.

Feel free to contact us again, Spencer, if you have any other water quality testing questions!

Recently we talked about nitrate, nitrites, phosphates, bacteria and other such compounds making their way into rivers, streams and aquifers as runoff from fertilized fields. This time we bring news that the US Environmental Protection Agency has put a commonly used weed killer known as ‘atrazine‘ under the microscope.

Date Published: Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is re-evaluating health outcomes linked to a commonly used pesticide, atrazine, that has been discovered in drinking water, said the Associated Press (AP). Atrazine is typically used on corn and other crops.

The AP noted that, based on research, rainstorm runoff can contaminate streams and rivers, contaminated water systems. The EPA looked at 150 drinking water systems in America’s Midwest because that is where the chemical is used most frequently, said the AP. The EPA has not detected atrazine at the levels that would prompt adverse health problems, such as cancer; however, emerging studies indicate that even at lower levels, atrazine’s presence in drinking water can result in “low birth weights, birth defects and reproductive problems,” said the AP. ( source )

Can the average person test for atrazine in drinking water? Yes, but anyone with serious reason to suspect drinking water contamination should have their water tested by a certified water testing laboratory such as Suburban Water Labs.

Do-it-yourself test kits like the Quick Pesticide in Water Test Kit work well as screening tools but do not provide the ‘last word’ when it comes to drinking water safety.

While not the first well water test kit to ever hit the market, since Well Water Check, Well Drillers Standard Test Kit and Well Drillers Master Test Kit have all existed for a number of years, the WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit makes a nice addition to the ever-expanding line of WaterSafe test kits for drinking water.

About WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit:

Well Water Test Kit was specifically designed to help you test quickly and easily for the most common contaminants found in private well water, including: iron, copper, lead, bacteria, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, pH and hardness.

Note: Manufacturer (WaterSafe) produces individual test kits for many of the vital water parameters listed above.

WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit Includes…

• Test for copper, iron and lead
• Detect dangerous levels of Nitrates/Nitrites
• Test for potentially harmful bacteria
• Reveal the presence of toxins from pesticides or fertilizers
• Learn your water’s pH balance
• Determine your water’s “hardness”
• Identify unsafe levels of chlorine in your water
• Compare all your results with EPA-recommended levels
• Feel confident in the water you drink and use every day!

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.

While most adults understand the value and importance of clean drinking water, many children take it for granted and believe that clean, pure drinking water will come from the tap and/or from bottles today, tomorrow and always.

In their world, the words ‘pollution’ and ‘contamination’ happen in other places and not in THEIR own neighborhoods or in the sources of their drinking water. The naive nature of children makes them precious at times, yes, but we, as responsible adults, have a duty to teach them about the importance of making sure their drinking water IS safe today and will be safe tomorrow.

Since no one really wants to try and explain the concept of titrations and so forth to young kids, companies such as WaterSafe and Industrial Test Systems, Inc. have developed simple, easy-to-use drinking water test kits which make teaching children about water quality as easy as dipping a test strip and comparing colors on a chart.

Industrial Test Systems, Inc. has excellent, and quite comprehensive, test strip based drinking water test kits that even a child could use without much effort:

• Water Quality Test Kit — Test for 15 different water quality parameters. Contains (2) two tests for free chlorine, total chlorine, chloride, pH, total alkalinity, total hardness, nitrate, nitrite, iron, sulfate, hydrogen sulfide, and copper. Also contains (1) test for lead, pesticides (atrazine & simazine), and bacteria.
• Well Water Check — 2 test for each: pH, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness, Iron & Nitrate/Nitrite Nitrogen.

We found two sizes of WaterSafe Science Projects for water quality readily available:

• WaterSafe Science Project — Contains (4) four tests for lead, bacteria, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, hardness and pH.
• WaterSafe Science Project — Contains (10) ten tests for lead, bacteria, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, hardness and pH.

Drinking water testing: A necessary skill for today’s youth!

While making the rounds through the Internet, searching for water quality testing and filtration news, we came across another interesting article providing reasons why people ought to consider testing their drinking water routinely and installing drinking water filters in their home and/or office.

Sometimes I worry as a Naturopathic Physician that I am over-paranoid about toxins in our environment, so the Biochemist in me grabbed this test kit over at eVitamins to see if maybe I didn’t need to be so paranoid after all.

Now I know why most patients I’ve tested for heavy metals in Seattle consistently show high lead and mercury levels. We are drinking poison! I wish mercury was included in this test kit, but most high quality filters also filter mercury out of our water as well as other toxic substances such as pesticides, bacteria, chlorine and so forth.

I like the simple Aquasauna filters that can be added to your kitchen sink. Don’t forget the shower filter too, or you can filter the water straight at it’s source with a whole home water filter (somewhat expensive but highly recommended for those with chronic disease or small children constantly bathing in it.) ( source )

The author of that text wished they could find a test kit for mercury. Conveniently, we have located a relatively inexpensive and very easy to use mercury test kit for drinking water. You can find information about the mercury test kit and also about mercury in drinking water on this page.

Below please find a very simplified table of potential symptoms and testing methods for several contaminants which sometimes wind up in drinking water. This list in no way, shape or form represents the total number of potential drinking water contaminants. For a ‘complete’ list of water contaminants and their potential effects on human health, plese refer to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s SafeWater Web Site.

Many have asked the difference between the different types of drinking water filters they could use in their homes, at work, or at school.

Activated Carbon Filter:

• Positively charged and highly absorbent carbon media in the filter attracts and traps many drinking water impurities.
• You will typically find these drinking water filter systems on countertops, as point-of-use faucet filters, and under the sink.
• A good system for eliminating bad tastes and odors and a well-rated activated carbon filter will filter out many hazardous contaminants such as heavy metals, disinfection byproducts (i.e. haloacetic acids and trihalomethanes to name a few), chlorine, radon, volatile organic chemicals, parasites, and pesticides.