Thus far we suspect that either water used to irrigate the apple orchards contained trace elements of arsenic or the arsenic came from residuals of pesticides that contained arsenic. While laws currently prohibit the use of pesticides that contain arsenic now, no such laws existed 10 or 20 years ago and the possibility that residuals from those pesticides still may linger in some of the trees and soil around the trees certainly exists.

Testing ground water for arsenic?

Well water experts and health officials suggest having one’s well water tested for basic drinking water quality parameters — including arsenic — at least once a year.

As environmental conditions change (i.e. seasons change, heavy amounts of rainfall, low amounts of rainfall, etc.) the aquifer levels change, as well. Those level changes can result in previously undisturbed pockets of arsenic buried deep in the ground finding their way into the water supply.

One can have a certified laboratory like National Testing Labs analyze their water for a wide range of potential well water contaminants (including arsenic), have a local lab come out and grab a sample for testing, or use one of the Arsenic Quick Water Test Kits.

Removing and/or reducing arsenic levels in water?

The average person can install a water filter in their home or business that can remove or reduce arsenic levels in their source water. Typically one can install a counter top, under sink or whole house system but make certain the model you select will work for your specific water quality situation before making a purchase.

Some water filters for arsenic (and many other water contaminants) may have performance problems if certain other water quality parameters like pH, alkalinity, total hardness, iron, copper, manganese, chlorine, etc. have strayed too far out of expected ranges.

Test Your Tap Water

For those who don’t already know, some people take the production of crystal clear, healthy and refreshing water very seriously. VERY seriously.

Some take it so seriously that they enter their expertly filtered drinking water into competitions and in this case, tap water produced by members of the Atlantic States Rural Water and Wastewater Association competed glass-to-glass for bragging rights, cash rewards and the chance to represent the region in a National competition.

So let’s stop with all the small talk and get right to the drinkin’…. drinkin’ WATER, that is.

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — How does your tap water stack up against the rest of the state? That’s what people at the annual drinking water taste test at the annual meeting of the Atlantic States Rural Water and Wastewater Association wanted to find out on Wednesday.

The water was judged on clarity, bouquet, cleansing properties and aftertaste.

…

Three judges blind-tested water from 12 water systems, six from chlorinated systems and six that were natural, in the state putting a lot of thought and tasting into each entry.

Scores were tabulated and winners were declared. The winner from the chlorinated category came from Sprague.

More testing, more tasting and more numbers later, the system from the Chatham Acres Senior Housing in East Hampton won in the natural filters division.

Then the two winners went head to head, or lip to lip and sip by sip.

“The winner had a little bit of a slight minerally taste,” said Ed Bailey, of Middlefield. “It almost seemed natural, whereas the other one had a soft taste to it.”

With the tension mounting an overall winner was declared — La Framboise Water Services, which handles the water at Chatham Acres. ( source )

So there you have it. Water testing of a far less technical nature, yet still a very important process since ‘chemically safe’ water tasting like raw sewage won’t get consumed by the average person.

Clean tasting water has zero contaminants, right?

Not by a long shot! Many very dangerous contaminants have no discernible taste or odor to them at levels potentially harmful to humans, pets, livestock, etc. Example: Bacteria in water.

Other contaminants may exist in water at levels low enough to escape detection, yet exposure to them over a prolonged period of time may result in serious harm to a person. Example: Arsenic in water.

Not us, but folks in the San Gabriel Valley region of California have something to think about… unfortunately.

The San Gabriel Mountains may be an unlikely site for a U.S. Navy torpedo lab, but 17,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated by torpedo tests is going to be hauled away from a lake in a canyon above Azusa, according to reports.

The Navy tested torpedo engines and shapes in the lake behind Morris Dam beginning in World War II. After 50 years, it closed the facility but left behind bad chemical residue.

Perchlorates, a cancer-causing type of rocket propellant, arsenic and other dangerous compounds coat rocks on the 20-acre test site on a peninsula in the lake, which is a domestic drinking water supply for the San Gabriel Valley. ( source )

Yeah… Not too many people will ever have to deal with the residuals of torpedo testing winding up in their drinking water supply, but plenty of other folks — whether they know it or not — really ought to keep a close watch on the quality of their drinking water.

