It should come as no surprise that the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) regulates public water systems and requires routine testing and monitoring for contaminants. However, testing and monitoring of private wells are the responsibility of the homeowner. So my Earth Day message this year is directed solely to the private well owners – know what is in your drinking water by testing your well.
Unhealthy levels of contaminants are common in many private wells in New Hampshire. Some of these contaminants have been linked to cancer and other diseases. Most have no taste, smell or color. It is important to periodically test well water to ensure it is safe to drink.
Nearly half (42%) of New Hampshire residents rely upon a private well as a primary source of drinking water. In some communities, the entire population relies upon private well water as a primary source of drinking water. Failure to test and then properly treat private well water to remove contaminants can put the homeowner/ family at risk of exposure to contaminants that can impact their health both in the short-term and the long-term.
The good news is that the first step to eliminating this risk is simply getting your well water tested at an accredited laboratory for the 14 parameters NHDES recommends.
While man-made contaminants should not be in our groundwater, New Hampshire unfortunately also has widespread problems with contaminants that are naturally occurring.
Thirty percent of domestic private wells in New Hampshire are estimated to have unhealthy levels of inorganic arsenic, which is known to cause cancer. Arsenic is present naturally in the geologic formations that underlie much of New Hampshire and is associated with elevated levels of bladder cancer, non-melanoma skin cancers as well as a variety of other diseases. Also naturally occurring, NHDES estimates that 24% of bedrock wells have radon levels at or above 10,000 picoCuries per liter (pCi/L), the level at which treatment of water is recommended in conjunction with mitigation of indoor air radon. Testing wells for arsenic and radon is the only way to know what the levels of those contaminants are.
I am sure that many of you have heard of the problem of lead in Flint, Michigan’s public water supply, but for New Hampshire’s private well users, lead is no less of a problem. A U.S. Geological Survey study released in July of 2016 identified New Hampshire as one of 12 states (and the District of Columbia) with a “very high prevalence of potentially corrosive groundwater.” Corrosive water can cause leaching of lead from old pipes and fittings. Results from private well samples analyzed by the NHDHHS Public Health Laboratory show how widespread the problem of corrosive well water is. Of more than 10,000 samples of “stagnant” (left sitting overnight) tap water, 70% had detectable amounts of lead and 15% had lead over the “action level” that requires public water systems to control corrosion. Keeping in mind that EPA’s stated goal for lead in drinking water is zero – if that 15% exceedance rate is true of private wells statewide, then roughly 90,000 Granite Staters are living in homes with potentially high levels of lead in their home plumbing.
NHDES recently mailed What’s In Your Water? brochures to every town in New Hampshire to help get the word out in the community to remind private well users that it is important to test their well water.
The flyer (available here: www.des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/dwgb/well_testing/documents/well-testing.pdf) provides a series of pointers to information that can help private well owners test their well water at an accredited lab and then effectively treat common contaminants, when necessary.
Additionally, NHDES’ Be Well Informed (BWI) tool is an online, interactive guide that provides specific water treatment recommendations based upon water quality results reported within a lab report, and then entered into BWI by a private well user.
Private well owners need to take action and test their well water. Drinking water quality is an important public health issue in New Hampshire, and private well owners need to educate themselves about the water quality in their own wells to help protect themselves and their family. This year, one of the most significant ways you can help celebrate Earth Day, is to pledge to test your private well water.