Well Testing After Tropical Storm Ida

The Hillsborough Health Department and Garden State Laboratories have worked out an agreement to help residents with drinking water wells to test them for bacterial contamination that can happen when flooding washes contaminants into the well. 

If your well cap was submerged or if your well cap is under the ground and you had water on your property, your well may be contaminated. We also recommend that any well be tested after a substantial amount of rain, and also on an annual basis for bacterial contamination.

If your well is contaminated, you will need to disinfect the well. This can be done by following the instructions posted online and then retesting, or you can have a well driller or well pump contractor do the disinfection for you. 

If you are interested in testing your well for bacterial contamination, without charge, please follow these instructions:

Garden State Labs will provide well testing kits that can be picked up at the Hillsborough Health Dept. on Tuesday, September 7 (after 10:00am) through Thursday, September 9. You should follow the instructions, fill out the form, and return to the Health Dept. The sample must be tested within 24 hours, so if you are going to test, take the sample immediately before coming to the health department to drop it off. We will refrigerate the samples and Garden State Labs will pick up the samples on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. You will receive the results in the mail. Please call the Hillsborough Health Department at 908-369-5652 if you would like to have your well tested.

Well Water Testing Instructions
Well Water Testing  Form

Directions for Disinfecting a Home Well in New Jersey