Private domestic well owners: Do you know what’s in your drinking water?
In efforts to maintain healthy standards, the Santa Clara Valley Water District launched a program last month that offers residents of South County free water testing. Testing looks for basic water quality data including nitrate, bacteria, electrical conductivity and hardness.
Budgeted through the district, the pilot program costs $330,000 to test well water at no charge to South County residents until April 2012 or until the money runs out, said Vanessa de la Piedra, senior water resource specialist for the SCVWD.
So far, 220 have signed up, of those 86 are Morgan Hill residents and 83 are from Gilroy. The district anticipates being able to conduct 500 tests. There are more than 3,000 private domestic well owners in the area including Coyote Valley, Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy.
“Its on them to make sure their water is safe to drink,” said de la Piedra. “There are a good number that don’t do regular testing.”
Private domestic well owners are not required by law to test their water. For Tony de Jesus, a Morgan Hill resident of 25 years with a private well on his property, before this program, he had never tested his water.
“I have a neighbor really close to me that ran a test on his (well) a couple years ago. Everything was clear,” de Jesus said.
When he received a postcard in the mail in October telling him of his eligibility for the free program, he called the district and set up an appointment.
In his results, testing revealed a higher level of coliform bacteria in the well water. Coliform is a bacteria naturally found in humans and animals that does not normally cause illness. It is however, an indicator that other potentially harmful bacteria are present.
De Jesus uses his water for everything from watering his garden to drinking.
“We didn’t have any problems that we were aware of,” he said.
He is now looking into further research and a possible second test to see exactly what it is and what can be done.
Each year the district test groundwater quality at 70 sites throughout the county to evaluate regional groundwater conditions. The pilot program will augment regional monitoring to better understand trends. One of most important for the water district is nitrate, which is commonly found in fertilizers, septic systems and animal waste. According a fact sheet released to well owners, nitrate can interfere with the blood’s ability to transfer oxygen. The maximum contaminant level from the California Department of Health is 45 milligrams per liter.
John Robertson, the supervising engineer geologist for Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board, said that high nitrate pollution in groundwater is a concern with the lack of regulation. Staff a the quality board has been pushing for counties within the region to develop local ordinances to require small system and domestic well testing on a more regular basis, Robertson said.
“We believe that the adoption of local requirements … would ensure that domestic well water users would have information about the water they are drinking, and then can take the appropriate actions, as necessary,” Robertson said.
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Potential risks of high levels of contaminants.
• Nitrate can interfere with the blood’s ability to transportoxygen and is a concern for pregnant woman and infants. Effects arereferred to as “blue baby syndrome.”
• While most strains of E.coli are harmless, some can causeshort-term effects of diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches or othersymptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants, youngchildren, the elderly and people with severely compromised immunesystems.
• Excess fluoride can cause bone disease or mottled teeth.
For more information, call the Groundwater Hotline at (408)265-2607, ext. 2300, or visit their website atwww.valleywater.org.
Source: Santa Clara Valley Water District
