Water quality is a huge issue facing American families across the country. The Flint Michigan water crisis raised huge concerns that brought to light questions about the quality of water coming from the city or municipal water district.
In the instance of flint Michigan where lead was the primary concern, there is a growing amount of Americans that do not trust the water coming into your home.
Why You Should Be Concerned With Water
How is American Water?
Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system according to the CDC. That would be just about 80% of the country. The other 20% are on private water wells meaning they provide and are responsible for the water quality in their home.
There are major issues facing both city and private water systems by a wide range factor from urban runoff, aging pipes, and infrastructure to droughts causing water crisis.
For city or municipal water districts, they are responsible for maintaining levels of certain contaminants below acceptable levels that they have deemed safe. There is a growing concern that local municipalities do not check for all or certain chemical compounds and some districts have seen spikes where contaminants have gone higher than allowed when the water is tested.
What Is Contaminating The Water?
A growing concern in recent years is not so much for chlorine but for chlorine by-products that react when chlorine comes into contact with inorganics.
There is a long list of chlorine and chloramine by-products including
- Chloroform
- Dichlorobromomethane
- Dibromochloromethane
- Bromoform
They are the major byproducts of chlorination.
Trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, and haloacetonitriles are the products of both chlorination and chloramination. Chloramine has been a recent switch from chlorine for its ability to disinfect the water for longer periods of time as the water travels through the municipal system.
Signs of Contaminated Water
Here some signs that tell you that your water might be contaminated-
- A salty taste of water might be an indication of chloride. While it is safe in low doses, it corrodes pipes and plumbing equipment faster.
- A mix of the salty and bitter taste of water is an indication that your water might be contaminated with sodium which can lead to high blood pressure and hypertension.
- Blue-green stains on plumbing fixtures with a bitter or medicinal taste might be a sign of copper in the water. Short-term exposure can cause intestinal discomfort and long term exposure might cause liver and kidney damage.
- White or brown spots on teeth could be an indication for fluoride which can be dangerous if used for cooking and drinking.
- If you have a rotten egg smell or sulfur taste in the water you could have hydrogen sulfide contamination.
- If you are experiencing shortness of breath or blueness in the skin in babies, you might have too much nitrate in your water. This can lead to severe oxygen deficiency can also lead to death for those at high risk.
- Corrosion of plumbing parts can be a cause of lead contamination. This can be life-threatening and very dangerous for kids.
- If you have bitter, medicinal taste with milky looking water, you might have a case of zinc contamination.
None of these are good for your health. So be quick to look for a solution if you have the above symptoms in your water.
A Shift to Bottle Water
Americans’ growing concern in recent years of water quality has led to a revival in bottled water consumption which has spiked in recent years to all-time highs. As people have lost trust in the drinking water quality coming into their home they have been forced to go back to bottled water.
However, most studies still do not prove that bottled water is any better than American tap water but with recent water scares like flint, and bottled water prices dropping Americans have once again turned to bottled water.
How to Be Safe From Contaminated Water
It is recommended that most homes use a carbon filter system that can remove most impurities in city water including chlorine and chlorine by-products as well as lead. Activated carbon filtration has amazing capabilities for filtration and improving water quality taste and smell.
You can get an under the sink drinking water system or one for the entire home. Whole house water filters remove contaminants from your water system 24/7. Point of use or point of entry water filters is one way we can filter byproducts and other contaminants and improve the overall taste and smell.
You can also install a machine under the sink water for reverse osmosis. RO systems are ultra-filtration systems and are a great option for homes in cities and other private water supplies.
Conclusion: it is clear to every American that the main reason for America’s failing water quality is the age of its water supply infrastructure. Experts say that it will take about a trillion dollars to completely renew the system while politicians don’t even talk about it.
Now, it seems that our military is killing people outside and our government is doing the same inside.
