Watertestimage1The cities of Palmer and Wasilla have water systems that provide water for some of the residents. Some developments have their own community water systems.  All the rest of us in the Matanuska Valley get our water from wells.  If you have a private well you are the one responsible for knowing what you are drinking.  Most of the water that comes from wells in the valley tastes great right out of the ground.  However, even if it tastes fantastic it is surely not pure water.  There are bound to be contaminants of some level in your water.  And if you don’t test it you will have no idea what is there.  You can cause damage to your dishwasher, your plumbing, or even yourself depending on what is in your water. Alaska Water Conditioning will test your water for free!  This free water test will look for calcium, iron, ph levels, dissolved solids, sulphur, and more.  Depending on what is found, they can design a system to take care of it. 

According to Mike at Alaska Water Conditioning some wells in the valley have a low ph level, which is acidic.  If you have copper plumbing and notice blue-green stains this indicates that acidic water may be slowly eating away your copper pipes.  This can become a major problem if the pipes eventually erode to the point of collapse.  Can you imagine cutting into all your walls to replace all the copper? People with real deep wells will often have problems with methane or silt.  Methane is a natural gas that we use to heat our homes, but it isn’t pleasant in your water.  All of these problems can be reduced to an acceptable level with the right treatment system. Mat-Su Test Lab can test for such pleasantries as nitrates, arsenic, lead, and bacteria in your water.  It has always been amazing to me that we test for some of this stuff at closing and find problems large enough that the owners are advised to boil the water that they have been drinking out of their tap for years.  Bottom line, test.  I think I better take my own advice, it’s been quite a few years since I tested mine. For more on wells check out parts one, two and three in this series.