Whether you're connected to the municipal water supply, or have your own well, it's important to test your drinking water on a regular basis to ensure that it meets all of the EPA's legal drinking standards. But with so many different tests to choose from, it can be difficult to know which ones are most important. So, in this article, we'll break down three core physical and chemical parameters that you should be testing for – Turbidity, Residual Chlorine and pH.
Water that is free of bacteria, viruses and other contaminants will generally have a low turbidity. However, turbidity is a function of the amount of decomposable organic matter in a sample and can therefore be affected by natural as well as human activities.
A good indicator of water quality is its pH, which indicates how acidic or basic it is. Higher values of pH indicate alkalinity while lower values are more acidic.
Dissolved oxygen (DO) is another important chemical parameter. Fish can only live if DO levels are above 9.5 mg/L; below that level, fewer species survive and dissolved oxygen in water may be used up in other biological processes.
It's also important to monitor the presence of certain elements such as arsenic and fluoride, which can be associated with natural or human-caused contamination. Testing for these is generally done using laboratory-based methods, although there are some low-tech options such as test strips and color disk kits that can be used in the field. For a more comprehensive analysis visit website of Axios Home Inspection at https://www.axioshomeinspections.com/.
