Flooding, whether extensive or localized, may compromise water quality in drinking water wells.

What if my well never got submerged by flood waters?  Even though your well may not have undergone severe flooding itself, you should not assume that it will provide safe, clean drinking water.  When floods occur, contaminated surface water may indirectly find its way into the aquifer (underground water source) from which your well draws its water.

Under normal circumstances, surface water creeps slowly downward through the ground and as it does so it undergoes a sort of natural filtering by the elements it passes through.  When floods occur, that filtration process may get bypassed altogether, as in cases where a damaged wellhead tapping into the aquifer allows contaminated surface water to shoot rapidly downward into aquifer by way of a compromised water well.

After flood waters recede, check your water supply to see if any of the following conditions exist:

• Has the quality of your water changed (odor, color or taste)?
• Did the flood waters come close to your water source?
• Did your well actually get flooded?

If your particular situation meets any of the above criteria and you suspect that the quality of your drinking water may have gotten compromised, you should seriously consider taking the following steps:

• Immediately stop using the well water for human consumption and use only bottled or boiled water for things like drinking, cooking, and washing.
• At the very least have your well tested for coliform bacteria and should the test come back positive, definitely have your well disinfected.  Then test, again, to make certain the disinfection process worked.

WaterSafe City Water Test Kit

COMPLETE Water Quality Test Kit - 13 Parameters

COMPLETE Water Test Kit w/ Lead & Pesticide Tests

This free water test kit offer comes to you courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development through the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program with the Allegan Conservation District.

Why test for nitrates?

While not considered a substantial health risk in lower quantities and concentrations, as they occur naturally in many foods and get used to preserve and cure meat products, but concentrations in excess of 10 mg/L (1 mg/L = 1 part per million) in drinking water pose a health risk to young children under the age of 6 months old, expecting mothers, nursing mothers, and the elderly.

Why 10 mg/L?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency set the ‘action’ limit for nitrates in drinking water at 10 mg/L, meaning a public water system would need to immediately take steps to reduce nitrate concentrations in the water

Due to most water well contamination by nitrates and nitrites coming from surface runoff, shallow wells therefore stand the greatest chance of having higher than acceptable levels of nitrates and nitrites. Health officials and well water professionals typically suggest that all drinking water obtained from wells get tested annually for — at the very least — nitrates, nitrites, and coliform bacteria.

Also, if you just had a new well installed, or work done on your existing water well, you should have the water tested prior to using water from the well for drinking or cooking purposes.

For more information on the free water testing offer in Allegan County, Michigan, you can visit their web site www.allegancd.org or you can contact Ana at at 269-673-6940, ext. 5.

Source http://www.mlive.com/wayland/index.ssf/2016/04/free_water_testing_will_be_off.html

Hello, Margaret, and thank you for your inquiry. Of all the at-home drinking water test kits that we carry, the one named SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit offers the largest different tests and its WaterWorks and SenSafe brands of included water test strips have an excellent reputation -- and are manufactured here in the United States.

If you want a more complete testing of your well water, or have good reason to suspect contamination, we suggest taking a look at mail-in test kits from National Testing Laboratories. In particular, the Well-Check Water Testing Package covers a great number of the possible contaminants a person may possibly find in their well water.

Today, 9/25/2014, the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District will offer free well water testing for nitrate levels in drinking water.  Testing will take place in the Science Lab of Carlisle High School from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Carlisle High School is located at 250 Jamaica Road.

Visit the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District on line for additional information regarding this event or any environmental questions you may have.

Unable to attend the free water testing event?

For those with other plans or who live outside the area, you can always perform nitrate testing on your own using products such as the  WaterWorks Nitrate & Nitrite Test Strip product.

Where to go:  New Mexico Environment Department Field Office located at 406 N. Guadalupe, Suite C, in Carlsbad.

What to do:  Officials would greatly prefer that residents stop in to pick up specialized water test sample collection bottles for use when collecting well water samples.  Use of the recommended containers helps to better guarantee more accurate test results -- especially for the bacteria test.

Submitted drinking water samples will get tested for E. Coli bacteria, flouride, iron, and nitrates.

If you live in the Carlsbad, New Mexico area and would like additional information on this free water testing program, officials request that you call call the environment department at 575-885-9023.

What if we do not live in Carlsbad, NM and want to have our well water tested?

