Lincoln results

Last week HydroMetrics set up a nitrate water testing station in Lincoln. This event attracted many Selwyn locals who wished to test their rural well supply and the national Newshub team. Last night Newshub released their story on the 6 pm news, Study finds one in six Kiwis exposed to high levels of nitrates in tap water.

We collated all the test results and here are our conclusions:

59 water samples were measured for nitrates from local drinking water wells at our recent public measuring event. Of those samples, 44 people kindly agreed to allow us to share the results anonymously so others in the region could understand the potential issues.

Looking at the graph, we recorded 2 samples that exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) Maximum Allowable Value (MAV) (orange line on the graph); however you can see there was a large number of wells were recording more than 50% of MAV (thick grey line on the graph).

11.3 mg/L Nitrate Nitrogen (NO3-N) limit is recommended by the WHO, which is currently adopted by the New Zealand Government.

We’ve since had multiple enquiries asking when we are setting up our next nitrate water testing station. We will be running another testing event at the South Island Agricultural Field Days, 24-26 March and will be exhibiting in the Covered Marquee at Site C31. 

For those located outside the Canterbury area, we recommend submitting your water samples to Hill Laboratories for testing.