Sneaky contaminants like arsenic, which occurs naturally in the environment, can show up in well water unannounced. Something as simple as a change in the weather can result in increased arsenic levels in well water. Therefore owners of wells owe it to themselves and everyone their wells serve to test for arsenic on a regular basis.

Most health officials suggest that private well owners have a thorough water quality analysis performed at least once a year by a certified water testing laboratory. Whether done by a local lab or a company like National Testing Labs, owners of private wells owe it to themselves and their families to have their water tested on a regular basis.

If only one person used and owned the well tainted with arsenic, the responsibility for periodic testing for arsenic in drinking water and remediation of the well water (if needed) would fall on the shoulders of the well owner. Open and shut case.

What happens, though, when a small collection of users share the well and a third party owns the well?

Situations just like that happen all the time and recently some State lawmakers in California have decided to see what they can do to get safe drinking water into the homes of people currently in those situations.

Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit and state Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez toured mobile home parks across the eastern Coachella Valley Saturday, to better grasp the widespread problem of arsenic-contaminated groundwater there.

“We’re here to work together to try to solve these problems,” Pérez told about 40 residents at the 80-unit Sunbird park in Thermal. Thousands of east valley residents live in areas that potentially contain hazardous levels of arsenic in their groundwater, a recent Desert Sun report found.

“It’s just a matter of the political will” to provide those residents with safe drinking water, Pérez said.

The strategy likely will involve a mix of short- and long-term water fixes, officials said.

At the 96-unit St. Anthony’s mobile home park in Mecca, officials showed Benoit and Pérez a “reverse-osmosis” filter — resembling a more advanced kind of tap-water purifier — that could be installed at each trailer to remove the arsenic.

The filters, priced around $135 to $300 apiece, could serve as short-term solutions in large parks like St. Anthony’s while valley officials consider a proposed pipeline that will serve many east valley parks roughly from Vista Santa Rosa to Mecca, estimated to cost $22 million.

Such a pipeline is years away, though, given the economic recession and budget deficits, officials said.

The reverse osmosis filters could be a permanent fix for the arsenic woes at smaller, remote parks to the southeast, where it’s not feasible to connect to the Coachella Valley Water District’s water supply, said Sergio Carranza, a longtime advocate for east valley water issues.

…

The local lawmakers also toured Desert Mobile Home Park, known as “Duroville,” where several thousand residents still drink water from wells testing at 26 parts per billion arsenic levels, officials there said. State and federal officials say water testing above 10 parts per billion is unsafe if ingested regularly over decades.

…

After the tour, Benoit and Pérez agreed that to solve the east valley’s arsenic problem, valley officials and water agencies first must unite under a regional water quality board.

That would give the area access to more grants and funding, to help ensure thousands of east valley residents have clean, arsenic-free drinking water, they said.

St. Anthony’s resident Francisco Mendez said he’s lived at the park for about 25 years, and he worries how the park’s arsenic-contaminated water might affect his four children, ages 5 months to 12 years.

Mendez said he was encouraged by the lawmakers’ visit and that safe conditions at the park are long overdue.

“We’re people who work in the fields, in construction,” Mendez said. “We pay taxes. We have rights.” ( source )

It may take a while for programs to get set up for those people and others like them but at least someone with a little political power has taken an interest in their situation. Hopefully the necessary changes in policy (and enforcement) won’t take too long and become a reality.

Testing Your Well Water for Arsenic

we cannot emphasize enough that the responsibility for the quality of the water coming from a private well rests solely with the well’s owner and that public policy set forth by the USEPA in no way, shape or form applies to private wells. In other words, if your well water has arsenic concentrations greater than 10ppb, no one from the government will send you a warning letter telling you about the problem.

The USEPA, health officials, and well water organizations all suggest that well owners have their water tested annually for contaminants — including arsenic.

Options for Arsenic in Well Water Testing

As usual we will tell you that no form of drinking water testing can, or should ever, take the place of drinking water testing performed by a certified water testing laboratory if you have good reason to suspect that dangerous levels of contaminants may have gotten into your water supply.

For all other times though, a simple at-home drinking water test kit from the Arsenic Quick line of field-ready arsenic test kits may work just fine.

