Perform a Water Quality Test - PEP BB plumbing.sand.waterquality

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- perform a water quality test

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
  - a link to the water quality test kit or service you are using
  - a picture of the water quality test kit, or what will be sent to the lab
  - a picture of the water source you are testing (cistern?  well head? stream or spring?)
  - a picture of the water sample
  - a picture of the results of your water quality test
  - a description of what your water quality test results mean
  - OR a 2-minute video of you doing this

Decided to bite the bullet and test my local water. It comes from village wells and services all the households in the area. We had a water main leak by the road and was told that it was draining the water levels for the whole village. We ran all new copper to the house and they updated the connection. At the same time, my neighbor spoke to me about finding out their kids tested positive for lead so I was not taking any chances.

Looking at the results of my water test, it put a lot of worry to rest. I find it curious that the PH seems to be leaning to one end, I plan on running the water a bit more and retesting in the future. I run my drinking water through additional filtration at the faucet to be extra safe and these results are where I was hoping to find them.

*Edit* Forgot the link to the Test Strips! Oops

I tested our municipal water from the kitchen sink. Here is the link to the test kit i purchesed. 2023 All-New 20 in 1 Drinking Water Testing Kit 120 Strips - Home Tap and Well Water Test Kit for Hardness, Lead, Iron, Copper, Chlorine, Fluoride and More https://a.co/d/6cP1uob

I was very happy to find that our water did very well on the 16 test strip except we are a bit high on sodium chloride, carbonate.

We do run a water drop filter system for our water because- yuck.

Hey PEP-folks,
It was a long winter with illness, but I am glad to be back to badge bits!
We recently had our well water professionally tested, but as I didn't take all the required pics, oh well. So I decided to get some many-in-one test strips (from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ1VLX88, this is not an affiliate link, just disclosing what I used). The strips test for a basket of elements/compounds, but the one of interest to me was fluoride.

Yes, our wellhead water test got an F+. Sorry, chemistry/ion joke. But it scored 1.91mg/L, which is above California municipal drinking water recommended limit (0.7mg/L), though below the absolute max permitted in (2mg/L). Moreover, our Arsenic levels are higher than the current 0.01mg/L standard (which is fairly new, it used to be 0.04mg/L, but still, As might not be your friend).

So, I got the F/As reduction cartridges for the Berkey. We've had our Berkey at least a decade, very satisfied, but very subjective. I have never tested upstream & downstream of it, and here was my chance! So I sampled at our tap, dipped a strip, and then sampled after the Berkey.

I can't honestly recommend these strips. The reagent swatches are too close together, and I had to use several strips before I could piece together a non-blotted reading on some of the swatches. Still, they gave results, and generally speaking, it seems like the Berkey takes out some F+. It is by no means a tightly toleranced test, and I would use it only qualitatively, but that's OK, it is what it is, and I can find ways to make use of it.

As far as the overall picture of our water, it is what I expected - hard desert well water, but the pH is in a fine place. There's a nitrate reading, which I am curious about, but it jives with the professional report (1.93mg/L, max level 10). The well tested absent for the usual E.Coli/Coliform test, and the level is very consistent with the report from 2 years ago, so I am not overly worried. The arsenic this year is much higher than it was 2 years ago, which I believe to be due to many new wells coming on line in that time. This would lower the water table locally, and mean we were drawing older water from the aquifer, which has more dissolved minerals, including As. The lab guy thought this was reasonable, too, so I'm not completely making it up... I think.

All in all, minor postprocessing required, and we have water in a desert, so I will count my blessings.

Happy homesteading!
Mark