Transcript Water Testing Near Gas Drilling

WATER TESTING AND INTERPRETATION
WHY TEST YOUR WATER?
25% of private water supplies have never been tested,
another 20% have only been tested by a water treatment
company!
Many contaminants have no obvious symptoms in water
Routine water testing gives you legal protection
Drinking Water Standards
 “Acceptable” level of the pollutant in drinking water, enforced by DEP for
public supplies
 Specific to intended water use
 Primary and Secondary Standards exist for drinking water
 Limits set by the U.S. EPA, enforced by the PA DEP – on public water
systems only!
 Primary = health based (MCL)
– Total coliform bacteria = absent (<1/100 mL)
– E. coli bacteria = absent (<1/100 mL)
– Barium = < 2.0 mg/L
 Secondary = aesthetic (RMCL or SMCL)
– Iron = 0.3 mg/L
– pH = 6.5 to 8.5
Water Test Reports
 “Parameter” or “Test” = what was tested
 “Result” = the concentration in your water sample
 “Unit(s)”
 milligram per liter (mg/L) for most
 pH unit
 Specific conductance (uS/cm or umhos/cm)
 Coliform bacteria = CFU/mL or colonies per 100 mL
 E. coli = MPN per 100 mL or “present/absent”
 Hardness = mg/L or gpg (gpg is about 17 mg/L)
 Quantitation Limit = lowest level they can measure
 Method, Analyst (or “By”), Date, Qualifiers are also included
 A “<“ sign in front of a numbers means “less than” the level they could
detect
UNITS OF MEASURE
milligram per liter (mg/L) = parts per million (ppm)
microgram per liter (µg/L) = parts per billion (ppb)
Other Special Units
Bacteria = colonies per 100 mL
pH = pH units
Hardness sometimes in grains per gallon
Radon = pCi/L
How do I know what to
test my water for?
General Recommendation
Every Year
 Coliform bacteria
 $20-$30
 Sample in different
seasons from year to year
Coliform and E. coli Bacteria
• May cause flu-like
symptoms
• Both should be zero in
drinking water
• Often related to
construction of water well
or spring
50
Percent with Bacteria
• Coliform are “indicator
organisms” that occur from
surface runoff, insects, etc.
40
30
20
10
0
Coliform
E. coli
Every 3 Years Add A Couple Tests
1. pH
• Secondary standard = 6.5 to 8.5
2. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
• Sum of all ions dissolved in water (iron+nitrate+
hardness + etc.)
• Both of these tests are good general tests, readily
available and cheap
• Should not see big changes in pH or TDS over the years
3. Add a third test targeted at local land uses
TARGET TESTING AT LOCAL LAND USE
Houses
Landfills
Organics, ?
Bacteria
Nitrate
Sediment
Yard Chemicals
Roads
Chloride, Sodium
Mining
Metals, pH
Industry
Organics, Petroleum
Agriculture
Bacteria, Nitrate, Pesticides
Gas Drilling
Barium, chloride, TDS
Example - Nitrates
• Originates from fertilizers or from animal or human
wastes
• Highest levels in PA are found in southeastern and
southcentral counties
•Reported as either NO3 or NO3-N
•Primary drinking water standard is
10 mg/L as NO3-N or 45 mg/L as NO3
Water Testing Near Gas Drilling
• Industry pre-drill testing - within 2,500 feet (many going
further), cooperate, get identification of person
collecting samples, must be done by a state accredited
lab, free copy to homeowner, make sure to understand
report
• Chain of custody or “third party” testing
• Critical for legal documentation of water (whether by
industry or by homeowner)
• Timeframe for testing
• Pre-drilling - within months before drilling starts
• Post drilling – presumed responsibility only lasts for
12 months
• Continuous monitoring – simple meters
Testing Parameters
• Critical indicators
• Total dissolved solids, pH, barium, chloride,
iron, manganese, methane gas
Cost
~$200
Protection
Less
$800+
More
• Excellent additions
• Suspended sediment, hardness, sodium,
total organic carbon, strontium, lead, arsenic,
alkalinity, oil/grease, surfactants, coliform
bacteria, sulfate, nitrate
• Expensive additions
• BTEX, volatile organic compounds (VOC),
radium, radon, gross alpha
More Testing = More Protection
Use Symptoms to Target Testing
• White residue, water heater damage = hardness
• Mostly from calcium and magnesium
• No drinking water standard
• Soft = < 17 mg/L
• Moderately hard = 17-60 mg/L
• Hard = 60-120 mg/L
• Very hard = >120 mg/L
• Reddish stains, metallic taste = iron
• Common in sandstone, shale or near mining
• RMCL < 0.3 mg/L
• Black stains, metallic taste = manganese
• Often occurs with iron
• RMCL < 0.05 mg/L
Use Symptoms to Target Testing
• Rotten egg odor - hydrogen sulfide gas
• Very common in wells in certain shale formations
• No drinking water standard, nose is best testing method
• Slime residue, blocked water pipes, musty odor = iron bacteria
• Harmless bacteria that feed on iron
• No drinking water standard
• Blue stains, metallic taste - corrosive water
• Generally caused by low pH and
soft water
• RMCL = non-corrosive
• May cause lead and/or copper if
home has metal plumbing
What About Radon in Water?
• Naturally occurring radioactive gas released from water
• Most wells in PA have significant amounts of dissolved
radon gas
•Proposed standard of 300 pCi/L (80% will fail this
standard)
•But, it takes 10,000 pCi/L in water to get just 1 pCi/L in air
•So, best to test indoor air first, then test water if air
concentration is high
•Can be easily removed with carbon filtration
Where to Get Your Water Tested
• Certified state accredited labs
• List from local DEP or Extension
• Penn State Extension
• County offices carry test kits
Penn State Water Testing Lab
• Regional DEP office
• Generally only do bacteria testing
How Do You Take a Water Sample?
• Use a clean container from the certified laboratory
• Follow lab instructions carefully
• Be especially careful with bacteria sample collection
• Keep samples cool for delivery to lab
Chain of Custody Water Testing
• Lab employee or independent consultant visits the home to collect
the sample
• Ensures proper sample collection and
handling
• Provides legally valid results
• Slightly more expensive but critical if the
objective is to legally document water quality
• Water test becomes legal document
• List of labs offering this service at http://extension.psu.edu/water
Water Test Reports
• Test reports are usually available within about two weeks
• Receipt of pre-drilling (industry) results may be longer
• Test report components (no two reports are the same!)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Letter - description of sample handling, comments
Water supply information (address, type, date, etc.)
Parameters tested
Units for each test parameter
Results for each parameter
Drinking water standards (if applicable)
Methods (EPA methodology used for analyses)
Quality Control and Assurance (results of QC analyses)
Common Water Test Report
Comments and Qualifiers
•ND = not detected
•“<“ = below a detection level
•BD = below detection
•“MRL” or “DL” = maximum reporting or detection limit
•“Flags” = problems or comments about sample
A Penn State Water Test Report
Simple
User friendly
Less information
Benchmark Analytics Inc. - Example
• Simple
• Result and unit
combined
• Flags and
comments
interspersed
• MCL provided
• TestAmerica
• More complex
• Flag =
comment
about analysis
• MRL =
maximum
reporting limit
• No comparison
to standards