Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Well Water Analysis

Ah, looks like fishery is involved, and it's a huge one no less. So, here goes:

1. You've got the hardness down, which indicate the binding to heavy metal is readily available, but is there both suspended and dissolved heavy metal? Heavy metals of concerns, from natural to hydrological blooms from underground contamination, are:

Arsenic
Selenium
Lead
Mercury
Chromium

These will effect primarily human/animal health. However, bio-accumulation occur from the base food chains to the apex predators, before human/animal consumption. Since you're exposing yourself to the water for recreational purposes, ingestion is also being accounted at this point.

2. You have salinity level down. If water comes in, but does not go out, salinity will increase over time. Dilution is not the solution. It's just a patch job. So, if there's no water going out, you also need to know the primary water body's current salinity concentration. This will aid you to come up with a plan to expel out some water in the main water body before accepting more water from the well.

3. If you live near a heavily urbanized area, or the ground water is close to a landfill, make sure to check for chemical oxygen demand (COD), as well as cadmium, PCB. If you are smacked in the agricultural area, check of Nitrate-Nitrite+Nitrogen level, and any known organo-pesticides/herbicides that may be used within the area.

4. Check for dissolved oxygen content in the ground water, which you may first off-gas the well water and infuse additional oxygen content prior to introducing to the main water body. Fish kill can occur. This also go in tandem with total suspended solids (no need for total dissolved solids since the hardness already dictated that your friend well water has minor amount) to predict possible water clarity coming from the well water.

So far, that's my chime on water quality from underground source to above ground, into recreational and fishery water body.