Get Your Drinking Water Tested
Routine Domestic Water Analysis Routine domestic water analyses (a.k.a. a Routine Domestic Panel, a Routine Domestic Analysis, or an "Escrow Package") are usually requested by private well owners for their own drinking water quality information, or to satisfy a lender's requirement for a pending real estate sale. These analyses determine the concentrations of several water quality indicators in drinking water. More information on drinking water contaminants can be found at the EPA website.
When done as a condition required by a lending institution for the transfer of real property, the testing must be performed by a laboratory certified by the State of Nevada under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The lab can be certified for one or all of the items of interest. If the laboratory is not certified for all the items typically requested by lenders, it may subcontract those tests to another Nevada Certified Laboratory.
It's the Law
Please see NRS 455A.863 which states that only laboratories that have State of Nevada SDWA certification are eligible to perform drinking water testing "required by a lender as a condition precedent to the transfer of real property." Not all laboratories are certified under the SDWA. Many labs are certified under the Clean Water Act (CWA) or Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA), but may not have SDWA certification.
The question to ask the laboratory is: Are you certified by the State of Nevada to analyze Drinking Water compliance samples?
Analytes typically tested for:
The following table contains a list of in-state Nevada Certified Drinking Water Laboratories that accept samples from the public. This list was last updated December 28, 2023. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Savannah Hash (shash [at] ndep.nv.gov) with the NDEP Laboratory Certification Program.
How much will it cost?
Costs will vary from lab to lab. Please contact the lab for their pricing.
What if I use a lab that is not certified to analyze drinking water samples?
Labs who are not certified by the State of Nevada for the specific parameters they are testing cannot submit data for compliance purposes. If you are just curious about your water quality, then you do not need to have a certified lab complete the analysis, but note the state cannot provide any degree of confidence that the results are accurate or reliable.
What do the results mean?
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension has several publications that may be of help.
- Understanding Lab Results
- Matching Drinking Water Quality Problems to Treatment Methods
- Well Water Testing
Additional Information:
NDEP Website for Information about Private Well