Grey Bruce Public Health is encouraging residents who have private wells to test their water now.
Senior Public Health Manager Andrew Barton says spring is a great time to test your well water as winter thaws away. He points out that private wells aren't tested and monitored like municipal water systems, so it's critical to have any private wells tested to prevent illness.
"Making sure that the water is safe when you're on a private system, nobody else is doing it for you, you kind of have to that yourself. We're testing for e-coli and total coliforms, e-coli in particular, it's quite important to make sure there isn't any in the drinking water because it can cause quite serious illness," Barton said.
As winter begins to thaw away, Barton says this time of year is a great time to do a test of your well water.
"Wells are part of the environment and there's different pressures on a well at different times of the year, so, we do advise particularly during the spring, you have the snowmelt and a lot of surface water. It's a challenging time for wells, so it's a great time to test," noted Barton.
Public Health Ontario operates a complimentary well water testing program. Barton says the process is very easy, and residents can pick up a sample collection kit and drop off a water sample at one of the 14 drop-off and pick-up locations throughout Grey-Bruce.
"Essentially you're just taking a small sample from your kitchen tap, and getting that into the lab. Again, the instructions that come with the bottle tell you how to use the barcode, how to keep the information you need to get those results back from the lab," Barton added.
Samples dropped off at the Owen Sound and Walkerton locations are transported each weekday to a PHO laboratory for testing.
Couriers contracted by Public Health also pick up samples at locations along a Bruce County route on Wednesdays and a Grey County route on Fridays. A PHO courier then takes the samples to a PHO lab.
A map of the sample drop-off locations, along with information on when to collect samples and drop them off, is available on GBPH’s Private Drinking Water webpage.