Hello, Marilyn, and thank you for your inquiry. The SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit contains the following:

• 2 Alkalinity, Total
• 1 Bacteria,Coliform in Water
• 2 Chloride
• 2 Chlorine, Free
• 2 Chlorine, Total
• 2 Copper, Total
• 2 Hardness, Total
• 2 Hydrogen Sulfide
• 2 Iron
• 1 Lead
• 2 Nitrate/Nitrite, as Nitrogen
• 1 Pesticide
• 2 ph
• 2 Sulfate

The kit does not contain tests for manganese but that kit is available on its own. We do carry a manganese test as a standalone kit, though.

Regarding magnesium, that value is included in the total hardness reading given by the total hardness test included with the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit. Note: The test gives a sum of calcium hardness and magnesium hardness levels, not individual concentrations.

And finally, regarding performing testing for the purpose of determining the quality of your water so you can figure out the best treatment option, if you suspect that your water has potentially significant problems and/or health risks, then home water test kits should serve as a preliminary tests only and you should probably use the services of a certified water testing laboratory before investing in a water filtration system.

If you do not wish to use the services of a local water testing laboratory (which your local health department could help you locate), then companies like National Testing Laboratories offer mail-in water testing services that provide results from a certified water testing laboratory usually within 10 business days.

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

Hello, Kyle, and thank you for your inquiry.  You raised a few interesting points and asked a few interesting questions... to which we have several (hopefully helpful) responses:

• General Metals Testing Approach -- This approach will give you a 30,000-ft view of your metal problem since several different metals may resemble the 'taste of iron' when dissolved in drinking water.  We suggest using a general metals testing product such as the SenSafe Heavy Metals Check which detects a broad spectrum of dissolved heavy metals and gives a total concentration of all the metals it detects (Note: The product will not identify individual metals or tell you how much of each metal it detected in a water sample).
• Focusing on Iron -- If you feel certain you have iron in your water, then the WaterWorks Visual Iron Test Kit may work well for you.  It differs from most iron tests in that it detects 'total iron' by converting Fe+3 iron to Fe+2 so the test reagent can detect it.  Most pool test kits we have seen, unless you get into troubleshooting versions, will only detect Fe+2.  Please note, however, that if your water does not contain iron at all (in either form), this test will also show blank results.
• Thorough (Laboratory) Well Water Analysis -- As a general rule, we believe newly dug wells should get tested for a full battery of tests before getting put into use.  Companies like National Testing Laboratories offer a number of mail-in water testing packages and typically provide results in about a week to ten days. Before running off and ordering the most expensive test package possible, though, you may want to contact your local Department of the Environment and ask them what sort of well water contaminants or issues they know of in your area... and choose a testing package based on the information they provide.

Once you get your iron in water and/or metals in water problem resolved, please keep one thing in mind: Many contaminants in well water -- some of them harmful -- have no associated taste, appearance or odor.

Only periodic testing of the water will let you know if a water quality aspect of your well water has changed.

Lead in Water Test

Water Metals Test Strips

Total Iron Visual Test Kit

Thank you, 1228sol, for your inquiry. Each WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit tests (1) one time for the following:

• (1) x Bacteria Test
• (1) x Lead Test
• (1) x Pesticide Test
• (1) x Nitrate Test
• (1) x Nitrite Test
• (1) x pH Test
• (1) x Hardness Test
• (1) x Chlorine Test
• (1) x Copper Test
• (1) x Iron Test

If you want a test kit that performs more than one test per water quality parameter, we suggest looking at the COMPLETE Water Quality Test Kit or the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit. Both of those products include (2) two tests for most of the tests they can perform.

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.

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.

Well Water Test Kit for Coliform Bacteria

Well Water Test Kit for Nitrates and Nitritesa

Lead in Water Test

Water Metals Test Strips

Total Iron Visual Test Kit

Total Copper in Water Test

Chromium in Water Test

Mercury in Water Test

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.

• Measuring levels from 0-500 ppm (mg/L), Chloride Check promises to replace conventional measuring techniques in situations where meters or traditional wet tests would prove too cumbersome.
   
• Detection Range: 0, 50, 100, 250, 500 ppm (mg/L)
   
• Each Bottle Contains 50 Tests
   
• Each Test Takes Just 40 Seconds to Perform
   
• Product Manufactured in the United States by Industrial Test Systems, Inc.

Why Test for Chlorides?

In recent years scientists studying the effects of certain industrial activities have loosely linked changes in chloride concentrations found in bodies of water (both above and below ground) near those activities to those industrial activities. Accordingly, researchers have determined that extreme changes in chloride concentrations found in a water supply definitely merit further investigation and more in-depth testing of the water supply.

As an example, some researchers studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing (aka: fracking, the practice of injecting water an chemicals deep into the Earth at high pressures to liberate natural gas from shale formations) on surface and ground water believe that sudden changes in chloride levels may occur as a direct or indirect result of hydraulic fracturing and suggest performing other testing if a private well owner notices a change in chloride levels in his/her well water.