For the many Georgia families who rely on private wells for
drinking water, no news is
good news. And the good news is that a recent well-water testing
program has found
few problems.

“Most wells are OK in terms of their drinking-water quality,”
said Tony Tyson, an
engineer with the University of Georgia Extension Service.

“We did find some problems with high nitrate-nitrogen in some,”
he said. “And a few
were high in lead. But most are just nuisance problems, such as
staining, off taste or
odor caused by minerals like iron, manganese and calcium. All
water contains some
natural dissolved minerals.”

For the most part, nitrate levels were below the normal drinking
water standards of 10
parts per million. Those above the standard were normally on a
confinement livestock
farm or too close to a septic system, said Parshall Bush, an
extension pesticide residue
chemist. Most were also from older, poorly constructed shallow
wells.

“Families with confinement livestock operations need to test
their water,” Bush said.
“If the nitrate level is above 10 ppm, they need to treat it or
find another source for
drinking water. Nitrates take a while to get into a water
source. And it will take a while
to get them out.”

Bush also traced a problem along the fall line.

“The pH of drinking-water samples along the fall line is quite
acidic,” he said. “That
could lead to potential lead and copper being leached from the
pipes. Those folks along
the fall line should have their water tested for lead and
copper.”

The UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
experts recommend
regular testing for people with private wells. They should test
the water routinely for
the minerals, bacteria and nitrates.

The health department usually tests for bacteria. The UGA labs and private
labs can
test for minerals and other elements.

“We can also test for pesticides and petroleum products,” Tyson
said. “Those rarely
show up, and testing for them can get expensive. So we don’t
usually recommend those
tests unless there’s a reason to believe there’s a problem.

“Levels of pesticides, volatile organic chemicals or petroleum
are the things people
tend to be afraid of,” he said. “But we very rarely find them in
ground water.”

In 1989, the Extension Service began to compile a data base to
learn the extent of
nitrate contamination in private wells in Georgia. Through 1996,
they tested around
7,000 wells for 15 mineral elements plus pH, hardness and
nitrate-nitrogen.

The current data includes nearly 4,600 samples collected since
1992. The samples were
analyzed by the UGA labs in Athens. The testing program serves
mainly private well
owners to insure safe drinking water.

Call your county agent
to learn more about sampling drinking water for testing. There
is a small fee to conduct some of the tests.