Gary L. Hix Water Well Consultant

The Arizona Association of REALTORS® Domestic Water Well Addendum form (DWWA5/05, Item C.) calls for a “certified flow test” of a private water well to be conducted during the inspection period. The term certified, however, is not defined anywhere in the form, nor is the manner in which the flow test is to be conducted.  Just as ambiguous is the issue of someone stating that the water supplied by a private well is “certified potable,” as called for whenever federal funding is involved.

REALTORS® who are licensed in Arizona are certainly familiar with the designation Certified Home Inspector. Used in this connotation, the term Certified is a form of licensure, since without the State’s Certification, you are prohibited from practicing the trade of doing home inspections. The term Certified as used on this AAR form does not apply to Home Inspectors, because water well inspections were excluded from the items that Certified Home Inspectors were to inspect. Arizona has yet to establish laws that designate who can, or should, be a Certified Water Well Inspector.

I am frequently provided with the following wording from major banks when I ask them what the “certified potable water quality test” is supposed to include.

“When required, water tests on existing properties must meet the requirements of the local authority. If the local authority does not have specific requirements, the maximum contaminate levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will apply.  If the authority is unable to perform the water quality analysis in a timely manner, a private commercial testing laboratory or a licensed sanitary engineer acceptable to the authority may take and test water samples”.

The public, and perhaps REALTORS®, and mortgage lenders, are not aware that there are no established standards for water quantity or quality for private water wells in Arizona, and many other states. Private water wells are virtually unregulated. There are, however, water quality standards established by the EPA for public water supplies. Could we, or should we, consider these public water supply standards as the “certified potable” standards to be applied to private water wells? If we do, the cost to home buyers who are buying a property with a private water well increase dramatically. Water quality testing and analysis by Certified laboratories includes highly technical procedures, using very sophisticated equipment, and thus they require an appreciable amount of time to complete, and they are very expensive!

Is it their intent for private well water quality to be the same as that coming from public supply wells? Should the quoted paragraph be strictly interpreted to mean that since there is no local authority that regulates private water well water quality in Arizona, then the EPA’s minimum requirements do apply? The micro organisms, elements, and/or compounds to be tested for under this requirement are not clearly defined and even if they were, what would be the acceptable limits for these items that the lending institution would accept?

To further confuse the issue, the most recent Veterans Administration wording is asking me Certify the following wording as it applies to shared or Co-Op wells. When inspecting one of these systems for the benefit of a single member, they want me to certify that:

“Well must be capable of providing a continuing supply of safe and potable water to each property simultaneously, so that each dwelling will be assured a sufficient quantity for all domestic purposes.”

From my perspective, that’s more than a little scary and even quite difficult to accomplish. When evaluating a shared well system it is the booster pumps supply the flow and pressure from a storage tank, not the well. Until the terms “certified flow test” and “certified potable” water have been clearly defined, and the people who perform these tests understand what they are certifying, it’s going to be hard to have parity among the pump test and water quality reports that buyers and lenders receive. It appears to me that the mortgage underwriters are asking private water well inspectors to certify that the water is sufficient, safe and potable without having clearly definable standards to meet.

It is permissible for someone to say that there is sufficient water quantity today, and the water is safe and potable today, but not guarantee what will the quantity or quality of the water in a week, a month, or a year later? Certifying that a given water well can produce a specified amount of water of an acceptable quality today is one thing. To Certify that the well can produce sufficient quantity and quality for a specified number of years into the future is going to be a very long stretch for any well inspector to make. I know that I’m not willing to make that statement.

I strongly promote that for the sake of mortgage lenders, REALTORS ®, and the water well service industry that these issues be clarified. The term certified flow test should mean that a flow test was conducted on a private water well by an individual who is Certified by an agency, or an association that is relevant to this type of work. The report could state in it an average current sustained yield of the well, an observed recovery rate, and an estimate of the volume in gallons per day that the well can be expected to deliver with the present equipment.

The home mortgage lending institutions may want to reconsider their guideline for what is a minimum sustained yield that would be a “pass” or “fail” number for a given buyer in a given area. Water demands are highly variable throughout the state and across the country. The federally backed lending institutions need to address their poor wording of their lending requirements to have a more practical meaning.

In order to address these issues and obtain clarification, we must first get the attention of the financial lending institutions, and the Federal backers of home loans in Washington DC. The resolved agreements must then be passed on to the REALTORS® who are charged with obtaining these reports, and finally to the water well inspectors who must sign their name under the word “certified“. The wording used on various state forms and federal lending requirements needs to be clarified to be accurate and meaningful.