The look, taste, and smell of water often offer no clues to the types or amounts of contaminants in the supply.
Some problems, however, are obvious. You can see turbidity. You can smell hydrogen sulfide.
In contrast, contaminants such as hardness, corrosive factors, and iron provide no immediate evidence. You only know that a water is hard, corrosive, or iron bearing from the aftereffects.
The presence of harmful bacteria may also go completely unnoted. In fact, if a family has built up an immunity to certain waterborne diseases, it is possible that they may avoid serious aftereffects from drinking such water. But a guest of theirs would have no such immunity.
The best way to determine precisely the content of any supply is to analyze the water. This may be either a microbiological or a mineral analysis.
Where your customer maintains his own water system, you should advise him to make a periodic bacteriological test. Such tests can assure him that the water is safe to drink. Municipal systems make analysis of their supplies at regular intervals; the larger the system, the more frequent the tests. The program in each case conforms to U.S. Public Health Standards. While there are no controls over private systems, homeowners and farmers would be wise to have periodic microbiological tests made on their drinking water. This is part of the service you can offer your customers.
The average homeowner, however, may not feel he needs a mineral analysis unless he notes a change in the water supply-a strange taste or odor, an unusual color, etc. Or he may want to have a water analysis made if he is considering buying a water softener.
A microbiological test will analyze a water sample to determine the presence of bacteria (disease bearing organisms). The report will normally indicate whether the water is potable or not.
You can have a potability test run for a homeowner for a small fee. Generally, any state or city health department can handle such tests.
A mineral analysis, on the other hand, may contain a wealth of information and provide a complete "personality profile" on a water supply.
An independent water laboratory can run the analysis or, most water conditioning equipment manufacturers will process such tests free of charge.
How to Take a Water Sample. Regardless of the agency you choose, or the type of test to be run, there are certain precautions which you must observe to insure an accurate analysis. Careless gathering or handling of a sample can produce highly misleading results. For the sake of validity, it is most important that no change occur in a test sample prior to its analysis.
To achieve such results you should take these steps:
1. Secure a container (16 oz. preferable) that will not contaminate the sample. Clean, rubber-stoppered, resistant glass bottles or the new plastic bottles are recommended. You can also use a metal screw-capped bottle if the cap has a protective plastic liner. Use a new bottle for each test. If this is not possible, wash the bottle and cap in soap and water and thoroughly rinse before use.
State health departments usually furnish free sterile bottles for microbiological analyses. For mineral analyses, you can get sample bottles from water-conditioning equipment manufacturers. Carefully follow all instructions that come with these bottles.
2. Before taking samples through metal lines and valves, first allow the water to run for at least five minutes, to wash out the system.
3. Rinse the container thoroughly with the water that is to be analyzed before taking the sample.
4. Fill the bottle to a point just above the shoulder, leaving just a little air space.
5. At the same time jot down all pertinent information regarding the water at the time the sample is taken. Facts to include: source of the sample; physical appearance (clean, dirty, highly colored, etc.); odor, if any; taste, if any. Also include information on the number of persons in the family, the number of bathrooms in the home, and the pump capacity (in gph).
6. Send sample in for testing.
A complete water analysis calls for a complex series of tests. Such an analysis is only possible in an extremely well equipped laboratory. In many cases this is not needed. The type of test kit you can buy from your water conditioning jobber is quite satisfactory for many water samples.
When an unusual situation exists, make a complete water analysis. Details of the tests used in such analyses are not within the scope of this article. But when completed, they can indicate both the presence and quantities of such factors as silica, iron, manganese, hardness, hydrogen sulfide, pH, nitrates alkalinity, fluorides, sodium, sulfates, chlorides, tastes, odors, turbidity, etc. A water conditioning equipment manufacturer is best qualified to make specific suggestions for treatment, based on a detailed analysis.
A water analysis is like a doctor's diagnosis. When completed, treatment is still needed. Proper treatment is a matter of judgment based on know-how, experience and the needs of your customers. Often a water analysis will reveal conditions which might be treated in one of several ways.
For example, consider the three following analyses. Each of them is comparatively simple; yet in two instances three solutions are practical. Which is most feasible? Most economical?
Let's examine these analyses. Then consider the suggested solutions. Note the reasons given in each instance. Perhaps you can think of other sound solutions. Also note that these are not complete analyses. In each case, exhaustive testing was not necessary to isolate the problem.
