Water analysis
Drinking water
The water quality report shows typical values for a selection of characteristics from the last quarter. These values are a range of all results from the 10th to the 90th percentile unless stated otherwise.
Appliances
When installing new appliances like dishwashers, steam ovens and coffee machines, you may need to know the hardness, pH, or other information about your water. Depending on where your appliance was made, you may need this information in different formats to help your appliances work efficiently. We’ve provided the information in the most common units of measure.
Education
If you’re a student looking for information for research or an assignment, our Education pages may help. Read below to find out more about how we manage the water supply.
Water management
We supply you with high quality, safe drinking water managed under our drinking water management system. This means our drinking water
Quarterly Drinking Water Quality Report
To read our quarterly report, simply enter your address so we can show the results for your area.
Bacterial Safety of Well Water
Well Management Program
It is not practical to test water for every disease-causing microorganism, but it is easy to test for a group of indicator bacteria called total coliform bacteria. These bacteria are good indicators of sanitary protection of the well and water system because they are everywhere on the surface of the ground, but do not usually occur past a few feet into the soil. If they show up in a water test, they can indicate that surface contamination has gotten into the water and that disease-causing microorganisms may be present. Just as disinfection kills most disease-causing microorganisms, it also kills coliform bacteria
Health Risks
While most coliform bacteria do not cause disease, their presence suggests there may be disease-causing microorganisms in your water. These microorganisms can cause diarrheas, dysenteries, salmonellosis, hepatitis, and guardians. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, nausea, headaches, fever, fatigue, and even death sometimes. Infants, children, elderly people, and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to get sick or die from disease-causing microorganisms in drinking water.
Test for Coliform Bacteria Every Year
MDH recommends you use an accredited laboratory to test your water. Contact an accredited laboratory to get sample containers and instructions, or ask your county environmental or public health services if they provide well testing services
Prevent Bacterial Contamination
You can do the following to help maintain this natural protection:
Make sure your well is located and constructed properly. Work with a licensed well contractor to do this.
Inspect your well regularly and repair any damage. Things to look for are:
Damage: Any cracks or holes in well casing, corrosion, loose wires, or soil settling?
Well cap: Is it securely attached to the well casing? Is it broken or missing?
Connections: Are the electrical conduit and other connections watertight?
Mark your well with flags or posts to avoid hitting it with vehicles.
Keep the well area clear of debris.
Maintain minimum isolation distances from contamination sources, such as fertilizers, pesticides, septic systems, and feedlots (see Protecting Your Well for guidance).
Do not tie animals to your well.
Have a licensed well contractor seal wells that you no longer use. A well that you no longer use can be a pathway for contaminants to get into groundwater and is a safety hazard.
Testing Your Water
Contaminated wells
Contaminants could show up in your drinking water, potentially putting your family’s health at risk. Because you may not taste, smell, or see many types of contaminants, the state Department of Health (DOH) believes regular water testing is very important.
Well water testing
If you own a private well, you are responsible for testing your own water. In most counties when you buy or sell a home with a private well, the county health or planning department, or the lending institution involved, may require the seller to provide water-sampling results to show the water is safe to drink. Contact your local county health or planning department for information on the requirements and the testing needed.
DOH recommends that private well owners test their drinking water every year for coliform bacteria and nitrate. These two contaminants rapidly could affect a person’s health—possibly even with just one drink of water. If your nitrate level is 5 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or higher, you may want to re-test in six months
General Sampling Procedure
The provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires public water supplies to collect microbiological and chemical samples at various frequencies. This sample collection frequency is determined by each source’s water quality history compliance with previous monitoring requirements, and waiver status.
To assist water systems on when to sample and what types of samples to collect, the Office of Drinking water sends out an annual Water Quality Monitoring Reports to Group A systems
Drinking water quality
Supplying high quality drinking water at all times is a priority to us. Sometimes things can go wrong, so we’ve provided some information to help if your water doesn’t seem right.
Over the course of a year some 300,000 water tests are taken and analysed, and of the water we supply, 99.96% meet drinking water quality standards at customer taps.
Your water can also be affected by work or incidents in your area. You can check for planned or emergency works near you with our In Your Area service below
Discoloured water is usually caused by the disturbance of deposits in the water pipes. The disturbance of deposits can happen when a water main is shut off due to essential maintenance or in an emergency.
Discoloured water is unlikely to be harmful to health but we wouldn’t expect anyone to drink it when it looks unpleasant. It usually clears fairly quickly after a few minutes of flushing your taps through but it may take around 45 minutes of running the tap before it clears.
Ways to Find Out If Your Drinking Water Is Safe
The news is full of dire warnings about pollutants, toxins, bacteria, and other worrisome extras turning up in drinking water. But how do you find out if the water coming out of your kitchen tap is safe? It’s not as hard as you might think—there’s a surprising amount of information out there, if you know where to look for it.
Check With Your Water Company
You know that bill you pay every month, or every quarter, for your drinking water? It’s the first stepping-stone on your search. Every year, your water agency is required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to supply you with a Consumer Confidence Report, which is an annual water quality report that details any and all contaminants that may be present in your water and alerts you to the health risks they pose.
Search the Environmental Working Group’s National Drinking Water Database
This watchdog agency maintains a handy-dandy (and easier to use) database of water quality reports, searchable by zip code and by water company.
At first glance, the results can be scary. That’s because the EWG highlights chemicals that are found to be above what it terms the “health limit” in addition to those that exceed the legal limit for safe water. The EWG’s data also includes many chemicals that aren’t regulated—meaning chemicals for which the EPA has not set legal limits. For these chemicals, it uses zero as the baseline, so water that contains any amount of the chemicals is flagged.
Use the EPA’s Drinking Water Watch Program
Eighteen states participate in the EPA’s Drinking Water Watch program, which links to a searchable database of detailed information on water quality violations, reported health hazards, and actions taken by the state to enforce water quality or clean up pollution.