Good water quality is important to the health of the public. In communities surrounded by agriculture, there is potential for contamination of water resources by manure and fertilizer application. Nitrate and phosphate are plant nutrients needed for improved growth, but excesses of these nutrients cause adverse impacts on water resources. Excess plant nutrients also pose a health risk to those who depend on these water resources.  

According to the EPA, consuming water with nitrate levels of 10 ppm or higher is not safe. If the results of your simple home test are above 5, we recommend that you follow up with the Upper Big Blue NRD for a more sensitive test and to discuss next steps to ensure access to safe drinking water for all who use your well.

The goal of our program is to measure levels of plant nutrients present in water in domestic wells. The reason we are testing private wells on farms is to give an opportunity to farm families to improve their health by identifying potential contamination of drinking water supplies by excess nutrients.

Whether your results were high or low, we would like to know them. Thank you for reporting your results!