Water, Why Is There a Concern?

National newspapers, magazines and hundreds of Government and private web sites are dedicated to educating us on the valid precautions we must take to protect the quality of our drinking water. They warn us about chemicals leaching from landfills, untreated runoff entering our rivers, acid rain, rotting storage tanks, lead, aluminum, excessive chlorination, bacteria outbreaks, deadly cysts in rural supplies and even fluoride concerns. Many articles call out to our local governments to do something. But do what and why?

Q. Should Government fix it?

Did you know that 98% of the water that enters a home is used for something other than drinking or cooking? Toilets, baths, dishwashers, laundry, and watering are the big ticket users. Government control of contaminant levels has become a fine balance between the taxes we are willing to pay and the cost of the technology required to achieve a higher standard. Does the toilet need a higher standard?

Q. Is there a quick fix in a bottle?

Bottled water is now the rage! Gallon jugs on our shopping lists, refill your own bottles and save! Better still, get home delivery of heavy, clumsy, five gallon jugs that require a dedicated dispenser. Where do we fit it all in our ever shrinking kitchens? We have even accepted paying more for a small bottle of water than a can of pop. Interestingly, the water used for that can of pop was purified to standards that may in many countries exceeds the standards for bottled water! Everything considered, bottled water is a very limited supply at a very high cost.

Q. Why all the fuss about drinking Tap Water?

A. In case after case around the world, more and more is being discovered about the insidious, invisible presence of contaminants in our drinking water supplies. "Is my tap water really safe to drink?" This question became the riddle of the 90's and now in this new century we accept that our water sources are suspect all over the world.  Global pollution is the curse of this century.

Q. Where are these contaminants coming from?

A. Since World War II and the chemical boom, scientists have unleashed approximately 65,000 new chemicals into the market place. Many of these chemicals have now been found in sufficient concentrations in North American water supplies to be considered health threatening.

Q. How do these toxic chemicals get in the water?

A. For years, chemicals have entered our water system as waste from the manufacturing industry, leaching from the thousands of landfill dump sites and directly from untreated sewage disposal. Pesticides, herbicides and insecticides used in agriculture enter through seepage and normal drainage. Acid Rain, which now affects us globally, continually contaminates our polar caps and surface water supplies. Contaminants are now in an ever repeating cycle being helped along by the natural cycles of Mother Nature.

Q. But isn't that why we have Municipal Water Treatment Plants?

A. Unfortunately the water treatment methods developed more than forty years ago to combat water-borne problems such as bacteria are virtually useless in screening out the chemical threat. The costs of dealing with the chemical threat on a large scale basis are staggering.

Q. Aren't these small amounts of toxic chemicals insignificant?

A. Unfortunately the long term effects of many of these chemicals are not known and the decisions taken on "safe" limits have been made with the cost factors of municipalities and major cities having to deal with the limits set. Perhaps the most troubling of all is that many substances such as arsenic, mercury and lead are known to accumulate in the fat cells of the body, starting out in minute amounts hardly detectable but over time the accumulation causes serious health problems. Lead has become one of the demons of the 90's, but that is only because we have finally nailed down a link between it and health problems. How many of the other "safe" limits will be proven false in the future?

Q. Why isn't our Governmnet doing more to make drinking water safer?

A. In America, the EPA. has enacted stricter legislation to improve the quality and standards of drinking water. The high cost of research; coupled with the fact that scientists are still unsure of what chemicals, at what levels, are life threatening undermines the regulations. Canada to date has no laws on water quality, only guidelines.

Q. If the Government can't solve it how can I?

A. You have little personal control over the quality of water as it enters your home, but you do have a choice once it is at your tap. You can't stop drinking water, nor should you. To ask the government to provide high quality drinking water to your home when 98% of your water usage ends up in the sewer would be a tax burden none of us would like to face. The answer is an in-home treatment system.

Q. What is the difference between a Purifier and a filter?

A. A filter is designed to be effective on selected impurities (customized) while a purifier treats water for a wide spectrum of contaminants.  Municipal water supplies don't always require the high cost of a purifier. Buying cheap water filters may appear appropriate at time of purchase but the long term operating costs are generally far greater than a quality fully certified drinking water filter and you will be buying a lifetime item versus a disposable.