Water Quality & your Well
Many homes in the Napa Valley provide their own water from water wells or springs. Many of these springs and wells have water that tastes good, doesn’t stain fixtures or leave water spots and are free of bacterial and other type of contamination. Some of these wells and springs have various types of contamination present. In this blog we’ll be discussing the common types of water contamination we encounter in our neck of the woods and the first steps in resolving the common water quality issues encountered in the Napa Valley! Stay tuned to our blog post later this month where we will discuss the types of filters that are most appropriate for the common water problems we encounter in the Napa Valley.
Many customers realize they they may have a problem with their water quality when they see, brown, red, black or green staining in their sinks or toilets. Perhaps there are white spots on the glass shower door or on the glass dishes. Perhaps a strong rotten egg odor is present, particularly when hot water is being used.
The FIRST STEP in solving a problem with your water quality is to test the water at a proper water testing laboratory. For fast local results we recommend CalTest Laboratories. Another, slower but more economical option is to use an NTL Watercheck kit to sample and send the water to a certified out of state lab. OPS has these kits in stock and can provide the kit to you for you to do yourself or OPS can take the samples, ensuring they are properly taken from your water source. improperly sampling for bacterial can lead to a lab result that shows your have bacteria present when your well is actually clean. Some samples, if any air is present can cause the sample to be invalidated, etc…
Once you have the results of water analysis, it’s time to understand what they mean. Many laboratory reports are technical in nature. Knowing how much of something is considered dangerous/problematic and what the problems associated with particular contaminates is very important. Some contaminates may just cause unpleasant staining or tastes, but other contaminates may not have a taste or cause staining, but can potentially cause cancer or other negative health problems.
If you have a highly technical report it is likely you will need to consult the EPA website https://www.epa.gov/wqs-tech in order to sort out the problem contaminates. If you are in the Napa Valley, call our staff at Oakville Pump and we’ll help you sort through the report and find anything that is potentially of concern and help you understand if it poses a health risk or is just aesthetic in nature. One of the reasons we recommend the NTL Watercheck kit is because of their stellar water reports. The water analysis report has your results in a color-coded key that clearly communicates if your water has potential contaminates. Green indicates a potential contaminate level is well below EPA guidelines for water quality, Yellow indicates that a particulate contaminate is at or near the maximum recommended level for a contaminate and Red indicates that a particular mineral, metal or compound is at a potentially high/dangerous level.
Only after you understand the results should the process of determining if and what type of water filter would be most appropriate. Many online companies tout their product as being able to filter “everything” which usually means that it is marginally effective at filtering anything. Water filtration must be specifically developed to remove the type of contaminate present and to be able to provide sufficient water flow for your application! That being said, here are the most common types of water contaminates/problems we encounter in the Napa Valley are:
Iron (red/brown staining)
Manganese (Dark brown/Black staining) Hydrogen Sulphide (rotten egg odor, particularly in hot water)
Magnesium & Calcium (hard water that leaves white water sots)
Silica (White haze which cannot be cleaned or removed and is actually caused by the microscopic silica particles bonding to the glass)
Low pH (low water pH means that the water is acidic and can corrode metal piping which can lead to red or green staining in fixtures)
Bacteria (caused by a well influenced by surface water or a spring that is not tight enough to keep the bugs out).
Arsenic (potentially dangerous at levels above 10 parts per billion, typically found in the Napa Valley from around St. Helena north to Calistoga)
Boron (harmful to many plants and vineyards, stunting growth and potentially killing the plants, found in various places up and down the Napa Valley)
It is also important to decide if you want to treat all the water or at a point where it matters. For example, If you have water with high levels of hardness and arsenic with a little bit of iron, treating water used for landscaping may not be necessary at all and just treating the water used for the house for hardness and iron will help with any staining. To ensure that water safe for cooking and drinking is available, an under sink reverse osmosis can be installed in the kitchen. To treat all the water for hardness, iron and arsenic would be an extremely expensive option that would waste a lot of water!
For more information on Water Quality and Filtration in the Napa Valley, check out our FAQ page or give our highly trained and experienced staff a call at (707)944-2471.