About WaterTestAtlas

Who we are

WaterTestAtlas is a guide to testing the water in your home. We help you work out which tests fit your water and your situation, find a lab certified by your state to test drinking water, and make sense of the numbers when the report comes back. Every article is approved by a named reviewer from our review board, under our editorial policy.

Much of what we cover starts with one fact about private wells. EPA says private well owners are responsible for delivering safe drinking water to their households, and that water from private wells is not regulated by the federal government under the Safe Drinking Water Act, nor by most state governments. Around 15 percent^[1] of the U.S. population relies on a private well for drinking water, so for many households, nobody else is checking. People on city water test too, and we cover the tests that make sense at the tap as well.

What we do

We take you from a question about your water to a lab result you understand.

• Learn. Our pages explain each test in plain language: what it looks for, who should consider it, how to collect the sample and what a result means. Start with the water tests we cover.
• Decide. The test finder asks a few questions, such as your ZIP code, where your water comes from and why you are testing, and turns your answers into a test plan. Every test in the plan comes with the reason it is there, and tests we don't prioritize for you are listed with a reason too.
• Route. For the tests in your plan, we show labs certified by your state to test drinking water, and for each test that has a state certification of its own. You are not left to search a state registry yourself. You can also browse the certified lab directory or see water testing in your state.
• Buy. Some labs take orders through WaterTestAtlas. For the others, we show you how to order directly from the lab. Either way, we name the lab before you pay.
• Understand. When your report arrives, check your water test results to see each value next to the benchmark it is measured against, in plain language, with what to do next.

How WaterTestAtlas works walks through each step in more detail.

What we are not

WaterTestAtlas is not a laboratory. We don't collect samples, run tests or issue lab reports. Every test is run by a lab we name, certified by the state where you live.

States run these certification programs. In Michigan, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) certifies laboratories for the analysis of drinking water, and its process includes a review of each lab's quality assurance plan and procedures and an on-site audit of the facility. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) accredits environmental laboratories that test drinking water. In Ohio, Ohio EPA's Division of Drinking and Ground Waters publishes the list of laboratories certified to analyze public drinking water. We read lab certifications from these state sources, not from the labs' own marketing.

EPA itself does not test water for households. It encourages people who want their water tested to contact a state-certified drinking water laboratory, and suggests that private well owners contact their state program for guidance or a certified lab directly.

We are also not a doctor or a treatment dealer. We don't give medical advice, and we don't recommend treatment without a certified-lab result. When your results come back below every benchmark, "no treatment needed" is a real answer, and we say so.

Independence

Where a lab takes orders through WaterTestAtlas, we earn money on those orders. That money never decides which lab you see first. Labs are ranked by price, convenience and turnaround for the tests you need, and what we earn on an order is not an input to that ranking. A lab that takes no orders through us is ranked by the same rules, and if it is the best value for your tests, it is shown first.

Health guidance on this site comes from published benchmarks and versioned data, not from who pays us. We don't accept payment to change a test plan, a lab ranking or the meaning of a result. How we make money explains where our revenue comes from and what it never changes.

Our sibling site, TapWaterData

TapWaterData is a separate site run alongside WaterTestAtlas, with a different job. It publishes public data about drinking water, such as what utilities have reported. WaterTestAtlas does not repeat that data. Our focus is testing the water in your own home at a certified lab and understanding the result.

Public drinking water data on TapWaterData (opens in a new tab)

Source: TapWaterData