MASON CITY – The Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health is looking to collect a water sample from private well owners and/or users in the county who have never had their well tested by the Health Department office. The Health Department received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve the safety of the local unregulated drinking water in private wells.
As part of the program, well owners and users will be sent a flyer indicating a date for testing along with specific information about the tests. After receiving the flyer, private well owners and/or users are asked to call the Health Department to schedule a time to collect the water samples for testing. The tests will examine the water for contaminants that include bacteria, arsenic and nitrates that may be harmful to the well user’s health. The property owner does not need to be present during the collection of the samples. The Health Department simply needs their permission. The samples will be collected from an outside water source.
“It’s very important to stress that underground water sources are shared by more users than just the well we sample from,” said Erik Gustafson, Environmental Health Specialist, Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health. “Testing your water can provide peace of mind if everything comes back safe, or could alert you to ground water infiltration from a neighboring well or an abandoned unplugged well.”
