Idaho Recommends Well Owners Have Their Water Tested

I came across an article posted by Laurie Boston of the Southwest District Heath in Idaho entitled, “It’s important to test your well water” and thought it brings home the point very well.

The Governor of  Idaho, Butch Otter, has reached out to the well owners of the state to encourage them to have their well water tested on an annual basis.  To help reinforce the importance of doing this, he has proclaimed the week of March 9-15, 2014 as Ground Water Awareness Week.

Idaho residents, nearly 95%, get most of their drinking water from ground-water source. Most of these sources are from private wells.

The Director of Environmental Health Services for Southwest District Health, David Loper, has stated that “with well ownership comes the responsibility to test your well water by a state-certified lab each year and ensure all potential contaminants on your property are kept away from your drinking source. Water from private wells is not regulated by any public entity or monitored and tested.”  In addition to annual testing, he also recommends having your well water tested “whenever there is a change in taste, odor, appearance or when the system is serviced.”

We believe the same thing and it goes with our motto of “Take control and manage the quality of your drinking water.”

In this article it mentions several contaminants that you should consider testing for such as coliform bacteria, nitrates, arsenic, and fluoride among others.

For many homeowners, when they go to a local certified lab, they may find the cost to test the logical suite of contaminants that can affect the health of their family is pretty high.  Of course, while no one wants to ignore making sure their well water is safe to drink, cost may deter them from testing on an annual basis.

So, we have an idea that has worked well for many of the well owners we service.

Even though we are not certified in Idaho, our lab follows the same EPA and standard testing methods as the certified labs in the state. But, our costs are lower and we pass these savings onto our customers.

How are we able to do this?  The answer is:

• We let you collect your own water samples and send them to us in a test kit we provide to you.
• We have a standard set of contaminants that we test for which saves us setup time.
• We have an automated tracking system that adds efficiency to our testing process.

So what happens if we find a problem with a customers water? The customer, if they want, can then have a local certified lab test for just the contaminant we find is high. However, most of our customers don’t do this, they just treat the water using recommendations we provide them to resolve the problem.

We don’t want well owners to ignore the annual water testing regimin suggested by the Governor because it’s vital to the health of families on well water. Our Bang-for-the-Buck Essential Indicators Water Test is  affordable and gives the well owner the information they need to maintain the safety of their well water.

You can read more by going to www.DrinkingWaterSpecialists.com

The original article can be found here.