Arsenic Quick test kits claim to have the shortest testing time on the market, an independently verified testing procedure, the simplest test instructions, and the safest reagents.

You can find more information about Arsenic Quick test kits on the following web sites:

• www.ArsenicQuick.com
• www.Arsenic-Test-Kit.com

According to the article, residents in the area have a particular interest in finding out if the arsenic levels in their drinking water falls within acceptable Federal guidelines. Apparently local arsenic levels had typically come in around 10ppb to 12ppb and although fine when the EPA deemed arsenic levels below 50ppb acceptable, the EPA’s lowering of the acceptable limit for arsenic in drinking water to 10ppb a few years ago meant some local water systems needed to install remediation devices in order to pass muster.

Now residents want to know if those arsenic removal devices work as planned and ultimately they want to know if they have ‘safe’ water to drink.

MIDLAND, BAY CITY, FLINT, HOWELL — The concerns have been everywhere when it comes to water quality. How clean is the water you cook with and drink? Residents along the Saginaw Bay have long been concerned that river dredging might stir up sediment, leading to water contamination. Over the last five years, Genesee County residents have been concerned over high arsenic levels. One way or another, water quality affects your life.

Most drinking water goes through some form of treatment by the time it reaches your faucet. However, changes in allowable arsenic levels through the years, and the potential for other elements to go undetected led us to see what may be in your drinking water.

NBC25 collected samples from a range of MidMichigan areas including Bay City, Midland and Flint. We took those samples to Water Tech Inc. in Howell to see what you may be putting in your body. ( source )

Unfortunately for us, the news station required its web site visitors to ‘tune in tonight’ for the results of the arsenic testing… and we don’t live in Michigan so we cannot tune in as they suggested. We can, however, make suggestions as to how homeowners can perform simple, at-home testing for arsenic in their drinking water. Keep in mind, though, that no at-home test kit for arsenic should ever take the place water analysis by a certified water testing laboratory.

Arsenic in Water Test Kit 0, 0.010, 0.025, 0.050, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0 ppb/cm² (IT-487928) Perform 300 Tests, Results in 12 Minutes	IT-487928
Arsenic in Water Test Kit 0, 0.3, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 20 & >20 ppb (481300-5) Perform 5 Tests, Results in 12 Minutes	481300-5
Arsenic in Water Test Kit 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 & >500 ppb (481396-2) Perform 2 Tests, Results in 12 Minutes	481396-2
Arsenic in Water Test Kit 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 & >500 ppb (481396-5) Perform 5 Tests, Results in 12 Minutes	481396-5
Arsenic in Water Test Kit <1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 20, 25, 30, 40, >50, >80, >120, >160 ppb (481303) Perform 50 Tests, Results in 14 Minutes	481303
Arsenic in Water Test Kit <1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 20, 25, 30, 40, >50, >80, >120, >160 ppb (481303-5) Perform 5 Tests, Results in 14 Minutes	481303-5
Arsenic in Water Test Kit <2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30, 40, 45 & >50 ppb (481297-2) Perform 2 Tests, Results in 12 Minutes	481297-2
Arsenic in Water Test Kit <2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30, 40, 45 & >50 ppb (481297-I) Perform 50 Tests, Results in 12 Minutes	481297-I

What is Arsenic and Where Does It Come From?

Free arsenic which can adversely affect human health comes from a reaction between certain types of igneous (volcanic) rock and oxygen when a water table (aquifer) drops. This reaction liberates ‘free’ arsenic and once the water table rises again, that ‘free’ arsenic gets carried away by the ground water.

What About Surface Water? Can Arsenic Get Into Surface Water?

Many bodies of surface water get fed by run off from streams and tributaries which get their water originally from underground sources. Additionally we must not forget that “fly ash containing arsenic can be a potential source of contamination to both surface water and ground water.” ( source )

How Can Private Individuals Test Their Water for Arsenic?

Yes they can, but please keep in mind that no at-home drinking water test kit for arsenic will suffice if you need a definitive answer as to whether or not your drinking water conatins arsenic. Only water analysis performed by a certified laboratory will provide you with those sorts of answers when dealing with water quality issues which can directly affect your health.

