Testing spring water for "drinkability"

Greetings everyone-

I have found a small spring on my property and want to test it's quality for drinking purposes.

I have contacted the local health department but they only test for e.coli & one other thing. Basically, I want the result to be a detailed chart of ALL components found in the water sample INCLUDING elements that would be deemed as conventionally acceptable such as fluoride and chlorine.

Any advice or ideas?

Thanks!

tyffdavi wrote:
Greetings everyone-

I have found a small spring on my property and want to test it's quality for drinking purposes.

I have contacted the local health department but they only test for e.coli & one other thing. Basically, I want the result to be a detailed chart of ALL components found in the water sample INCLUDING elements that would be deemed as conventionally acceptable such as fluoride and chlorine.

Any advice or ideas?

Thanks!

Any place that provides water filtration and purified water services, usually does full testing.

Apologies, but do you have any examples of such places? The environmentalist at the local health dept. doesn't seem to know of anyone nearby who does such testing. I figured I would need to send it off to some sort of lab, just not sure which.

tyffdavi wrote:
Apologies, but do you have any examples of such places? The environmentalist at the local health dept. doesn't seem to know of anyone nearby who does such testing. I figured I would need to send it off to some sort of lab, just not sure which.

Here is one that is local for us.
http://www.matsuwater.net/
They offer water analysis.
Look up places that offer bottled water delivery, and purification and filtration services.

Thank you! I've just purchased a tds and ph tester - hopefully i can find a local lab who will be able to give a more detailed report on top of this

I checked with local places that sell filter systems and they want to 'come out' and test the tap water, none will test multiple samples.

Can anyone recommend a kit or alternative.  Like the original poster I need to test for a variety of things in the water and have 3 different potential water sources.  A well that is probably brackish, a cistern system with multiple tanks of gravel and sand, and the tap which still has to be filtered.

remember companies that sell water filtration will also "sell" you that your water NEEDS filtration by making you think it has things wrong with it..

we have some of the best water in the world, and have had offers from bottling  companies..but if you have it checked by a filtration company they'll tell you how awful it is..be careful there

Serenity ~ What we have ended up doing is: testing TDS, pH, and temp ourselves using little devices we purchased from Amazon/Ebay. The local health dept. will test the e.coli and contaminants of each spring (I assume any health dept. would do this for you).

I've also learned that if there is "life" in the spring - it's usually a very good sign of pure water (frogspawn, etc) as well as a temp. of 36-40 degrees F.

We have located nearly six springs around the property thus far, so I feel like we're getting pretty good at this water testing stuff

Best to ya!