Water Testing

Whether you get your water from a well or municipality, water testing is important to the health of your family especially if you plan on drinking the water that comes out of your faucet. Pesticides, bacteria, salts, hydrocarbons and other potentially harmful contaminants routinely are not removed by water passing through the ground’s natural filters before it gets to your well water source.
 
Municipalities are required by Federal law to comply with basic testing requirements. Assuming that the testing occurs,  water in the city’s distribution can be assumed of reasonable quality but a number of things can happen between the distribution point and your tap. Cracked and broken distribution pipes can allow contaminated ground water to enter the system, faulty control valves can allow unsanitary water to back-flow into the system, older homes have lead piping and lead solder that can contaminate your drinking water. Chlorine added to water exceeding “normal” limits leads to by-products that are suspected carcinogens.
 
We’re not attempting to frighten our clients but Pilgrim Home Inspections believes you should have your water tested as part of a real estate transaction not only for your safety but also for remediation. Many times water quality can  be improved by conditioning or removing the source contaminate. We send our testing priority shipping to an independent lab and results are usually available in four to five days.
 
For well water we test for 2 heavy metals: Arsenic and Lead, 2 Fertilizers: Nitrate and Nitrite, as well as 2 bacteria: E. Coli and total Coliform.
 
City Water tests comprise of scans for 7 heavy metals: Arsenic, Copper, Iron, Lead, Nickel, Uranium and Zinc. 1 non-metal organic: Flouride. as well as 2 properties: Total Dissolved Solids and pH.
 
We’re delighted to provide well and city water at competitive prices and savings can be increasingly experienced by bundling your home water testing with one or two of our other services.
 
More comprehensive water testing is also available at extra cost, please feel free to email me for more information and pricing at dan@pilgrimhomeinspections.com