To assess water quality, you should consider:
- Raw source water supply (river, dam, mains, bore water quality for the chicken farm).
- Water after treatment (after pre-treatment and disinfection).
- Water as consumed (at the end of the shed water line).
This will allow you to identify potential water quality issues from the source water and assess the effectiveness of water treatments and disinfection.
Some water quality monitoring can be carried out regularly on-farm, while laboratory water quality testing should be performed annually (see Table 6). If the annual guideline screening levels are exceeded or show problems, increase monitoring frequency to quarterly. Water quality should be assessed more regularly if source water quality has large seasonal fluctuations or there are significant events, e.g. storms, spills, algae blooms, etc.
Table 6. Generic frequencies for monitoring drinking water quality
| Frequency of sampling | Comments | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Monthly | Annually | ||
| Source water, treatment and distribution system inspection | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based Will be dependent on source water characteristics |
| Microbial | – | – | Faecal coliforms | Recommended annual sampling |
| Algal cell counts | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based |
| Cryptosporidium | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based |
| Giardia | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based |
| Salmonella | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based |
| Physical | pH | Colour / Ultraviolet (UV) 254 / Turbidity, Hardness, TDS | TDS Hardness pH Colour / UV 254 Turbidity | Frequency: If reverse osmosis is used, or there are known salinity issues, otherwise quarterly. If there are known salinity issues or water is treated for hardness |
| Water treatment related chemicals (if used) | Disinfectant residual | Coagulant chemical residuals | Any related organic contaminants | Only if coagulant is used. |
| Organics toxicants | – | – | Nitrate Ammonia | Recommended annual sampling |
| Bromate, formaldehyde | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based It is a by-product of ozone. |
| Chlorite | – | – | – | Frequency: risk-based It is a by-product of chlorine dioxide or liquid chlorine. |
| Inorganics | – | – | Calcium, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, zinc, chloride, fluoride, sulphates | Frequency: More frequent monitoring when detected at elevated concentrations; otherwise sampling reduced to annually, seasonally or event-related (e.g. storm events, reservoir turnover events). |
| Pesticides toxicants | – | If detected or potential presence | If not detected | Frequency: Monthly or quarterly sampling for pesticides / organic toxicants previously (or potentially) detected; seasonally annually, or event-related (e.g. storm events, spills) for other pesticides or organic toxicants. |
| Radiological | – | – | Radionuclides | Frequency: New supplies should be assessed. Then every 5 years. |
| Red: on-farm, blue: laboratory analysis | ||||
