Well water testing

Testing well water is the first step in selecting water treatment technology. The test result determines each subsequent stage of the implementation of the water treatment plant.

Household wells

Home water intakes have been experiencing a renaissance in recent years. More and more newly built single-family houses are equipped with their own well, even if they have access to the city or municipal water supply from the very beginning. Of course, these are not the wells we know from visits to our grandparents – although it must be admitted that these had their own charm. The basic type of home well that has been chosen for the last dozen or so years is a drilled well. Its advantages include saving space, greater depth, and short construction time.

Regardless of the type of intake, the most important thing is the quality of water in a domestic well. In old dug wells, the water collecting in the intake had free access to oxygen and often also to sunlight, covering almost the entire surface of the water surface. Contact with atmospheric air and daylight causes the precipitation of easily oxidizing compounds from water, e.g. iron compounds, which change from the divalent form (II), soluble in water, to the trivalent form (III), precipitating from the water in the form of a precipitate. Depending on the content of iron compounds in the water and the degree of their precipitation, the sediment may cause the water to become cloudy, change its color to brown-brown, change the smell of the water, and at high concentrations, it may precipitate in the form of a flocculent sediment at the bottom of the vessel.

Water analysis

Water quality testing is the first and most important stage of selecting a water treatment system. It is impossible to select an effective water treatment or softening system without a thorough analysis of the raw water carried out in the laboratory. Water quality analysis includes physicochemical and microbiological tests. From the point of view of water suitability for drinking, both ranges are very important and neither of them can be omitted. From the point of view of drinking safety, microbiological analysis of water is more important due to the direct and immediate effects of disease that the consumption of contaminated water may cause. Apart from extreme cases of water contamination with organic compounds such as pesticides, herbicides or hydrocarbons, heavy metals such as lead, cadmium or mercury, possible exceedances of physicochemical parameters such as iron, manganese or chlorides do not cause direct health effects. On the contrary, many waters considered medicinal contain iron or sulfur compounds in amounts significantly exceeding the permissible standards set for drinking water. Consuming them in “reasonable” quantities contributes to improving our health. Therefore, the consumption of water from a home intake whose physicochemical parameters exceed the established standards (excluding the extreme cases described above) is completely neutral for our body.

Physicochemical testing of water

The physicochemical examination of water includes a number of analyses, the scope of which was developed in the Regulation of the Minister of Health on the quality of water intended for human consumption. The scope of testing tap water differs from the scope of testing “raw” water from underground intakes. The following range of laboratory analyzes is most often used for tap water: Color Turbidity Smell Conductivity Taste pH Ammonium ion Nitrites Nitrates Iron Manganese Free chlorine (if the water is disinfected with chlorine or its compounds) Total chlorates and chlorites (if water is disinfected with chlorine dioxide) Aluminum (if its compounds are used as a coagulant or if it is of natural origin)

For groundwater (raw water), the scope of the test is extended to include the following parameters: Chlorides Sulfur Oxidizability with KMnO4 (Permanganate Index) Total calcium and magnesium content (water hardness).

Microbiological testing of water

Microbiological testing of water gives us information about the state of microbial colonization of the water intake. The parameters determined constitute a group of so-called indicator bacteria, the presence or quantity of which indicates the occurrence of undesirable phenomena in the tested well (e.g. seepage of subcutaneous water or permanent infection of the intake). The scope of microbiological testing of water from a domestic intake most often includes the following parameters: Total number of microorganisms at 22oC after 72h Coliform bacteria Escherichia coli Fecal enterococci the scope of water testing is often expanded to include Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pseudomonas bacteria) and Staphylococcus aureus (Staphylococcus aureus).