The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) suggests the following:

“NGWA recommends routine annual maintenance checks to ensure the proper operation of the well and prolong its years of service as well as to monitor water quality. NGWA also recommends that you test your water whenever there is a change in taste, odor, or appearance, or when the system is serviced.”

The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) goes on to specify that well owners should try to use only the services of licensed/certified well water contractors.

Regarding the parameters the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) believes a well owner ought to test on a yearly basis, they give the following advice:

“A test of water for coliform bacteria and nitrates, and anything else of local concern. Other typical additional tests are those for iron, manganese, water hardness, sulfides, and other water constituents that cause problems with plumbing, staining, water appearance, and odor. Changes in these constituents also may indicate changes in your well or local ground water. Additional tests may be recommended if water appears cloudy or oily, if bacterial growth is visible on fixtures, or water treatment devices are not working as they should. Check with your water well contractor, state department of natural resources, or local health department for information on local water quality issues.”

How Can I Find a Certified Well Water Contractor in My Area?

Try using the NGWA Certified Well Water Contractor Lookup tool or you can also find a listing of certified water testing labs in your area on the Environmental Protection Agency Safe Water web site.

So Certified Well Water Testing Once a Year is Enough?

Well water testing ought to take place at least once a year and well owners should use professionally certified personnel for that purpose. That does NOT mean, however, that well owners ought to let their guard down the rest of the year.

Owning a well implies responsibility for the quality of the water coming out of the well so well owners may want to consider using simple, do-it-yourself home well water test kits from time-to-time as a secondary means of checking the quality of their well water.

While home well water test kits cannot and should NEVER take the place of the annual testing done by professionally certified well contractors, they do offer well owners additional peace of mind when used in conjunction with professional well water testing.

You can use the following links to find home well water test kits for the following parameters:

• coliform bacteria
• nitrates/nitrites
• total iron
• manganese
• water hardness
• hydrogen sulfide
• pH
• total alkalinity

Home Water Test Kit for Coliform Bacteria

Well owners may also want to consider using multi-paramater home and well and water test kits such as:

• WaterWorks Well Water Check
• WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit
• COMPLETE Water Quality Test Kit
• Home Water Quality Test Kit

Home and Well Water Test Kit

To Recap:  The responsibility of making sure the water from your well poses no danger to you or anyone else rests solely in your hands. . . and you DO wash your hands to make sure they’re clean before you eat, right? So… shouldn’t you also make sure your well is clean before you drink from it?

But, did you know that in many states, once a well receives the official ‘OK’ from a certified lab, they do not have to get check again — possibly EVER? Most states do NOT require well owners to have their water tested once it passes an initial test and all responsibility for illness, death or disease caused by the consumption of water from that well falls on the shoulders of the well owner.

As a general rule, Health Officials and Water Quality Professionals ‘suggest’ that well owners test their own well water (or have it tested) at least once a year.

Why do health officials and organizations suggest well water testing on a yearly basis?

The level of water in the aquifer where a well draws its water from changes frequently with large amounts of rainfall or extended periods of drought. As it changes it possibly picks up new contaminants that form when certain types of rock either get exposed to oxygen or, in some cases, water for the first time in a long time.

As an example, Free Dissolved Arsenic can enter an aquifer after igneous (volcanic) rock gets covered back up by water after exposure to oxygen during a previous period of drought. A well owner would not know of a potentially harmful arsenic level in their well water unless they tested for arsenic periodically.

Want more information on arsenic in drinking water and arsenic in water test kits? Take a look at www.ArsenicQuick.com.

Can Well Owners Test Their Own Well Water Accurately and Easily?

Absolutely! Innovations in test strip technology from companies like Industrial Test Systems, Inc. (SenSafe) have made at-home well water testing as simple as dipping a strip in a sample of the well water, removing it, waiting a few seconds for colors to develop, and then comparing the color(s) of the test pad(s)/area(s) on a provided color chart.

A great example of such a simple, do-it-yourself, at-home well water test kit goes by the name of Well Water Check Home Test Kit and it contains (2) tests for Iron, (2) tests for Total Hardness, (2) tests for pH, and (2) tests for Nitrogen/Nitrite as Nitrogen. (see below)

Well Water Check Home Test Kit

For those who want to dig a little deeper into the quality of their well water, the WaterWorks^TM 9-Way Test Kit quickly and accurately reports results for pH, Total Alkalinity, Nitrate/Nitrite as Nitrogen, Total Hardness, Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Iron, and Copper. (see below)

WaterWorks^TM 9-Way Home Well Water Test Kit

Still looking to test a few more parameters? The COMPLETE Water Test Kit offers well owners the ability to quickly and accurately test for Bacteria, Nitrates, Nitrites, Hydrogen Sulfide, Total Hardness, Total Alkalinity, Total Chlorine, Free Chlorine, Chloride, Copper, Sulfate, Iron, and pH. COMPLETE Water Test Kit gives its users rapid, comprehensive water test results at an affordable cost — MSRP of around $25 USD. (see below)

COMPLETE Home Well Water Test Kit

And finally, for the well owner who wants to test their own well water as thoroughly as possible without having to buy electronic meters and/or send their well water out for certified laboratory analysis, you have the recently released Water Quality Test Kit. It may have a simple name, but it packs a powerful well water testing punch: 2) tests for Iron, (2) tests for Copper, (2) tests for Chloride, (2) tests for Nitrate/Nitrite as Nitrogen, (2) tests for Total Chlorine, (2) tests for Total Hardness, (2) tests for Free Chlorine, (2) tests for Sulfate, (2) tests for pH, (2) tests for Total Alkalinity, (2) tests for Hydrogen Sulfide, (1) Pesticide in Water test, (1) Lead in Water test, and (1) 48 Hour Presence/Absence test for Coliform Bacteria. If you’re looking for a do-it-all, do-it-yourself home water test that won’t break the bank, you should definitely take a long look at the aptly named Water Quality Test Kit — MSRP of around $34 USD.

Home Well Water Quality Test Kit

So there you have it, folks. . . Several fast, accurate and easy ways to test the quality of your water that won’t break the bank or require you to break out your old high school Chemistry book or borrow your son or daughter’s Chemistry book.

As usual, we suggest you visit the United States Environmental Protection Agency Safe Drinking Water for a detailed list of acceptable contaminant levels in potable water. We have also taken the liberty of posting/linking both the Primary Drinking Water Standards and Secondary Drinking Water Standards on this site.