Why bother using an at-home test kits for arsenic in drinking water? Simple: Performing a simple screening for contaminants on your own between certified water tests greatly decreases your risk of exposure to harmful contaminats like arsenic.

Nationally recognized organizations such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Well Owners Organization suggest testing for drinking water contamination on a regular basis, and not just when an event such as flood takes place.

Arsenic Quick Home Water Quality Test Kit

The kit above has a detection range of 0.0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.06, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, <0.5, <0.5 ppm (mg/L) and you may also use this kit for determining the arsenic concentration of soil. With a total test time of just 12 minutes, this inexpensive (< $20 USD) home water test kit makes testing well water, groundwater, surface water and all forms of drinking water a breeze!

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping build water treatment systems that will reduce arsenic levels in water used by thousands of Rio Rancho and Bernalillo residents.

The Corps says the systems are designed to be a relatively inexpensive way water utilities can reduce arsenic levels from the old federal standard of 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.

The agency has spent $9 million for each community as part of a cost-sharing agreement. Still, officials say there is $24 million worth of work to do.

Arsenic occurs naturally in volcanic soils, which are common in New Mexico. It leaches from the soil into groundwater, the main source of drinking water for many towns and rural residents in New Mexico and other parts of the West. ( source )

While the residents of those communities may soon have nothing to worry about regarding arsenic in their groundwater and drinking water, what about you? Do you have arsenic in your drinking water? If you cannot answer that question, you may want to either have your water tested by a certified laboratory or use an at-home drinking water test kit for arsenic as a screening method:

Arsenic Quick Home Water Quality Test Kit

The kit above has a detection range of 0.0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.06, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, >0.5, >0.5 ppm (mg/L) and you may also use this kit for determining the arsenic concentration of soil. With a total test time of just 12 minutes, this inexpensive (< $30 USD) home water test kit makes testing well water, groundwater and drinking water for arsenic with EPA/ETV Test Verified Performance accuracy as easy as it will ever get — unless you get someone else to do the testing for you.  😛

Study: Possible diabetes link to arsenic in water

“CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — A new analysis of government data is the first to link low-level arsenic exposure, possibly from drinking water, with type 2 diabetes, researchers say.

The study’s limitations make more research necessary. And public water systems were on their way to meeting tougher U.S. arsenic standards as the data were collected.

Still, the analysis of 788 adults’ medical tests found a nearly fourfold increase in the risk of diabetes in people with low arsenic concentrations in their urine compared with people with even lower levels.

Research outside the United States has linked high levels of arsenic in drinking water with diabetes. It’s the link at low levels that’s new.” ( source )

Announcements about arsenic in water such as this one by the American Medical Association serve as strong, compelling proof that the amount of arsenic in our drinking water does matter and that it needs monitoring at regular intervals.

Fact: Arsenic levels in groundwater change as the water table rises and falls.

Fact: Operators of public water systems must test the arsenic levels in the drinking water they produce and report those levels to the Government on a very regular basis — or face serious legal and financial consequences.

Fact: Owners of private wells have no compelling legal reason to test their water for arsenic or that matter, anything. Responsibility for the safety of their drinking water lies squarely in their laps.

Given that arsenic levels may vary greatly from week to week and possibly even day to day, Water Testing Blog suggest that owners of private well heed the advice of organizations such as the National Ground Water Association and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and test their well water (or get their well water tested by a certified lab) at least once a year — and definitely make arsenic testing a part of that routine.

Home Drinking Water Test Kits for Arsenic

While do-it-yourself home drinking water test kits for arsenic such as the EPA/ETV Test Verified^® Arsenic Quick^TM do not take the place of water tests performed by certified laboratories, they do provide fast, reliable results in the field and work quite well as on-site screening tools for arsenic in drinking water.

• 481396-2, Arsenic Quick, 0 – 500 ppb, 12 minute test time, 2 tests
• 481396-5, Arsenic Quick, 0 – 500 ppb, 12 minute test time, 5 tests
• 481297-2, Arsenic Low Range Quick, 2 – 300 ppb, 12 minute test time, 2 tests
• 481303-5, Arsenic Quick II, 1 – 160 ppb, 14 minute test time, 5 tests