Iron. Magnesium. Nitrates. Coliform bacteria. Sulfur. High pH. Low pH.
There are all sorts of potential problems you can have with the water you and your family rely on. It doesn’t matter whether you get your water from a town supply, or you get your water from a private well located on your property. Water problems happen and sooner or later, they happen to just about everyone.
Unfortunately, water isn’t something that most people living in the United States spend much time thinking or worrying about. The assumption is that as long as water comes out of the tap when you turn a faucet on, and as long as the shower gets hot in the morning and your toilet’s tank fills up when you flush, there’s no problem. That’s a mistake. Sometimes, what you don’t know can hurt, or even kill you.
With that in mind, here’s an important question: When was the last time you took advantage of our water testing services in Vienna, VA?
It may be the case that it’s been so long you don’t even recall the date. It may be the case that you’ve literally never bothered to have your water tested.
If either of those are true, we recommend giving our office a call and having one or more water tests conducted on your Vienna, VA property as soon as possible.
There are two reasons we recommend this course of action: First, it gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing – not assuming, but outright knowing—what your water’s profile looks like. What’s in it, and just as importantly, what isn’t.
Second, it gives you a baseline. You can use that baseline to track changes to the water you rely on over time, taking advantage of our water testing services in Vienna, VA at least once a year after the baseline is established so you can see incremental changes over time. Then, if you spot a problem, you’ll be able to correct it relatively quickly and easily before it becomes an issue serious enough to send a member of your family to the hospital.
You might think that if you live in town and get your water from the town’s supply that testing doesn’t matter as much. We wish that were the case but unfortunately, it isn’t. Many people assume that cities and towns are legally obligated to provide safe, high quality drinking water, but that’s actually not true. Municipalities are mandated to provide drinking water that won’t kill their citizens, but sometimes, they fail even at that.
Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that the town of Flint, Michigan made headlines all across the country and the Red Cross had to bring bottled water in by the truck load while the city worked frantically to correct the issue.
Even today, Flint’s water isn’t great. It’s better than it was when Flint’s water issues were making headlines, but it’s far from perfect, even now.
That’s one more reason why periodic water tests in Vienna, VA are important. Since you can’t count on the city to supply you with safe water, the only way to know for sure is to test, establish a baseline and retest at regular intervals (we recommend once a year).
Of course, it’s also worth mentioning that water testing isn’t always about health and safety. Quality matters and just as municipalities aren’t mandated to provide water that won’t send you to the hospital, they’re also not required to pay any particular attention to water quality.
That means that depending on where you live, you could wind up with water that’s too hard and leaves a nasty buildup on your faucets, or water that stains everything it touches. Water that smells or tastes so bad you can barely get it past your lips to drink it.
To be fair, if you have water like that, you can drink it. It won’t kill you and in most cases, it won’t even make you sick, it’s just not very pleasant.
The good news is that you don’t have to put up with low quality water like that.
If the town you’re getting your water from isn’t’ going to bat for its residents and providing high quality drinking water for everyone, testing is the first step down the path of fixing the problem. Once you know exactly what’s causing your water quality to suffer, there are specific action steps you can take to address particular problems.
We’ll be the first people to admit that periodic water testing isn’t glamorous. It’s not something you’ll ever win an award for, or have praise heaped on you about. It’s just one of those little details in life that have to be attended to now and then. If you take the time to do it, your life just tends to run more smoothly because you have one less thing to worry about. You can probably get away with not bothering with it for a while, but sooner or later, statistically speaking, the day’s coming when you’re going to come fact to face with a water problem.
You can either let it catch you by surprise and have a relatively difficult time dealing with it, or you can be proactive and have a fairly easy time dealing with it.
If you’d prefer not to face the nasty surprise, there’s an easy fix for that. Give our office a call today.