Water Quality

How safe is my drinking water?

Increasingly, we are being warned that there are problems with the water we are drinking The authorities are changing the disinfectant, giving out boil water alerts or a law suite is filed alleging by-products of chlorination caused miscarriages in pregnant women. This frightening and disconcerting. What are we to think? The United States has one of the safest water supplies in the world. However, national statistics don't tell you specifically about the quality and safety of the water coming out of your tap. That's because drinking water quality varies from place to place, depending on the condition of the source water from which it is drawn and the treatment it receives.

Water quality issues range from health (bacteria, protozoa, and chlorination by-products) to hardness, turbidity and TDS (total dissolved solids). Disease can be easily transmitted by water borne bacteria if not treated. Hard water can cause the premature failure of heating equipment, appliances, faucets etc.

Chlorine is widely used by municipal water systems to disinfect water from bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms that cause diseases. In fact, approximately 75 percent of the municipal water systems across the United States use chlorine. We have learned that by-products of chlorination can be harmful to our health. For example did you know?

• Most water filters on the market do not remove harmful THM’s (Trihalomethanes) or VOC’s (volatile organic compounds)
• Contamination of the water supply is both naturally occurring and man made. In the United States have over 181,000 industrial waste sites, 16,000 municipal landfills and 100,000 ruptured underground storage tanks.
• Futurists are predicting that we will be in full-blown water crises within 15 years.

The first step in protecting yourself is in having your water analyzed. Our trained water treatment consultants can test your water and recommend solutions based on those findings. We have a complete line of water treatment products designed to address any situation, whether it is a whole house system or a point of use system.

Links of interest:

• Home Water Quality and Safety: University of Florida

• Homeowner Outreach Program: Wilkes University