A recent article ( Hillsborough drilling wells to monitor water quality near sinkhole ) from the Tampa Bay area talked about increased monitoring efforts at a landfill taking place because an unexpected sinkhole made an appearance in the landfill.

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Officials already had testing wells in place around the landfill, per standard operating procedures, to monitor the quality of groundwater under and the landfill and around its clay containment ‘walls’, but they feared the sinkhole and possibly other, yet undetected abnormalities under or near the landfill may have caused damage to the clay containment ‘walls’ and provided an avenue of escape for potential drinking water contaminants.

By testing the water immediately around the landfill officials hope they will learn far enough in advance of a problem that they will have time to react before contaminated groundwater reaches access water wells servicing surrounding communities.

We always like to hear about efforts to protect community water supplies — especially when they happen before a Court of Law steps in!

What could local residents test for?

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Honestly, without knowing what kind of landfill the article talked about, we cannot say. We would suspect, though, that occasional TDS, bacteria, pH, and heavy metals testing would work well as a starting point since unusual results of each/any of those tests could indicate a more serious well water pollution problem.

As always, and as we will continue to say until we turn blue in the face, nothing — and we do mean nothing at all — takes the place of water testing performed by a certified drinking water testing laboratory.

If for any reason an at-home drinking water test kit gives reason to suspect contamination, we suggest seeking advice from a qualified water testing laboratory.