Safe Drinking Water: Testing Your Water

Aisha Ikramuddin
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

 Should you test your water?

Even if your water is purified by your water company, by the time it comes through your faucet, it may have accumulated bacteria and lead from the pipes through which it is carried.

Some cities, like Boston, still have lead pipes in service lines. Some PVC pipes made before 1977 may leach vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, into water as well, as was discovered in Troy, Kansas in 1998. Within your own home, you may have lead pipes or pipes soldered with lead.

Bacteria can grow in your hot water tank, the water tank on the roof of apartment buildings or reservoirs between the water treatment plant and your home.

After you obtain your Consumer Confidence Report, you can test the water coming from your faucet to be sure. If you have a private well, you should test your water at least yearly.

Water testing can get expensive, though, since there are so many substances you could test for. Here are a few suggestions to help you narrow down the list:

Everyone should test their tap water for lead, regardless of the age of your house. Some older homes may have lead pipes within the home, and some cities, including Washington D.C., Boston and New York, still have lead pipes in their system.

If your water company is not testing for some substances that you are concerned about, you may want to have your water tested for those substances.

If your water company is using chlorine for disinfection, but does not check THM levels, test for them yourself. (Chlorine reacts with organic chemicals left in the water by soil and decaying vegetation, forming a group of chemicals called trihalomethanes (THMs), which may cause miscarriages.)

If you live in an agricultural area, test for pesticides. Some laboratories have pesticide package deals.

If you live in a heavily industrialized area or near a waste dump, look up your region on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HUD E-Maps. Also search the Environmental Defense Fund’s website, Chemical Scorecard, by zip code for data on toxic releases from 17,000 sites in all 50 states.

Private well owners should test for nitrates and bacteria. For more information, see EPA's website for private well owners.

You can test the water coming from your tap for lead and chemicals by sending samples to an EPA-certified laboratory, such as Suburban Water Testing Lab or National Testing Labs. The EPA’s Safe Drinking Water website can give you the names of other labs in your area. You can also obtain water test kits for about $100 to $150. For these kits, you simply collect water from your taps and send it back to the laboratory as specified in the directions.

If you find that the levels of any contaminants are high, then you need to take action. Depending on the pollutants involved, your next steps may vary. While you may simply install a water filter, you may also need to look for lead pipes in your home or look into whether there may be lead lines that feed into your house. In other cases, you may work to end pollution at the source in your community.

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