Water testing

[stoneleigh]

Where does one go to get water from the home tested?

[Yo1]

If you are just testing for bacteria, etc.  take it in a sterile container to any lab.  If you want mineral content, heavy metals, etc there is a lab between here and Guad but it's very expensive.

[Ezzie]

The lab between here and Guad you are referring to will no longer take test samples from private systems.  If you need the full spectrum (like what the municipal systems are required to do by Conagua), there are several options in Guadalajara for private labs.

[cedros]

10 hours ago, Ezzie said:

The lab between here and Guad you are referring to will no longer take test samples from private systems.  If you need the full spectrum (like what the municipal systems are required to do by Conagua), there are several options in Guadalajara for private labs.

True-not open to the public. I priced some of the private labs in Guadalajara and the least expensive I found was 7,000 pesos. At Lakeside I tried 5 different labs with the same water and bacteria levels varied a lot between labs. 

[Ezzie]

The OP did not indicate what contaminants he/she is interested in testing for, so it can make a big difference where to get the testing done and the cost.

Most homeowners are interested in determining if there is anything in the water that can make them sick in the short term - called microbiologicals.  Typically the labs will test for coliforms which can cause intestinal disease/sickness.  2 tests are usually done - one for Total Coliforms and the other a subset of this called Fecal Coliforms.  The results are expressed in units of UFC (colony forming units)per 100 ml. of sample water.  Most of the local blood labs can do these tests for a modest cost but like the poster above stated, I would question the quality of what they do.

Water organizations that extract and supply water from the lake or from wells are licensed to do so by Federal Water Authority (Conagua).  These organizations usually are supplying water from  private wells (such as a subdivision, municipal operated wells, industrial process companies manufacturing consumer products and agricultural farms producing food for downstream consumption.  These entities are required by their extraction permits to test periodically to the Mexican standard NOM-127-SSA1-1994.  This standard consists of testing methodology used to test the levels of up to about 32 different parameters.  Agua Jalisco's lab does 28 different tests in 4 sub-categories on each sample of water from the municipal wells.  These include "Analisis de Campo" - 2, "Gravimetria y Fiscoquimico" - 12,  "Metales Pesados" - 12, and "Microbiologia" - 2.  These tests are fairly expensive to have done and usually the lab technicians come to the site to take the samples to ensure integrity of sample taking.

Conagua's limit on arsenic in drinking water is 0.025 mg/l and the local wells that I monitor for the community in which I live typically show only between 0.0025 and 0.0035 mg./l so not a huge concern in this area.