Water quality testing is a specific but straightforward test that looks for toxins and pollutants including chlorine, lead, and coliform bacteria in a home’s water supply. Testing can also indicate chemical pH abnormalities as well as other characteristics. Testing confirms that the water in your home is drinkable and safe to use on a daily basis.
What Can Testing Tell Us?
- Dangerous levels of bacteria, such as E. coli and coliform;
- Elevated levels of nitrates and nitrites from fertilizers that leach into the groundwater
- fluoride levels
- mineral contaminants, such as iron and arsenic
- heavy metal contamination, including lead
Water quality should be tested in public and private water supplies.
Contaminants and pathogens must be monitored and managed because no natural water source is fully free of pollutants. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established criteria for the safe intake of 80 pollutants with the passing of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974.
Water treatment and testing plants are located throughout the water system. These safeguards, however, can and do fail.
How Often to Test Water Quality Supply?
If the water is from a good source (A local Company abiding by the State and National quality standards) and the test performed during the inspection doesn’t show alarming signs of contamination, then there shouldn’t be a reason to re-test the water quality for at leat a decade.
However, if the water supply is coming from a source that’s privately owned, then the water quality should be tested regularly because of the different elements that can contaminate or affect the quality of the water supply. Once a year is a good frequency for this type of scenario.