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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can individuals test their city/town/tap water?

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

What water parameters should homeowners test?

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

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

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

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

While the average person does not have a need to for chlorine levels much above 3 to 5 parts per million, and even then they would typically only need to do so to make sure their swimming pools had a sufficient amount of free chlorine, but other folks have the need to test for free chlorine levels in excess of 25 or 50 parts per million on a regular basis. Below we will list a few of the places where you might expect to see a need for high range free chlorine testing.

Fruit & Vegetable Processing

After fresh produce leaves the fields it travels to a processing facility where it typically gets washed with a solution containing some sort of sanitizer such as chlorine, ozone, etc. In cases where the produce processing plant uses chlorine employees must make sure the rinse water contains a certain amount of free chlorine after it has passed over the fruit/vegetables.

Levels of free chlorine drop with an increase in biological load (contamination) and the rinse water having free chlorine left after use indicates that the produce no longer contains biological contamination on its surfaces.

Childcare Facilities

State laws require that childcare facilities clean their surfaces with properly mixed sanitizing and disinfecting solutions that contain an appropriate concentration of sanitizing or disinfecting chemicals. In many cases these facilities use chlorine bleach solutions for cleaning purposes.

As a general rule these solutions must contain anywhere from 50 to 200 parts per million free chlorine for sanitizing solutions and anywhere from 500 to 800 parts per million free chlorine for disinfecting solutions. In case like this the Waterworks High Range Free Chlorine Test Strips will not work because they have an upper detection limit of only 120 parts per million free chlorine, but WaterWorks Free Chlorine Check Ultra High II has an upper detection limit of 2,000 parts per million free chlorine and works well in this application.

Some states leave it up to individual childcare facilities to determine testing frequency of sanitizing and disinfecting solutions while other states, like North Carolina for example, have strict laws dictating how often childcare facilities must perform testing.

As of January 1, 2006, all licensed, non-in-home daycare centers in the State of North Carolina had to have the ability to test the chlorine bleach content in both their sanitizing and their disinfecting solutions. Previously the law stated that they had to test only the chlorine concentration in their sanitizing solutions. ( source )

If interested in purchasing a test kit for testing sanitizing & disinfecting solutions in a childcare facility, you can find them readily available on the Filters Fast web site.

Water Lines and Water Mains

Before a water line can go into service for the first time or go back into service after a breakage or leak has gotten repaired technicians must flush (burn) the lines with water containing a high concentration of free chlorine to clean out any and biological contaminants. Typically the technicians must test the discharge water periodically until the free chlorine level remains constant at a high level for a set amount of time.

Waterworks High Range Free Chlorine Test Strips work very well for this application.

Product-specific information about Waterworks High Range Free Chlorine Test Strips:

• Testing requires just 32 seconds
• Each bottle contains 50 ready-to-use tests
• Color chart has easily distinguished color blocks at 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 120 ppm
• No harmful chemicals or reagents to handle

Looking for a way to lower the amount of free chlorine and chloramines in the water you use in the garden… but don’t want the hassle of installing a complicated water filter?

If so, then we suggest you consider the Green Knight Hydroponic Dechlorinating Filter.

Functioning as an easily installed inline filter, the Green Knight screws right onto the average 3/4″ garden hose and promotes healthy plant growth by effectively reducing and/or removing potentially harmful chlorine from the water and also contains quartz crystals which aid plants’ absorption of vital nutrients.

Rainshow’r Green Knight uses a polyester pre-filter to catch sediment and then allows water to pass through 2 pounds of specially blended KDF55, 2 ounces of quartz crystal, and a final polishing stage which contains KDF73 filament media.

This product also comes with a sturdy 3-foot vinyl hose so that people can reap the benefits of the chlorine filter near the spigot/faucet w/o having to wrestle with a full-length garden hose. This works out well for rinsing off metal tools, washing mud off of dogs, etc.

Oh, and we learned something new while researching this product: People have found that reducing chlorine levels in rinse and wash water can greatly extend the life and luster of organic carnuba wax jobs on cars, boats, RV’s, etc.

Specific product details of the Rainshow’r Green Knight:

• Testing has shown that the unit removes 85% – 90% of Free Available Chlorine (FAC)
• Testing has shown that the unit also reduces chloramine concentrations by 65% – 75%
• Life expectancy: 30,000 gallons of source water assuming ‘average’ chlorine concentrations
• Suggested flow rate: Approximately 2 ppm
• Temperature rating: From 40F up to 110F
• Maximum pressure rating: 100 psi
• Freezing will cause irreparable damage to the unit, as will not running water through the unit at least twice a month after its first use.

Will the Rainshow’r Green Knight work as a drinking water filter?

Rainshow’r, the manufacturer of Green Knight Hydroponic Dechlorinating Filter designed this product for use in the garden and for outdoor applications, not for use a device to make water potable.

It lacks sufficient filter media capable of removing particulate matter and other contaminants such as organic chemicals, heavy metals (lead, iron, copper, mercury, etc.) and bacteria from source water.

We recently learned that the maker of SenSafe Water Test Kits has released a new version of the eXact Micro Meter Water Testing Kit that makes accurate chlorine testing with DPD-based chemistry easy for experienced testers and novices alike.

