My Water Test Results 2025

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates public water systems, the responsibility for ensuring the safety and consistent supply of water from a private well belongs to the well owner-in this case me. I test my well water annually. An easy way to do this is to participate in the Virginia Tech Extension Virginia Household Water Quality Program (VHWQP). This year the program expanded the number of  contaminants tested for. Not all of the substances tested for had established health standards.

Under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA  established regulatory limits (standards) on over 100 chemical and microbial contaminants in drinking water.   These contaminants include bacteria from human waste, industrial discharge streams (of great concern back in 1974 when the SDWA was first created) and water disinfection by-products and distribution system contaminants. They also regulate naturally occurring contaminants. For each of these contaminants, EPA sets a legal limit, called a maximum contaminant level (MCL). In addition, EPA sets secondary standards for less hazardous substances based on aesthetic characteristics of taste, smell and appearance, which public water systems and states can choose to adopt or not. Then there are the health reference level (HAL) below which health impacts are not anticipated and LHA a level of contamination that if consumed over a lifetime may have health impacts.

What is typically done is to compare the test results to the regulatory or health advisory levels to see if there is an exposure to be concerned about.

It turns out that over a week ago the VHWQP emailed me my water analysis from the sample taken as part of their well water clinic. The email ended up in my junk folder. This is what I saw when I opened my attachment. (I’ve organized the results in the same sections that VHWQP did): 

 

None of the chemicals or bacteriological indicators that they tested for were found to be in excess of the U.S. EPA safe drinking water recommended limits. All good. In addition to the 15 contaminants typically found in well water, their instrument that analyzes metals and elements returns data for 14 additional contaminants, many of which are rarely found in well water, that Virginia Tech screens for. None of those contaminants were found to be elevated in my water samples.

In addition, VHWQP also screened for 8 substance for which there is no established health limit so no comparison could be made.

This year, though below the regulatory limit they found trace levels of lead in the first and second draw sample from the powder room sink. This gave me pause since the last time I used this sink for sampling the flush was ND. While this was all within the EPA safe drinking water limits, I do not believe that there is a safe level of lead.

The presence of lead in water that sits for several hours or overnight generally comes the pipes and fixtures and becomes a bigger problem the older the pipes and fixture become. Over time older pipes and fixtures corrode or simply wear away and the lead and other corrosion material (like rust) is carried to the drinking water. Time and water do cause corrosion, but this can be aggravated by the pH of the water or other changes in water chemistry. The amount of lead corroded from metal plumbing generally increases with water corrosiveness.

My water is neutral, I have plastic pipes in the house. It is possible to see traces of lead because there is lead and copper in the well equipment, pressure tank fittings and faucets. Until 2014 when the 2011 Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act went into effect, almost all drinking water fixtures were made from brass containing up to 8% lead, even if they were sold as "lead free." Homes built with PVC piping in the 2000's may have some lead in most of the faucets.

Also, before 2014 Prime Western grade “lead free” galvanized steel zinc coating was required to contain between 0.5%-1.4% lead. After 2014, “lead free” galvanized steel must have less than 0.25% lead in the surface coatings. My galvanized steel well casing was installed in 2004. Over time, even under neutral condition, any lead used in coatings can be released to the water and pumped to the household tap or accumulate in scale layers on the pipe surface or well bottom where scale can accumulate and be released or picked up and pumped with the water.

In 2018 I began replacing the faucets in the house, starting with the ones we use for cooking or drinking. There is little I can do about the galvanized steel casing in the well at this point.  The brass fittings on pressure tanks and pitless adaptors are now available with less then 0.25% lead and were replaced in 2020. A few years ago, at a different sink the results suggested to me that the faucet might be the source- so it got replaced and the following year we did not detect lead. Problem solved there. Now I think it is time to replace the faucet set in the powder room, the sink I used for testing this year.

I test my drinking water every year to make sure it is safe to drink.  When we bought our home I tested the well for all the primary and secondary contaminants in the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as a suite of metals and pesticides using a certified laboratory. I wanted a comprehensive baseline. Still, I did not test for everything, nobody could afford to (I think there are 80,000 or more known chemicals). At the time I did not test for PFAS it was not part of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the tests available at the time were much less sensitive than is available today, but the test is still very expensive.

I tested the well  extensively before purchasing my home to make sure that the well was drawing from a groundwater aquifer that was not contaminated. While you can treat, you cannot really "fix" groundwater.  In addition, I wanted a well that was fine without any need for water treatment to address naturally occurring contaminants- my prejudice. Initially, I tested for Bacteria (Total Coliform and E-Coli), 19 heavy metals and minerals including lead, iron, arsenic and copper (many which are naturally occurring, but can impact health); 6 other inorganic compounds including nitrates and nitrites (can indicate fertilizer residue or animal waste this was once a cattle operation); 5 physical factors including pH, hardness, TDS, alkalinity; 4 Trihalomethanes (THMs) and 47 Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) including Benzene, Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) and Trichloroethene (TCE). Organochlorine pesticides, herbicides and PCBs. Finally, I tasted the water. It tested below the MCL, SMCL and health advisory limits and liked the taste of the water.

I do not have any treatment equipment in the house, so I was able to do only one set of water tests. When you test a well at a purchase, always test the raw water so that you know what you are buying, and test the water after any treatment to make sure the treatment equipment is working properly. What you can live with in terms of water treatment equipment is really a personal decision. I preferred to have water that did not need of any treatment and was a little hard because I like the taste of hard water. I am picky about my coffee and tea. When the test is more widely available (and cheaper), I will be testing for PFAS. For now, though, a good sign is that Prince William Service Authority did not find any PFAS in their Evergreen water system which like my home draws from groundwater wells in the Culpeper basin. Actually, most of the wells for that system are about 2.25 miles as the crow flies so it is not a guarantee given the distance to their well heads from my house, but its all I’ve got right now. There is always something new to look for.