Dennis Palmer Plumbing & Heating

Brewster, NY

845-279-4414

How is our water in the Hudson Valley?

It depends where it comes from, and around here that varies house to house.

Plenty of homes in Putnam, Dutchess and northern Westchester are on private wells; others are on a municipal system. If you're on a well, nobody tests it but you. New York leaves private wells to the homeowner and recommends testing for bacteria once a year and for everything else every three to five years. Most people we meet have done neither.

What's in the ground here. Much of this area sits on crystalline bedrock, and that geology puts particular things in the water. The USGS sampled bedrock wells across New York, New Jersey and New England and found arsenic above the federal limit in roughly one in eight, and radon at or above the proposed limit in nearly all of them. Neither has a taste or a smell. A test is the only way to know.

What we see at the fixture. Acidic water eating copper and leaving blue-green staining. Iron and manganese staining laundry and porcelain. Hard water scaling up water heaters. Sulfur smell. None of it is an emergency, but all of it shortens the life of everything the water runs through.

And PFAS — which is what the state rebate below is for.

For more information, see our Homeowner's Guide Water Quality in the Hudson Valley and Western Connecticut →

What we'd do about it

Start with a test of your water, not a regional average. From there:

Acid neutralizer where pH is low. This is the most common recommendation we make in this region, and it's what saves the copper.
Iron or manganese filtration where staining is the complaint.
Softening where scale is shortening the life of the water heater.
Carbon or specialty media for taste, odor, or something specific the test turns up — only where the media is certified for it.
On municipal water, usually a much simpler job: treatment at the kitchen sink, or carbon at the entry for chlorine taste.

We'd rather tell you your water is fine than sell you a system you don't need. If the test comes back clean, that's the answer.

NEW YORK'S PRIVATE-WELL PFAS REBATE

New York State will pay for PFAS testing on private wells, and put money toward treatment if the results come back high. The pilot covers six counties — Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester — and we work in all of them.

Testing is free for participants. Private wells only — if you're on public water, this doesn't apply to you.
If PFOA or PFOS comes back at or above 10 parts per trillion, you may qualify for up to $5,000 toward a treatment system, or up to $10,000 to connect to a public water supply.
Owners and tenants can apply for testing. Only property owners can apply for the rebate.
You choose your own contractor.
Funding is limited and applications are taken in order, so counties open and close.

Check your eligibility and submit your appliction here.

What we do is the plumbing side: walk you through the results when they come back, and install a system with media certified for PFAS reduction if you decide to go ahead. Ask and we'll show you the certification.

The local owner

Dennis Palmer is a second-generation master plumber. He learned the trade from his father Fran, who started the business in 1949.

Three of his sons work with him: Kyle, Frank, and Darren — who took the family trade south to Charleston.

Behind them is a crew of technicians running several trucks across Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester.

The Palmers have been keeping this corner of the Hudson Valley running for longer than the plumbing. John T. cut ice on Lake Tonetta. His twin sons Henry and Ed both served as highway superintendents. Fran came home from the Navy and started the plumbing company. Four generations on, it's the same family and the same town.

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