Sources & methodology
Last full check: .
What counts as a source
- Primary: state health, environmental, and natural resources agencies (.gov or official state domains); the U.S. EPA; the CDC.
- Also accepted: land-grant university extension and university labs that states point residents to (for example UGA, Penn State, Virginia Tech).
- Not used for facts: blogs, vendor sites, forums, and AI summaries.
How we verify
- For each state, we start from EPA’s directory of state private well programs and EPA’s directory of state lab certification programs (PDF). Many of those links have moved, so we follow them to each agency’s current page.
- We read the current page text, and only state a fact (a price, a free program, a recommended schedule) if it appears on the cited page.
- If we can’t confirm something from page text, we leave it out or label it “Not fully verified.”
- An automated link check runs before every publish. A few agency sites block automated checkers. We check those pages by hand and record the date.
Limits
- Prices and programs change, and many free programs are run by counties, which we’re still adding.
- Our state categories (“free,” “fee-based,” and so on) simplify more detailed rules. Always read the official page.
- Nothing here is medical, legal, or engineering advice.
Federal sources
State sources
- Alabama:
- Alaska:
- Arizona:
- Arkansas:
- California:
- Colorado:
- Connecticut:
- Delaware:
- Florida:
- Georgia:
- Hawaii:
- Idaho:
- Illinois:
- Indiana:
- Iowa:
- Kansas:
- Kentucky:
- Louisiana:
- Maine:
- Maryland:
- Massachusetts:
- Michigan:
- Minnesota:
- Mississippi:
- Missouri:
- Montana:
- Nebraska:
- Nevada:
- New Hampshire:
- New Jersey:
- New Mexico:
- New York:
- North Carolina:
- North Dakota:
- Ohio:
- Oklahoma:
- Oregon:
- Pennsylvania:
- Rhode Island:
- South Carolina:
- South Dakota:
- Tennessee:
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- Utah:
- Vermont:
- Virginia:
- Washington:
- West Virginia:
- Wisconsin:
- Wyoming: