Bore Water Lab Testing - Understanding Results, Common Quality Issues & Treatment Options

What can you learn from a water quality lab test? This video offers a comprehensive overview of the key parameters that are tested for to determine the suitability of water for drinking, irrigation, stock use & its effects on plumbing.

Most of the information in this video was collated from the resources provided by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI), which is where we purchased our Water Testing Kit. You can download these resources for free here, and learn more about water testing with DPI:
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agricultur...

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Our key challenges with water quality are Sodicity and Excessive Iron Content.

The high level of sodium can accumulate in soil and cause infiltration and structural issues with the soil. The key ways of dealing with this are to ensure the soil is healthy by establishing vegetation groundcover - because vegetation works with the microbes in the soil to flush out excess minerals such as sodium, or to convert them to nutrients. The other part of the strategy is to blend the bore water with rain water to dilute the concentration of minerals, and to reserve it for periods of drought only.

The excess iron ended up turning our water orange shortly after being pumped out from the bore because the iron oxidised upon contact with oxygen (there is no oxygen underground). This left orange stains on water cannisters, fittings and clothes, and accumulated in plumbing fixtures (but was easy to remove). The solution to this problem was very simple - just allowing the water to settle for a week or two in our water tank. But do note, the pH needs to be above 7 for iron to oxidise effectively with 7.2 being optimal.

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World Health Organisation guidelines for pH in drinking water:
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/defaul...

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World Health Organisation guidelines for Hardness in drinking water:
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/defaul....

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Understanding Salinity in drinking water with the Govt of South Australia, referencing WHO guidelines:
https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wc...

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To learn more about soil sodicity, here are a couple of great resources for understanding what it is, and some of the available remedies:

A guide for understanding and dealing with sodic soil from James Cook University, working with CSIRO and other research entities:
https://www.jcu.edu.au/__data/assets/...

An environmental consultancy's approach of working with nature to counteract sodicity:
https://www.envirostraw.com.au/when-m...

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

00:00 - Intro
00:53 - Collecting a Bore Water Sample
03:09 - Water Quality Results Intro
06:11 - Interpreting the Water Test Results
09:25 - Understanding Water pH
13:03 - Understanding Water Alkalinity
14:00 - Understanding Water Salinity
18:32 - Understanding Water Hardness
21:02 - Understanding the Langelier Saturation Index (Calcium Carbonate Saturation Index)
23:20 - Understanding Sodium in Bore Water & Its Effect on Soil Sodicity
27:09 - Understanding Water Turbidity in Drinking Water
27:43 - Iron in Bore Water
31:00 - Common Water Quality Problems & Solutions
31:18 - Adjusting Water pH
31:55 - Treating Water Salinity (Desalination with Reverse Osmosis)
34:40 - Treating Hard Bore Water
35:40 - Removing Excess Iron from Bore Water
38:55 - Using Sodic Water & Managing Soil Sodicity

About Us:
We're Alex & Sarah, a young couple on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, who decided to move off grid and leave the city life behind in search of more peace and simplicity. Follow our journey as we share what we learn along the way while building our Fully Off Grid Home & restoring our Overgrown Organic Tea Tree Plantation.

Filmed with GoPro Hero 12 & DJI Mini SE Drone.