My Water Report. Good or Bad

Could someone give me their input ? I attached it in Paint Format. Thanks !

I was about to do some water forensics and reconstruct the missing Ca, Mg and HCO3 from this but I then noticed that hardness has an average of 76 with a maximum of 452 !! That's a rather wide swing and I suspect that you get water from different sources. Most likely a mix of ground and surface water.

Those changes will make it difficult to trust your water. You cold pick up a GH&KH water test and track changes in your water or use an R/O system to level the ion profile to near 0 and than use salts.

GH&KH test kits only measure Ca+Mg and HCO3 they will not tell you about swings in Cl and SO4.

The sodium is elevated but may not be a concern yet. If you are getting concerned about the sodium you could brew a batch with R/O water + salts that mimics the rest of the water profile.

Kai

Finding Water info online for this small town I live in is like pulling teeth, Here's something I found from 2007:


Water Quality Data Table
The table below lists all of the drinking water contaminants that we detected during the calendar year of this report. The presence of contaminants in the water does not necessarily indicate that the water poses a health risk. Unless otherwise noted, the data presented in this table is from testing done in the calendar year of the report. The EPA or the State requires us to monitor for certain contaminants less than once per year because the concentrations of these contaminants do not change frequently.

MCLG MCL,
or TT, or Your Range Sample
Contaminants MRDLG MRDL Water Low High Date Violation Typical Source

Disinfectants & Disinfection By-Products
(There is convincing evidence that addition of a disinfectant is necessary for control of microbial contaminants.)
Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) (ppb) NA 60 54 38 73 2007 No By-product of drinking water chlorination
TTHMs [Total Trihalomethanes] (ppb) NA 80 55 27 97 2007 No By-product of drinking water disinfection
Inorganic Contaminants
Fluoride (ppm) 4 4 .85 0.5 1.2 2007 No Erosion of natural deposits; Water additive which promotes strong teeth; Discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories
Nitrate [measured as Nitrogen] (ppm) 10 10 0.14 NA 2007 No Runoff from fertilizer use; Leaching from septic tanks, sewage; Erosion of natural deposits
Microbiological Contaminants
Total Coliform (positive samples/month) 0 1 0 NA 2007 No Naturally present in the environment
Turbidity (NTU) 100% of the samples were below the TT value of 0.3.
A value less than 95% constitutes a TT violation. 2007 No Soil runoff
Highest single measurement in 2007 was 0.089. Any measurement in excess of 5 is a violation unless otherwise approved by the state.




Your Sample # Samples Exceeds
Contaminants MCLG AL Water Date Exceeding AL AL Typical Source

Inorganic Contaminants
Copper - action level at consumer taps (ppm) 1.3 1.3 0.043 2005 0 No Corrosion of household plumbing systems; Erosion of natural deposits
Lead - action level at consumer taps (ppm) 0 0.015 0 2005 1 No Corrosion of household plumbing systems; Erosion of natural deposits


Unit Descriptions
Term Definition
Ppm ppm: parts per million, or milligrams per liter (mg/L)
Ppb ppb: parts per billion, or micrograms per liter (µg/L)
NTU NTU: Nephelometric Turbidity Units. Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness of the water. We monitor it because it is a good indicator of the effectiveness of our filtration system.
positive samples/month positive samples/month: Number of samples taken monthly that were found to be positive
NA NA: not applicable
ND ND: Not detected
NR NR: Monitoring not required, but recommended.


Important Drinking Water Definitions
Term Definition
MCLG MCLG: Maximum Contaminant Level Goal: The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.
MCL MCL: Maximum Contaminant Level: The highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology.
TT TT: Treatment Technique: A required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in drinking water.
AL AL: Action Level: The concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow.
Variances and Exemptions Variances and Exemptions: State or EPA permission not to meet an MCL or a treatment technique under certain conditions.
MRDLG MRDLG: Maximum residual disinfection level goal. The level of a drinking water disinfectant below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MRDLGs do not reflect the benefits of the use of disinfectants to control microbial contaminants.
MRDL MRDL: Maximum residual disinfectant level. The highest level of a disinfectant allowed in drinking water. There is convincing evidence that addition of a disinfectant is necessary for control of microbial contaminants.
MNR MNR: Monitored Not Regulated
MPL MPL: State Assigned Maximum Permissible Level

yes, there is not much useful information in that report.

Kai

Your report is not the easiest style to read, but I interpret it differently. For instance, your hardness. The EPA standard is (arbitrarily) 180. They don't give you your hardness number. The next column is Average. Yet they don't explain how they arrive at an average. The next column is Maximum Value, which they say is 452.8. The last column is % exceeding standard. Your water exceeds the EPA Standard by .078. 180X.078=194. Your hardness is at 194.

Does your tap water taste good? You've brewed and bottled beer. How does it taste?

As for sodium, mine is 130 with a SMCL of 100, but the water is sweet not salty.

JW

My water actually tastes very good !!....I can't find anything wrong with the taste...