What is in Our Water?

Water is the staff of life….  While we can live for weeks without food, without water, we would die in a matter of days. 

Today, I ponder, where does our drinking water come from?  Many of us live in cities or towns that have municipal water supplies.  That means there is a reservoir from which our tap water is drawn.   And we are told that tap water is safe to drink.  But what is in that water?  

Lead can enter water supplies, due to corrosion of pipes.  Pharmaceuticals have been detected in tap water http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-tap-water_N.htm.  Radon, though naturally occurring, is a radioactive gas which may be linked to cancer, and has been found in water that some of us are drinking.  http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/radon/index.cfm.  Pesticide runoff making its way into drinking water is of concern and not just in agricultural areas.  There is documentation of runoff from golf courses and even lawns http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/22853/2/Assessment%20of%20Risk%20to%20Drinking%20Water%20from%20Turf%20Pesticide%20Runoff.pdf.  And who among us has not walked past a lawn in our neighborhood with one of those yellow signs which warn of pesticide application?   But my concern lies not just in what is making its way into our water supply by accident.

What needs to be added to municipal supplies to make the water “fit to drink”? Pathogens may be present in “untreated” water and hence the determined need for chlorination.  To prevent and control the growth and presence of these unwanted organisms in the water supply, chlorine, or more commonly chloramine, is added as a disinfectant.  Chlorine has been found to break down and create harmful by-products.  Chloramine (chlorine, bound to ammonia) is more stable than the form of chlorine that was used more commonly in the past; it does not dissipate prior to arriving at the consumer (coming out of your tap).  Unfortunately, that means you are consuming this substance.  If you are receiving water from your town or city's municipal supply, you can contact them via phone or visit their website for a list of what is added to the water in your area.

  

What about well water?  The concern of unwanted chemicals added to treat the water is likely not your issue.  Well…. your well is only as good as the ground water from which it comes.  So run off from farms or industry may be present and therefore taken in to your body, when you drink or even when you bathe…..   And micro-organisms, such as bacteria and viruses can pose health risks. 

Then there is bottled water.  Do we really know how much plastic leaches in to what we are drinking?  If that plastic gets hot, sitting in a warehouse, could that be polluting its contents even further?  And where does that water come from?  We may actually ingest what we are so diligently avoiding from our taps.

The answer lies in a reliable filtration system.  What is out there and what is best?  Tomorrow I am going to tell you more about my favorite water purification system.  It is the best I have found and I have been looking for years!  Tune in tomorrow for more details…..