Automated Well Water Contamination Tester and Web Service

Abstract

Clean water sustains life. Contamination puts health at risk. Municipal water in developed regions is regulated by government environmental protection agencies, but well-water is not regulated. Well-water typically has recommended water tests and recommended maximum allowed levels of key contaminants, but the responsibility falls to the owner of the well. Many well-owners do not have the training or resources to coordinate annual water tests, interpret the test results and take appropriate treatment actions, if necessary. The goal of this study was to develop an automatic water testing system and record the results in a web service database accessible by the well owner and appropriate stakeholders. An Arduino based testing system was developed that tested for pH level, coliform bacteria, total dissolved solids (TDS), and lead. These four tests do not cover all the regulated contaminants, but these test values would be affected by many of the other contaminants of interest. Thus, these four water tests can serve a screening function, to warn if water contamination levels may be changing and need closer examination by a certified water testing service. The prototype obtained sampled water from a reservoir, but the envisioned system would have the water intake mechanism directly connected to the plumbing of the building to automatically obtain samples. The function of the prototype appears promising. The test results were sent by WiFi over an HTTP Request to a web service that was developed for this project. The web service received HTTP requests, had a SQL database, and front-end web pages for user system configuration and observation of test results. Further testing and development are necessary toward deployment. Such a home-based automatic testing system would reduce the risk of well-water being contaminated, but still being consumed because the well-owner did not realize the level of the contamination. Risk to health for many people who rely on well-water would be reduced.