Aqua Vantage - Home Water Treatment

What goes into the Ground

2006-01-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

“This much we know: If we put toxic chemicals into the ground, they will eventually end up in the ground water we drink.

Nearly 80% of the toxic wastes end up in the ground, where they will stay for decades, even centuries. The country is literally laced with millions of potential contamination sites”.

-Congressional Research Service

Over 500 Billion Pounds of hazardous chemical wastes are improperly disposed of every year.

1. Every day, 50 billion gallons of liquid hazardous wastes are disposal at 26,000 disposal sites, 85% are located above aquifers. Some chemicals, such as TEC are so toxic, a single gallon can contaminate a year’s worth of drinking water for 3,800 people.

2. Every year, 100 billion gallons of hazardous wastes are absorbed into groundwater supplies.

3. Of the 700 chemicals that have already been found in drinking water, most water companies test for less than 30.

4. Of the 1,000 EPA Priority waste sites in the U.S. not one has been cleaned up since the EPA’s inception.

Use of home water treatment devices rises

2006-01-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

Americans continue to be concerned about drinking water, WQA survey finds.

By WT staff

From the June 2001 edition of Water Technology magazine.

An overwhelming majority of Americans — 86% — have concerns about their home water supply — and nearly half believe federal laws governing the quality of drinking water are not strict enough, according to the fourth biennial National Consumer Water Quality Survey.

The Lisle-IL-based Water Quality Association (WQA) commissioned the survey.

"This year's survey reveals that Americans' concerns about their home water are at an all-time high, while their confidence in the federal laws designed to ensure safe drinking water is declining," says Carlyn Meyer, WQA public affairs director. In fact, the percentage of survey respondents who want stricter drinking water laws rose from 40 percent in 1999 to 49 percent in 2001.

This finding coincides with a recent US Environmental Protection Agency order — subsequently withdrawn pending further study — that would have lowered acceptable arsenic levels in drinking water by 80 percent, from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb, within five years.

"Our research shows Americans want more — not less — protection against drinking water contaminants," Meyer says. "In fact, the survey found that more than 60 percent of people would be willing to pay more on their utility bill or for home water treatment to reduce arsenic if it was present in their water."

The survey also showed that one in three Americans (32 percent) believes his or her water is not as safe as it should be, and one half of adults are concerned about possible health contaminants in their water.

Not surprisingly, the survey also found that parents of young children are especially concerned about the quality of their home water. In fact, 55 percent of parents with children under 12 years old said that becoming a parent caused them to have additional concerns about the quality or safety of their household tap water.

Taking responsibility

Nearly 70 percent of Americans, according to the survey, said they were knowledgeable about contaminants in their water; yet they don't appear to be obtaining their information from one of the most likely sources — federally mandated water quality reports.

Only 17 percent of respondents said they received and read their local water supplier's water quality report (also called a consumer confidence report), which provides an overview of contaminant levels present in an area's water supply. Instead, the media were the most frequently cited source of information about home water contaminants.

Amidst heightened concerns, more Americans are taking individual responsibility for the quality of their own home drinking water, Meyer says. Use of home water treatment devices remains high at 41 percent (up from 38 percent in 1999 and 32 percent in 1997).

Demographic groups reporting the highest usage of water treatment devices included adults ages 35-44 (47 percent), families with children under 12 (45 percent) and college graduates (50 percent). Bottled water use remained steady at 39 percent, according to the survey.

"As concerns and awareness of water quality issues rise, more people are turning to home water treatment systems as an effective and economical means of ensuring high-quality home water, " Meyer says. Respondents were evenly split over why they drink filtered water — 43 percent said filtered water tastes better, while 42 percent said it was safer.

Satisfaction with home water treatment systems is high, the survey indicated, with 95 percent of respondents who use water treatment systems reporting they were satisfied with the effectiveness of their systems.

Additionally, one out of 10 adults who does not use a water filtration unit now intends to purchase one within the next year, and 55 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to buy a house with a water treatment device if they were in the market for a new home.

The 2001 National Consumer Water Quality Survey of 1,021 adults was conducted in February 2001 by Opinion Research Corp. International, an independent research firm based in Princeton, NJ.

A look at tomorrow’s challenges for POU/POE dealers

2006-01-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

DBPs, pipe scale will present treatment opportunities.

By Roy Bowers

From the January 2005 edition of Water Technology magazine.

According to the United Nations, more than half of the world’s population now has water piped into their homes — a humbling fact for many of us who have taken tap water for granted our entire lives.

But getting water to homes is only one part of the equation. We, as water treatment professionals, now need to ask ourselves about any health or safety issues that may be presented by the tap water being delivered to our customers.

More than 80 percent of the United States population is served by municipal water, and the most common disinfection methods are chlorine, chloramines, chlorine-dioxide, and ozone.

There is no question that disinfection is necessary and has saved many lives. In fact, people became used to the taste of chlorine and municipal water was branded safe for human consumption — even, in some cases, unfiltered tap water.

But recent research and water-related controversies have forced the municipal water and POU/POE industries to take a second look at issues that, in some cases, are presented by tap water that has been labeled safe for human consumption.

The challenge of DBPs

In 1974, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act, which includes limits on chlorine disinfection byproducts (DBPs) called trihalomethanes (chemicals created by mixing chlorine and organic matter). At first there were a few different byproducts that were discovered and classified as carcinogens (cancer causing).

