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11 Comments

1. Great post. Not too technical and easy to understand. Thanks!

2. Great article. Wanted to inquire about any follow up that would provide necessary direction around how to test/what to test in a water source. When I get the list of tests from the Ag. store, it makes absolutely no sense to me. If I test “everything” then it would be a very expensive option. What indicators would help direct folks what to test for? (i.e. on a farm – test for a,b,c,z – In a city/town, test for d,e,f,z – in the north-east test for (farm/city list + g,h,k). Thank you !!

   1. If you are on a municipal water supply they test every shift for common contaminates like pathogens and do regular testing for other contaminants, you can call and request it. If you have a private well you should test every few years. Most big box home improvement stores sell water testing kits that you mail off to a lab. A good indication is your senses: does the water taste different, are your clothes and disghes not coming clean (surfactants need the right water chemistry to work properly).

3. How bout UV from Lamp to disinfect? I use a polyester filter ( sediment) then a carbon paper pleated ( carbon block is better) followed by UV at 3 gallons a minute and run off a 12vdc supply from a rain catchment system with 60psi demand pump to pressure same. ( 120 vac is same set up)

   1. How powerful is the UV lamp in watts? And what’s the dimension of th UV chamber (I’ll use this to calculate residency under the UV).

4. Enjoyed reading this article very much because of the clear, easy to understand format. Good reminder to those with well water to get their wells checked periodically too. Years ago, I lived on a ranch and our family well became contaminated. Thank you!

5. Back in the 1990’s, I did some work on water quality in Georgia for the USGS. To my surprise, I found that the highest frequency of occurrence of many herbicides and pesticides in water was clearly in urban/suburban areas, not in agricultural areas. My reasoning at the time was that homeowners over-apply chemicals for their lawns and small gardens in a manner that would be cost-prohibitive for farmers. You may wish to modify your statement to the contrary.

6. My son and I hike in a national forest here in Ohio. We wanted to try our Life Straws but there were posted warnings about not drinking the water due to dissolved metals from mining. The water looked great but you don’t know what’s in it. This got me thinking about finding a home test kit to check water quality. There are some basic kits that test for bio contaminants but it seems the only option to test for chemicals and dissolved metals is to send a sample to a lab. Do you know if there is economical way to completely test water with a kit of some type, used by the average person?

   1. Unfortunately there aren’t any home kits to test for inorganics and organics that I am aware of.

7. Get a Gravity Feed filtration unit with the Imperial filter elements.

   see: jmccanneyscience.com/SecWebOrderPg.htm

   Spec Sheet: jmccanneyscience.com/FilterElementSpecSheet.HTM

8. Several municipal water supplies have been caught falsifying tests and supplying contaminated water (Camp Lejeune was the first). What about the industrial waste fluoride? What is the best method to remove it?

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