Montana State University |
Montana State University |
What to Test Drinking Water For
and Where to Get it Tested
By Jim Bauder
MSU Extension Soil and Water Quality Specialist
12/28/00BOZEMAN -- Springtime water runoff can bring occasional cloudiness to drinking water, which increases concern about water quality. In addition, MSU studies showing that Montana well water frequently has high nitrate levels also increases concern.
To determine whether you have any serious water quality problems, there are a few tests you can have done, says a Montana State University water quality specialist.
Learning what to test for and how to interpret test results are relatively easy, says Jim Bauder, Montana State University Extension soil and water quality specialist.
An important point about water is that what tastes bad does not necessarily make you sick, he adds.
Most undesirable materials in drinking water do not affect your health. These include dissolved salts, sediment and odor-producing agents. Those that affect health usually cause acute problems in a few hours or chronic problems, such as after drinking water daily for 70 years.
The best-known acute reactions to "bad water" are the intestinal problems caused by bacterial contamination. The symptoms are diarrhea, cramping and nausea.
Symptoms due to nitrates in water do not develop in a few hours or days, though its effects are felt sooner than the "lifetime" example above.
There actually are no proven cases of nitrate toxicity in humans, though there are studies associating nitrates with health problems. Nitrates therefore are suspected in a number of cases.
We know that nitrate toxicity progressively impairs the blood's capacity to carry oxygen. Since blood that carries oxygen is red, nitrate toxicity is named for the blue tone of low-oxygen blood and is known as "blue baby syndrome." However, high nitrate water also can aggravate heart problems and cause rapid heart beat. These conditions take some time to fully develop. The bluish cast of the syndrome does not occur until after half of a person's hemoglobin is impaired in its ability to carry oxygen.
That means if high nitrate water is identified, other drinking water options should be taken, but know that any damage is progressive and does not develop overnight.
Because nitrates and bacteria are not uncommon in Montana drinking water wells, Bauder suggests that a standard water test should include detecting both. Other standard tests should include pH, which is an index of acidity, and total dissolved solids, which is the same as testing electrical conductivity or salinity.
After those, if you want more information, Bauder says you could test for sodium, iron, calcium and magnesium (hardness), sulfates and carbonates, metals and lead.
Bauder recommends testing for bacteria, nitrates, pH and salinity. If bacterial contamination or nitrates are not present (the upper limit for nitrates in drinking water is 10 milligrams per liter), if the pH is between 6.0 and 8.5, and if total dissolved solids are less than 500 milligrams per liter, Bauder says he would consider the water acceptable.
Many county Extension offices have Merck nitrate-nitrogen test strips, which can be used to screen water at a cost of about 35¢ per sample. With this, a simple pocket meter to test for dissolved solids (about $40) and either a pocket pH meter (about $40) or pH test strips (about 12¢ per sample), you can quickly screen a sample of water for less than $1.
When taking a water sample, first choose a lab, then ask personnel there for sampling instructions, prices and turn-around time.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality in Helena maintains a list of "certified Montana laboratories" that are certified to do all or any of six analyses. The six tests are microbiological, nitrates, inorganic compounds; synthetic organic chemicals such as pesticides; radon, and volatile organic chemicals such as solvents. In several cases a lab can run other tests but is not certified for all tests in the category.
The following is a list of certified Montana laboratories, as of a reporting on April 1, 1999 provided by Craig Pagel, of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. The first five labs are certified to run only microbial tests. The other labs are certified to run other tests, designated as M (microbial), N (nitrates), I (inorganics), SOC (organics), R (radon), or VOC (volatile).
The two labs listed are certified to run all the tests are:
Labs certified only for microbial tests include:
Labs certified to do various tests include:
*If you represent a Montana Lab that is certified to do one of these tests and we have not listed you, please contact Bauder and Carol Flaherty using the email link below and we will be happy to add you to the list.
Send questions or comments to Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717 or to Bauder and Flaherty with this link: carolf@montana.edu.
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