Introducing, for all your chlorine testing needs, the eXact Chlorine Photometer… a digital meter for testing chlorine that has a detection range of 0 to 11 parts per million for both free and total chlorine without the need for drop counting, crushing tablets or dissolving powders.

Using the same hardware platform as the eXact Micro 7+ Meter, this new kit comes with 100 tests for free chlorine (using DPD-1) and 100 tests for total chlorine (using DPD-4)

Aside from the 0.01 ppm resolution with +/- 0.02 ppm accuracy between 0.00 and 2.39 ppm chlorine and its high detection limit of 11 parts per million, the eXact Chlorine Photometer also offers a great deal of versatility for those who may want to test for other water quality parameters such as… Ammonia, Bromine, Chloride/Salt, Chlorine Dioxide, Chromium (in Hexavalent Form), Copper, Cyanuric Acid, Fluoride, Iodine, Iron, Low Range Total Hardness, Manganese, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ozone, Acid pH, Alkali pH, Potassium, Sulfate, Sulfide, and Turbidity.

If the need arises where you need, or want, to test for parameters other than free and total chlorine, simply pick up a bottle of the appropriate reagentstrip and follow the simple instructions in your meter’s manual.

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.

The Omnipure Inline Water Filter CL10ROT33-B received certification by NSF against NSF/ANSI standard 42 for the reduction of Chlorine, Taste and Odor. This filter uses granular activated carbon to reduce chlorine, taste and odor from your drinking water.

Economically priced at around $14, the Omnipure CL10RO T-33 Inline Filter has a 0.5 Micron, a water flow rating of 0.5 gallons per minutes, can handle water pressure up to 125 PSI, and has a life expectancy of 1,500 gallons or approximately 12 months.

You can use the Omnipure CL10RO T-33 Inline Filter in place of the Ametek INCF-10, Omnipure K2533 BB, and P3916.

This filter also replaces the following inline filters: Honeywell RF-66, Kenmore 46-38447 and Kenmore 4638447. The Omnipure CL10RO T-33 Inline Filter also works as Stage 5 of the 5-Stage PuROLine 5000 Reverse Osmosis System.

How Do I Know if I Have Chlorine in My Water?

Most often we hear, “How can I get rid of the chlorine taste/smell in my water?” but sometimes people have such low amounts that they cannot tell for sure if they have ANY chlorine in their drinking water and/or they have an impaired sense of smell and cannot detect the chlorine odors… but know they don’t want to drink it regardless of whether or not they can smell or taste it.

The easiest way to test chlorine levels in drinking water, Chlorine Test Strips, and at this time we recommend using test strip products from two manufacturers: SenSafe and Watersafe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You will have to do that.

If you have chlorine in the water going into your home, you also have it coming out of the spigots on the side of your house and therefore it also flows out of your garden hoses, lawn sprinklers, etc.

For those of you with nice cars that you like to hand wash or gardens that you’d like to keep chlorine-free, you may want to look into the the Gard’n Grow Water Filter designed to convert potentially harmful chlorine into harmless chloride compounds via a simple “redox” reaction catalyzed by a special copper and zinc.

Easily installed between the average garden hose and the faucet/spigot on the side of the house, the Gard’n Grow Filter by Rainshow’r uses KDF as its filtration media in a replaceable cartridge which lasts for up to 40,000 gallons, does not decrease flow rate by much, and removes 85% of chlorine from source water.

Rainshow’r produces high-quality, 100% carbon-free shower filters, chlorine-removing bath balls and garden water filters. You may find their products distributed under both the Rainshower and Rainshow’r brand names.

With so many news stories surfacing about pool water and/or drinking water not having adequate disinfectant levels many health officials have started pushing for increased testing and they don’t mean testing for chlorine residuals with test strips or liquid test kits which both require testers to match colors to get readings.

Rather than trust test personnel to use established methods of chlorine testing such as the Taylor FAS DPD Test Kit and/or the recently EPA Approved SenSafe Free Chlorine Water Check product, some folks want to remove as much subjectivity from the chlorine testing process as possible… and that means using meters to test chlorine residuals.

One example of a meter that some folks have turned to goes by the name of Extech (CL200) Exstik Direct Digital Reading Chlorine Meter and you can see a picture of that meter to the left.

The Extech CL200 Chlorine Testing Meter tests only for TOTAL chlorine, uses DPD as its reagent, requires roughly 2 minutes for testing, stores up to 15 readings internally, and detects total chlorine levels down to 0.01ppm (mg/L).

Extech, the manufacturer, claims the EPA has deemed the meter, with its associated DPD testing method, acceptable for wastewater compliance monitoring of Total Chlorine.

From what we can see on the IsoPureWater web site, this meter cannot used generic DPD tablets, DPD powder pillows, or DPD liquids designed for 10 mL sample sizes… and that means having fewer shopping options when the time comes to acquire replacement DPD reagents.

Not necessarily a show-stopper by any stretch of the imagination since a pack of 100 DPD reagent tablets for this meter costs under $30.

Definitely keep this meter in mind should you need a fast, compact meter for testing total chlorine levels in water.

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.