Date Collected 8/14/95
Source Well
Date Analyzed 8/23/95
pH 7.5
Iron 0.2 ppm
Bicarbonate 11.3 gpg
Sulfate 3.5 gpg
Chloride 1.6 gpg
Total Anions 16.4 gpg
Calcium Hardness 10.5 gpg
Magnesium Hardness 5.3 gpg
Total Hardness 15.8 gpg
Calcium bicarbonate 10.5
Magnesium bicarbonate 0.8
Magnesium sulfate 3.5
Magnesium chloride 1.0
Sodium chloride 0.6
The analysis shows this water is quite hard. Total mineral hardness equals 15.8 grains per gallon. The amount of iron, however, is negligible.
Here's the most economical way to get rid of the hardness. Install a water softener of proper capacity on both the hot and cold water lines. By-pass the outdoor sillcocks. With 15.8 gpg hardness, you probably should soften the water going to the toilets. If you don't, hardness will be deposited on the insides of toilet bowls. Urine will set up bacteria growth in these lime formations, and create discoloration and odor. This will make frequent use of a bowl cleaner necessary. Once a homeowner makes a substantial investment in a softener, he should use it as widely as possible. The extra cost of salt needed to soften water to the toilets will be minor.
Size of the unit also depends on the size of the family and, to some extent, on the number of water-using appliances in the home. Type of model (manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic) would be a matter of customer preference.
Date Collected 8/02/95
Source Well
Date Analyzed 8/09/95
pH 8.0
Iron 2.6 ppm
Bicarbonate 3.9 gpg
Sulfate 1.5 gpg
Chloride 1.1 gpg
Total Anions 6.5 gpg
Calcium Hardness 3.4 gpg
Magnesium Hardness 1.4 gpg
Total Hardness 4.8 gpg
Calcium bicarbonate 3.4
Magnesium bicarbonate 0.5
Magnesium sulfate 0.9
Magnesium chloride 1.1
Sodium chloride 0.6
Color (50)
This water is moderately hard. The iron here constitutes a real staining problem. Here are several solutions.
Solution No. 1. Install a softener to remove both the hardness and iron. Choice of a softener depends on the manufacturer's specifications. Some units are equipped to handle this much iron; others are not. If you select this solution, you should regenerate the unit more frequently than would be necessary if hardness alone were the problem. This minimizes fouling of the exchanger bed by the iron.
Install the unit on both the hot and cold water lines and connect it to the toilets to prevent iron stain.
This solution would be most satisfactory for small families.
Solution No. 2. Install an iron filter on the hot and cold water lines. Connect to the toilets. Install a softener just on the hot and cold water lines, by-passing the toilets.
Solution No. 3. Install a chlorinator. This would use household bleach and a sand filter. Place on hot and cold lines; connect with toilets and possibly on the sillcocks. Connect a softener to the hot and cold water lines.
Note the analysis indicates strong color in parentheses. If color is due to some organic contaminant, solution No. 3 is best, although more costly. The suggestion to treat water for outdoor use is especially pertinent if the home is white or some other light color. There is a definite possibility that where water is untreated, it will stain the house when used for sprinkling.
Date Collected 5/20/95
Source Well
Date Analyzed 5/27/95
pH 5.7
Iron 0.3 ppm
Bicarbonate 0.4 gpg
Sulfate 0.5 gpg
Chloride 0.6 gpg
Total Anions 1.5 gpg
Calcium Hardness 0.4 gpg
Magnesium Hardness 0.2 gpg
Total Hardness 0.6 gpg
Calcium bicarbonate 0.4
Magnesium bicarbonate - -
Magnesium sulfate 0.2
Magnesium chloride 0.6
Sodium chloride 0.3
This is an acid water (pH of 5.7). It has low hardness (0.6) and mineral iron at the staining level. (0.3).
Solution No. 1. A neutralizing filter could do the job here. Such a filter would raise the pH, and probably reduce the iron content. At the same time it would increase the hardness of the water slightly.
This is the most economical solution.
Solution No. 2. A solution feeder using soda ash will raise the pH. Iron may still be a problem. If it is, mix household bleach with the soda ash and install a sand filter. While costing more, this is perhaps the most complete treatment for this particular water.
Solution No. 3. Install a polyphosphate feeder to control corrosion and iron, although it would not normally handle corrosion in a copper water system. This, again, is an economical approach to the problem. As with Solution No. 1, its success would depend on how satisfactorily it handles the iron problem.