Well water testing in Wallowa County, Oregon

What to test for in Wallowa County

Private wells are not regulated like public water: EPA advises owners to test their well every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids and pH. Your state's own schedule:

• OHA says Oregon requires well testing only when a property with a well is sold, but it recommends testing for coliform and E. coli bacteria every year, nitrate every year, and arsenic every 3 to 5 years. You may need to test more often if the well has a history of contamination, the septic system recently malfunctioned, household members have a stomach illness, infants drink the water, or any equipment has broken. OHA lists typical costs of $20 to $40 for the bacteria and nitrate tests and $25 to $45 for arsenic. source
• If arsenic is above 8 ppb, OHA says to retest; if levels stay high, install a treatment system and keep testing every year at the faucet you drink from and every 3 years at the wellhead. source
• Oregon State University's Well Water Program advises testing for coliform bacteria at least once a year, when taste or color changes, after work on the well, if the well cap is not secure, or if surface water stands around the well. It suggests testing for nitrate if a pregnant woman or newborn will drink the water, and once a year if you live near fertilized fields, septic systems or livestock, or have had nitrate before. source

Arsenic. USGS estimates that about 79 people using private wells in Wallowa County had arsenic above 10 µg/L, EPA's limit for public water (2010 base year; 95% range 58 to 107). USGS describes this kind of estimate as useful "for broad screening of the population at risk", so it says nothing certain about any one well. Arsenic has no taste or smell: test for it by name.

Radon. EPA puts Wallowa County in Zone 3: low potential (average indoor radon may be less than 2 pCi/L). That map is about radon in indoor air, and EPA says it should not be used to decide whether an individual home needs testing. If radon is found in your air and you have a well, EPA suggests testing the water too: see radon in well water.

For anything specific to your home (farms nearby, old plumbing, a new baby, a smell or stain), use the which-tests checklist. When the results arrive, check your numbers against EPA's limits.

Testing programs and help in Oregon

• The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) offers a free well water test to households in Morrow and Umatilla counties whose well is inside the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (LUBGWMA) and is used for drinking and cooking (not commercial wells or public water systems). You apply for a testing voucher online. source
• In the LUBGWMA program the first test covers nitrate, arsenic, lead, total coliform and E. coli. Depending on the nitrate result, OHA and the county health departments offer free retesting; households at 10 mg/L or more qualify for free drinking water delivery, and those between 10 and 24.99 mg/L are also offered a free reverse osmosis system. OHA says free testing is not available to households outside the LUBGWMA. source
• OSU Extension's Well Water Program offers free nitrate screening of well water at many of its Groundwater Protection Education events. It also suggests contacting several certified labs about price and logistics before ordering tests. source

Buying a home with a well in Wallowa County

State-certified labs in Wallowa County

None of the labs on our Oregon list has an address in Wallowa County. Labs elsewhere in the state may take samples by mail or courier: ask the lab, and check the hold time for bacteria before you send one.

See all Oregon labs in the finder and filter by the test you need and by labs that take homeowner samples.