Ground Water Testing

Swimming Pool Water Testing / Ground Water Testing

This test helps in determining the contamination by potentially harmful bacteria and other micro-organisms. Short term gastrointestinal disorders and illnesses such as gastro-enteritis, giardiasis, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and hepatitis have been linked to water contaminated by microorganisms. The micro-organisms which find their way into a water supply can come from a variety of sources including sewage, animal wastes, or dead and decaying animals.
Test Method: APHA 9125 B

Biochemical oxygen demand:

This test helps in determining the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. It is not a precise quantitative test, although it is widely used as an indication of the organic quality of water.
Test Method: APHA 5210 B

Coliforms (total and faecal):

This test helps in monitoring the increase or decrease of many pathogenic bacteria
Test Method: APHA 9222 B , APHA 9221 E

Total Plate count:

The plate count method relies on bacteria growing a colony on a nutrient medium so that the colony becomes visible to the naked eye and the number of colonies on a plate can be counted.
Test Method:

Streptococci (faecal):

This test helps in determining the information about the source of contamination.
Test Method: BS EN ISO 7889-2 : 2000

Enterococci Escherichia coli:

This test helps in determining the risk of gastrointestinal infections and other related illnesses.
Test Method: BS EN ISO 7889-2 : 2000

Legionella:

This test helps in identification of food poisoning bacteria including Salmonella, Listeria, E.coli O157, Campylobacter and Clostridium perfringens.
Test Method: ISO 11731

Pseudomonas aeruginosa:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium commonly found in spas and purified water systems. If allowed to reach unsafe levels. The presence of pseudomonas may cause several health problems including skin rash and other skin infections, ear infection, urinary tract infection, and in rare instances, pneumonia. As spa or purified water system operators, you should be aware of pseudomonas, and how to control its growth.
Test Method: APHA 9213 E

Suspended solids:

This test helps in determining the water quality. Suspended solids refer to small solid particles which remain in suspension in water as a colloid or due to the motion of the water.
Test Method: APHA 2540 D

Total grease:

This test helps in determining oil and grease concentration levels is important for offshore oil platforms, refineries and oil depots. It can also be operated flexibly to address a series of process issues. The most common sites of operation are prior to and after water purification systems, such as primary to tertiary water separators, water feeds and filtration equipment.
Test Method: APHA 5520 B

Ground Water Testing

These kids probably think there is some kind of magic happening here … they pulldown a lever and out of the ground below their feet comes clear, cool freshwater. They (and maybe you) may not realize that there is an immense amount of water in aquifers below the earth’s surface. In fact, there is a over a thousand times more water in the ground than is in all the world’s rivers and lakes.

Some water underlies the Earth’s surface almost everywhere, beneath hills, mountains, plains, and deserts. It is not always accessible, or fresh enough for use without treatment, and it’s sometimes difficult to locate or to measure and describe. This water may occur close to the land surface, as in a marsh, or it may lie many hundreds of feet below the surface, as in some arid areas of the western United States. Water at very shallow depths might be just a few hours old; at moderate depth, it may be 100 years old; and at great depth or after having flowed long distances from places of entry, the water may have been in the ground for several thousand years

pH

The pH value is a good indicator of whether water is hard or soft. The pH of pure water is 7. In general, water with a pH lower than 7 is considered acidic, and with a pH greater than 7 is considered basic. The normal range for pH in surface water systems is 6.5 to 8.5, and the pH range for groundwater systems is between 6 to 8.5. Alkalinity is a measure of the capacity of the water to resist a change in pH that would tend to make the water more acidic. The measurement of alkalinity and pH is needed to determine the corrosiveness of the water.

Sulphate

Sulphate is one of the major dissolved components of rain. High concentrations of Sulphate in the water we drink can have a laxative effect when combined with calcium and magnesium, the two most common constituents of hardness. Bacteria, which attack and reduce sulfates, form hydrogen sulfide gas.

Chloride

Chlorides are widely distributed in nature as salts of sodium (NaCl), potassium (KCl), and calcium (CaCl2). The taste threshold of the chloride anion in water is dependent on the associated cation. Taste thresholds for sodium chloride and calcium chloride in water are in the range 200–300 mg/litre.

Total Dissolved Solids

Dissolved solids” refer to any minerals, salts, metals, cations or anions dissolved in water. Total dissolved solids (TDS) comprise inorganic salts (principally calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides, and sulfates) and some small amounts of organic matter that are dissolved in water.