To date, these DBPs are regulated by the EPA in all municipal water in the country.

However, in March 2004 the EPA released a report stating that 200 new DBPs have been discovered, bringing the total to 500.

A new family of DBPs

In August 2004, a new study at Texas University reported the discovery of a chain of DBPs created by chloramines, a commonly used disinfectant that is a blend of chlorine and ammonia.

In September 2004, a study at the University of Illinois reported on five chloramines’ DBPs called “iodoacids,” which may be the most toxic family of DBP’s to date. Chloramines has been marketed as an alternative to chlorine and conventional wisdom had dictated that they produced fewer (or safer) levels of DBPs. This conventional wisdom is now being brought into question.

Some 600 DBP’s have been identified to date. Approximately 50 percent of DBP’s have been identified in chlorine treated water; 17 percent occurring in chloramines treated water; 28 percent in water treated with chlorine-dioxide; and just 8 percent in ozone-treated water.

Municipalities continue to state that their water is safe because it meets DBP limits set by the EPA, but the problem is that the EPA is only regulating a few of the 600 DBPs discovered.

Challenges for water treatment dealers

Clearly, many consumers are going to be justifiably concerned about levels of DBPs in their water. The conventional method of treating the water has been to install a POU system.

However, research shows that showering or bathing in untreated municipal water that may be high in DBPs can be more risky than drinking the water.

Clearly, the water treatment dealer’s challenge of tomorrow is going to be to implement solutions that treat DBPs at a whole-house level or in a way that protects all of a consumer’s potential exposure.

Pipe scale: A danger being brought to light

In February 2004, the EPA reported that scale and film in pipes can leach high levels of contaminants into the water being served to users. This can lead to significant spikes in contaminant levels.

An EPA researcher reported that scales in household plumbing could literally cause the home’s water pipe system to exceed the federal government’s toxicity characterization leaching procedure (TCLP) limits, making those deposits, by definition, hazardous.

The Water Quality Association (WQA) urges more research and suggests the use of POU/POE water treatment.

Diversifying beyond softening

Ion exchange salt water softeners have been extremely well marketed for over a generation. In fact, the water treatment industry originally sprung up around regions of the country that have hard water.

Some water treatment dealers try to make a softener the answer to just about any water treatment problem, but the water treatment dealers of tomorrow will have to be more than one-trick ponies if they hope to thrive.

Conventional wisdom has been that a softener provides universal benefits and can pay for itself, so it can be sold to just about anyone in any region of the country.

But the public is becoming much more conscious of their water quality, and their concerns are bound to continue extending beyond just water hardness.

Expect customers of tomorrow to ask tough questions about how you can solve their problems with DBPs and pipe leaching, and to expect detailed answers about the minerals you are putting in their water — and the minerals you are taking out.

DBPs and pipe leaching will provide two of the great universal water treatment opportunities of tomorrow, and the dealers and suppliers will have to work together to bring appropriate technologies to market.

The dealer and supplier markets have occasionally been resistant to new technologies, but as our market changes we must keep an open mind to new technologies designed to address new and growing treatment challenges.

Roy Bowers is president of Nevada-based Enprotec Corporation. Enprotec is a supplier of treatment systems to the POU/POE market.

www.watertechonline.com

The Importance of Water

2006-01-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

The Importance of Water

Water is the driving power behind all forms of life. Our bodies are over 70% water and all of our body fluids contain it. Even the food we eat is predominantly made of water. Water adjusts the body’s temperature and through perspiration rids the body of toxins. Health authorities recommend that we drink at least 64 ounces of water per day to attain proper hydration. Most of us are dehydrated and dehydration can lead to great physical impairment and, in sever cases, death. Dehydration is especially prevalent among men and women over forty years of age. For the body to function properly, it is imperative that it be properly hydrated.

Why we Get Sick

Cells produce acidic wastes as they metabolize energy. A byproduct of this process is a free radical which is an ordinary oxygen molecule that is an electron short. This free radical attacks healthy cells in an attempt to correct this electrical imbalance. A lifetime of damage can lead to chronic illness as well as pathological aging. This is referred to as the “cellular-damage model of aging”. As Sang Whang states in his popular book, Reverse Aging, “We age because we accumulate acidic wastes.” Anti-oxidants block this process by contributing electrons to active oxygen molecules thus neutralizing their effect on healthy cells.

Simple Ways to Avoid Toxicity

Here are some simple ways to avoid toxicity. Do what you ca to purify your home and work. Remove any known sources of toxic materials such as, acids, glues, solvents, paints, dyes, stored or leaking chemicals, insecticides and cleaning agents. If these materials cannot be removed, you may need an effective air purification system. Protective clothing and/or breathing apparatus should be worn when using any toxic materials. Regular replacement of furnace and air conditioning filters may also be helpful.

It is also very important to eat a diet with fresh and wholesome foods. Avoid eating excess fat, refined sugar, and foods high in additives and preservatives. Eat moderate levels of protein and fat, while increasing levels of complex carbohydrates. Substitute organically raised animals and organically grown fruits and vegetables whenever possible. Drink plenty of purified water (64 oz per day). A home water purification system is highly recommended to provide pure water for drinking and cooking.