Side question: how expensive is it to get your water tested? I live in an older house, and all this talk has made me concerned about what's coming from my pipes, since they are > 100 yrs old.
I am not an expert in the area, but I did serve on the board of a small mutual water company in the hills above Silicon Valley. We were required to do daily tests for things like coliform bacteria and monthly tests for other possible contaminates. Every few years we handed out lead testing kits to a few households on the various branches of the system to make sure lead wasnt leaching into the water. All of our samples had to be tested at county approved labs. A county inspector also took samples during the year. The testing for larger water systems were even stricter.