First, we suggest contacting your local health department and/or department of environmental conservation and asking them if they have any discounted testing available or if they can recommend a local laboratory certified to test drinking and well water.

If that fails, then a company such as National Testing Labs has certifications to test drinking water in most states and offers a variety of mail-in water testing services.

In our experience 'deep' wells tend to have better quality water than 'shallow' wells which have a greater risk of seeing contamination from pollution activity on the surface.... but that does not mean contaminants cannot infiltrate deep wells, too.

We suggest starting your investigation by contacting your local health department and asking them for information on contaminants they have heard about affecting the quality of well water in the area.

If they do not immediately warn you of known 'issues', then a kit such as the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit, WaterWorks COMPLETE Water Test Kit, or WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit should work just fine.

If, however, your local health department did know of 'issues', we suggest having your water tested by a professional laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories that offers much more comprehensive testing packages.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Office of Water Quality (OWQ) recently announced that it would offer residential well owners the opportunity to have their water tested for several critical water quality parameters as part of a statewide Ground Water Monitoring Network.

Tests included in the free well water testing program include testing for: metals, nitrate-nitrite, VOCs, SOCs, alkalinity, pesticide degradates, and other general chemistry indicators. The testing will get conducted free of charge for up to 400 qualified private water well owners across the state.

Eligibility for the program: Each well must be get registered in the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) water well database and each well must have an untreated spigot located outdoors that IDEM staff can easily access.

If interested in having your well water tested as part of this program, please visit http://www.in.gov/idem/6892.htm or contact Kevin Spindler by phone at 317-234-3243 for additional information.

Why test your well water?

We routinely get emails from folks asking why they should test their well water periodically. They say things like ‘my water looks fine’ or ‘it tastes the same as it has for years’ and we respond by telling them potentially harmful levels of contaminants such as coliform bacteria, nitrates/nitrites, heavy metals, arsenic, etc. impart little or no taste, smell or color to well water… and can infiltrate underground water sources without warning.

Roughly 96 percent of the U.S. rural population relies upon ground water, the water filling the cracks and porous areas between rock and sand, for fresh drinking water. Additionally, in the United States approximately 79.6 billion gallons per day of fresh groundwater get used by the public for irrigation, watering livestock, manufacturing processes, mining operations, thermoelectric power generation, and other purposes. ( source )
In Illinois: Thanks to sponsorship by the Central Regional Groundwater Committee, the Tazewell County Health Department, Peoria County Health Department, Woodford County Health Department, and the Mason Soil and Water Conservation will offer free private water testing for private well owners in Tazewell, Peoria, Woodford and Mason Counties.

The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) suggests routine well maintenance checks to help ensure water quality and proper operation of the well. As part of regular well maintenance, the NGWA also suggests that owners of prove water wells have their water tested (at least) annually or when well owner’s notice a change in their water’s taste, color, odor, or appearance.

Well water also should get tested in the event that the well head gets submerged by surface water (i.e. during a flood) or after the well head gets unsealed for service work.

Private well owners may collect free sample bottles from the Tazewell County Health Department, Peoria County Health Department, Woodford County Health Department or Mason County Soil and Water Conservation and drop off samples for free water testing between 8:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. on March 9th, 10th and 11th during Groundwater Awareness Week. Samples will get tested for nitrates and total coliform bacteria. This offer available only to private well owners.

This announcement comes as part of the Department's recognition of March 9-15 as National Groundwater Awareness Week in the Granite State (and the rest of the country!)

Environmental officials in the state estimate that more than 40 percent of New Hampshire residents get their drinking water from private wells. Those same folks ALSO say many of those wells may contain unhealthy levels of naturally-occurring Arsenic Test Kits, radon, and/or other contaminants like Water Metals Test Kits.

In the case of contaminants like arsenic and radon, those contaminants cannot get detected by taste, odor or the appearance of the water.  Therefore only testing will alert a private well owner to the presence of those contaminants.

Officials and well water professionals recommend that well owners have their water tested regularly (most agree that annually is a good idea) by an accredited lab and:

• When well water develops an unusual or different color, taste or appearance
• After service gets performed on the well or well head
• After an event such as flooding causes the well head to become submerged under surface water

Looking for a water testing laboratory in the New Hampshire area?  The DES website contains a list of accredited laboratories at www.des.nh.gov.