Where to Get Your Water Tested
This is the single most useful thing on this page. Nobody tests a private well but its owner, and the things most worth testing for in New Hampshire — arsenic, radon in water and uranium — cannot be detected any other way.
NHDES — Private Wells
The state's main page for private well owners: what to test for, how often, how to interpret results, and current guidance. Start here.
NHDES “Be Well Informed” Guide
A genuinely useful state tool: enter your water test results and it explains what each number means and what your treatment options are. Free, and considerably better than guessing.
Use an accredited laboratory. NHDES maintains the list of accredited environmental laboratories, and the state laboratory offers testing to the public. A home test strip tells you about hardness; it does not tell you about arsenic.
Testing intervals worth keeping to: bacteria and nitrate annually. A fuller panel including arsenic, radon and uranium every three to five years, and additionally whenever something changes — a new well, work on the system, flooding nearby, or a noticeable change in taste, smell or appearance. Also test any time a property changes hands, in both directions.
Official Resources
| Resource | What it covers |
|---|---|
| NHDES Drinking Water | The overall programme, including private wells and public supplies. |
| NHDES Private Wells | Testing guidance, construction standards, and owner responsibilities. |
| NH Water Well Board | Licensing of water well contractors and pump installers in New Hampshire. |
| NHDES well completion reports | The state holds completion reports filed when wells are drilled — depth, yield at completion, casing. Worth looking up for your own property. |
| Your town office | Local permitting, setback requirements, and any town-specific rules. |
| Your town health officer | Local point of contact on water quality concerns. |
Look up your own well's completion report. If your well was drilled in recent decades there is likely a record with the state showing its depth, the yield measured at completion, and the casing detail. That is genuinely useful information to have before something goes wrong — and if no record exists, that absence itself tells you roughly how old the well is.
Who to Call for What
We drill wells and fix pumps. These are the adjacent jobs well owners regularly ask us about, and who actually handles them.
| What you need | Who does it | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Water treatment — arsenic, radon, iron, hardness | Water treatment contractor | Get the test results first. A system sized to a real analysis beats one sold on a guess. |
| Plumbing inside the house | Licensed plumber | If one fixture is affected and the rest are fine, this is their job rather than ours. |
| Electrical work at the well | Licensed electrician | Repeated breaker trips can be a wiring fault rather than a pump fault. |
| Septic system work | Septic contractor | Well and septic separation matters, particularly on older small lots. |
| Radon in air (not water) | Radon mitigation contractor | Different problem, different fix. Both are worth testing for in NH. |
| Excavation and trenching | Excavation contractor | For the line from the well to the house on a new build. |
| Real-estate transactions | Your agent and attorney | Ask specifically about the well: depth, age, last test, and any completion record. |
No business pays to appear here and we take no referral fees. Named local trade listings are being verified before publication rather than scraped — if you run a water treatment, plumbing or laboratory business serving these towns and want to be considered, get in touch.
What Every Well Owner Should Know About Their Own Well
Most people cannot answer these, and all of them are worth knowing before an emergency rather than during one.
How deep is it, and when was it drilled?
Check the state completion report. If there is no record, the well predates the reporting requirement, which is itself useful information.
Where is the wellhead?
Sounds obvious. On properties with landscaping added over the years, genuinely is not always. Know where it is and keep it accessible and above grade.
Where is the breaker, and is there a separate disconnect?
Older systems frequently have a switch near the pressure tank as well as the breaker panel. Knowing about it saves a callout.
How old is the pump and the tank?
If they came with the house and nobody knows, assume they are due. Past twenty years on a rural property, a planned replacement beats an emergency one.
When was the water last tested, and for what?
“It has always been fine” is not a test result, and arsenic has no taste.
Is there an abandoned well on the property?
Common on older houses that once had a dug well. An unsealed abandoned well is a direct contamination route into the aquifer and a liability that transfers with the property.