Certified well water labs in Vermont (2026)

WellTestList · Tuesday, October 6, 2026 · state page

About four in ten Vermont households drink from a private well or spring, and Vermont makes testing one of them unusually cheap and simple. The Vermont Department of Health Laboratory sells a Homeowner Testing Package for $159: bacteria ($14, every year), inorganic chemicals including arsenic, uranium, lead, and fluoride ($100, every five years), and gross alpha radiation ($45, every five years). You collect the samples yourself and drop them at the Colchester lab or at one of a dozen Local Health Offices for free courier pickup. Newly drilled wells and springs are the one case where testing is required by law — a $151 package from the state lab covers it.

The short version

1. Existing well or spring? Order the Homeowner Testing Package and repeat Kit A every year. The Health Department recommends the full package every five years and bacteria every year. Order online through the Health Department Lab webstore or call 802-338-4724 / 800-660-9997. Bacteria results usually arrive in 1–2 business days; inorganics take 2–4 weeks.
2. Just drilled, deepened, or added a spring? You must test before you drink it. Vermont’s Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Rules (in force since April 2019) require a set panel for new groundwater sources. The state lab’s New Well or Spring Testing Package is $151; check your WW permit for extras.
3. Selling, buying, or renting out? No sale test is required, but the seller must hand the buyer the Health Department’s Well Water Testing: A Home Buyer’s Guide. Landlords on a private source are expected to follow the same schedule under the Rental Housing Health Code.

How Vermont’s system actually works

Private household wells and springs aren’t regulated by EPA or the State of Vermont — except when you install a new one. The Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Rules require anyone who installs a new drilled, shallow, or driven well or spring, or deepens one, to test before use for: E. coli, total coliform, arsenic, fluoride, first-draw lead, manganese, nitrate, nitrite, uranium, gross alpha, chloride, sodium, iron, and pH. The well must be chlorinated and flushed first, and all samples come from the cold kitchen tap. You, your driller or designer, a hydrogeologist, a town health officer, a master plumber, or a certified operator can collect. Certified labs automatically send results to the Health Department; your permit may also require you to submit them to DEC. Questions about whether you are covered: the DEC regional office (Essex Junction 802-879-5656, Montpelier 802-828-5034, Rutland / Springfield 802-289-0603, St. Johnsbury 802-751-0130).

For every other well, the Health Department’s schedule is simple: bacteria every year (and after a flood); arsenic, chloride, copper, fluoride, hardness, iron, lead, manganese, nitrate / nitrite, sodium, uranium, and gross alpha every five years. If nitrate comes back above 5 mg/L, retest every 3–6 months. After installing treatment, retest just the contaminant you treated — a la carte tests at the state lab run $10–$25.

Getting samples in: the Lab is at 359 South Park Drive, Colchester (Mon–Thu 7:45 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Fri to 3:30 p.m.). Local Health Offices in Barre, Bennington, Brattleboro, Middlebury, Morrisville, Newport, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, and White River Junction take samples Monday–Thursday mornings for free courier pickup — not Fridays, state holidays, or the day before a holiday. Aim to get samples to the Lab within 22 hours, kept cold. You can also ship by USPS (P.O. Box 1125, Burlington, VT 05402-1125) or FedEx / UPS to the Colchester address. This week: state offices won’t take courier samples Oct 8, 9, or 12, and the Lab is closed Oct 9 and Oct 12.

Options we verified

What we could confirm with a public URL tonight — the Health Department’s testing pages, its webstore and kit-description sheet (v14.0, Feb 2026), the state certified-lab list dated September 28, 2026, Endyne’s Vermont homeowner price page, and the mail-in product pages:

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What Vermont water tends to have

• Arsenic, uranium, fluoride, manganese, gross alpha — all naturally occurring in some Vermont bedrock. That’s why the state’s package is heavy on inorganics and radiation. The Health Department recommends treatment for arsenic above 0.001 mg/L (the drinking-water standard is 0.010) and uranium above 0.020 mg/L. If gross alpha is over 5 pCi/L, use the uranium result from Kit C and the state’s adjusted gross alpha calculator before deciding anything.
• Radon in water — not in the package. A $25 kit (or a free study kit while they last) answers it. Vermont’s advisory level is 4,000 pCi/L; below that, retest in five years. Test the air in your home too.
• Lead and copper — usually from plumbing, not the aquifer. That’s why Kit C has a first-draw and a flush lead sample.
• Nitrate, chloride, sodium, bacteria — more common in shallow dug wells and springs near fields, septic systems, and salted roads. The Health Department recommends extra bacteria tests for dug wells after heavy rain or drought.
• PFAS — not part of the routine package. If you live near a known PFAS site, DEC may test your well during its investigation (Patricia Coppolino, 802-249-5822). Vermont’s public-water limits are 4.0 ppt for PFOA and PFOS. See our PFAS Method 533 / 537.1 guide.

Before you test, look at the Health Department’s private-well maps for arsenic, fluoride, gross alpha, nitrate, radon, and uranium near you.

Mail-in kits (for a broader PDF)

These are independent labs that mail bottles, test, and email a PDF. They are not selling you a softener in the same breath. In Vermont, the state lab’s $159 package is cheaper and is what the Health Department and its buyer’s guide point to, so start there. Mail-in kits make sense when you want a wider list of analytes in one report. National Testing Laboratories (Ypsilanti, MI) appears on Vermont’s September 2026 certified-lab list. Listed prices we checked for this ship (same national SKUs as other state pages):

• Tap Score / SimpleLab Essential Well: $209 listed (54 analytes; standard shipping and prepaid return on the product page).
• National Testing Laboratories WaterCheck Basic: $220 listed plus free delivery on watercheck.com. Next-day return shipping is not included. Budget for overnight return on the bacteria bottle.

Those are listed prices, not coupons. For a new well, check that whatever you buy covers every analyte the rules and your permit require. The state lab’s $151 package is built to do that.

Side by side for a Vermont well

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Real estate, lenders, and landlords

Vermont does not require a water test when you sell. It does require the seller of a home that isn’t on public water to give the buyer the Health Department’s Home Buyer’s Guide, which points to the $159 package. The Health Department’s advice is to test before listing so there’s time to treat. Some mortgage companies only ask for a bacteria test. The Health Department says that does not meet its definition of potable water. FHA and VA loans can ask for more, so get the lender’s list first.

Landlords: under Vermont’s Rental Housing Health Code, water supplied to tenants must be free of harmful levels of contaminants. The Health Department tells landlords on private wells or springs to run the Homeowner Testing Package every five years and bacteria every year, plus a first-draw lead test at the main drinking faucet in each unit served by a shared source. Tenants who can’t get results from a landlord can contact the Division of Fire Safety. Repair loans that can cover treatment exist in some counties (Champlain Housing Trust for Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle; NeighborWorks of Western Vermont for Addison, Bennington, and Rutland). More: home purchase / lender chain of custody.

Related: New Hampshire · Maine · New York · New Jersey · PFAS 533 / 537.1 · how to read a report · after a flood · lender / CoC · cost table · Home Depot free kit vs a certified lab · How it works · back to the directory.