water testing

Before you purchase any water treatment equipment, have your water tested by a Homestead System water treatment professional in your home or at a certified water testing laboratory in your State if you feel you have a water quality problem. A Homestead System dealer is ready to test your water for pH, hardness, and iron. Depending upon the region, additional tests may be required like nitrates, chlorine, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), etc. to completely understand your water problem.

Private Water Systems:
If you have a private well, regular water quality testing is very important. Many contaminants cannot be identified by taste or odor, making it difficult for you to know if the water quality of your well has changed. EPA does not regulate private wells and many states and towns do not require periodic sampling of private wells after they are initially installed. This makes it the responsibility of you, the homeowner to periodically test your well for contamination. So, private, individual wells are the responsibility of the homeowner.

To help protect your well, here are some steps you can take:

• Protect the area near your wellhead against groundwater intrusion, accidental chemical and pesticide spills.
• Have your water tested periodically. The US EPA recommends water be tested every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids, and pH levels. If you suspect other contaminants, test for those.
• Always use a state certified laboratory that conducts drinking water tests. Since testing for many contaminants is expensive, spend some time identifying potential problems.

Testing more than once a year may be warranted in special situations:

• someone in your household is pregnant or nursing
• there are unexplained illnesses in the family
• your neighbors find a dangerous contaminant in their water
• you note a change in water taste, odor, color or clarity
• there is a spill of chemicals or fuels into or near your well
• when you replace or repair any part of your well system

Public Water Systems:
If you want to know what contaminants are in your drinking water, check your annual water quality report from your water supplier or call the water supplier directly. If you want to have additional tests on your water, the EPA recommends that you use a laboratory certified by the state. Call your State's certification officer or get a list of certified labs.

Public drinking water systems are regulated by EPA and states through the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. Public drinking water systems provide drinking water to 90 percent of Americans. These water systems are publicly-owned or privately-owned and by definition serve at least 25 people or 15 service connections for at least 60 days per year.

Public Water System Violation History:
If you are on a public water sysytem you may want to know the violations of the EPA's drinking water regulations reported to the USEPA. A great source of this information is in the Safe Drinking Water Information System, SDWIS. This database will help you to find your drinking water supplier and view its violations and enforcement history since 1993.

The EPA has stringent sampling and reporting mandates for public water systems. Through the Public Water System Supervision program, EPA implements and enforces drinking water standards to protect public health. In the "Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: 2004 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report - Fact Sheet". Published in December 2006 the USEPA reported progress towards these mandates. It appears there is room for improvement because in 2004:

• 41,310 public water systems had health, significant monitoring, and/or reporting violations.
• 16,688 PWS were designated by the EPA as "significant noncompliers". Over 90% of these systems served fewer than 3,300 users.
• 36% of the significant noncompliers, SNC, were newly identified as SNCs in 2004.
• Approximately 22,500 of the over 106,000 non-community water systems had significant violations.