How do you know that your drinking water is safe?
Clear water is often associated with being healthy. However, human senses alone are not able to determine safe and clean drinking water.
What is healthy water?
Maximum contaminant levels (MCL) and goals (MCLG) have been established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and regulated by Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to provide safe and healthy drinking water to Montana consumers. Healthy water is water that can be consumed by all life without harm from toxic (immediate harm) or carcinogenic (long term) effects. Along with proper testing, if tastes, smells, looks, and feels like the best water, to our present knowledge, it’s healthy water worthy of our senses too!
How do we achieve healthy drinking water?
Achieving healthy drinking water usually involves collecting water samples to test for the various chemical, biological, and physical factors of your water source. Once a public water system or private homeowner’s source water quality is known, then prevention and or treatment can begin. Montana Healthy Water, LLC researches the drinking water history of a property, collects needed water samples, and delivers these samples to a nationally certified testing lab for testing and analysis. Results, research, and recommendations are given to owners for consideration and action.
What about people who own their own wells? Are they protected?
There are very few rules to ensure private wells and water systems are planned, installed, and maintained correctly. Home loans, home inspectors, or sickness may trigger a few water tests to be completed. Various pockets of arsenic, fluoride, nitrate, radium and other contamination are showing up in wells in the Flathead Valley. Loss of water from overuse by others depletes neighborhood wells along with a long drought. Who maintains the well, pump, and treatment systems? How close is your septic and drain field to your well?
