Water Quality Issues
Aqua-Pure products provide you and your family with a wide array of products designed to reduce certain contaminants from drinking water. Below is a summary of some of the contaminants that have been found in water supplies.
CRYPTOSPORIDIUM: A microorganism commonly found in lakes and rivers which is highly resistant to disinfection. Cryptosporidium has caused several large outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness, with symptoms that include diarrhea, nausea, and/or stomach cramps. People with severely weakened immune systems are likely to have more severe and more persistent symptoms than healthy individuals.
MTBE: a member of a group of chemicals commonly known as fuel oxygenates. Oxygenates are added to fuel to increase its oxygen content. MTBE is used in gasoline throughout the United States to reduce carbon monoxide and ozone levels caused by auto emissions. MTBE has replaced the use of lead as an octane enhancer since 1979.
LEAD: can cause a variety of adverse health effects in humans. At relatively low levels of exposure, these effects may include delays in normal physical and mental development in babies and young children, slight deficits in the attention span, hearing and learning abilities of children, and slight increases in the blood pressure of some adults. It appears that some of these effects may occur at blood lead levels so low as to be essentially without a threshold.
Lead occurs in drinking water from two sources: (1) Lead in raw water supplies, i.e., source water or distributed water, and (2) corrosion of plumbing materials in the water distribution system (corrosion by-products). Most lead contamination is from corrosion by-products. EPA estimates that about 20 percent of all public water systems have some lead service lines/connections within their distribution system.
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) All of the dissolved solids in a water. TDS is measured on a sample of water that has passed through a very fine mesh filter to remove suspended solids. The water passing through the filter is evaporated and the residue represents the dissolved solids.
Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC’s) are a group of approximately 40 chemicals including benzene, toluene and styrene, that have EPA primary standards designed to protect public health by limiting the levels of contaminants found in drinking water.
pH In general, a water with a low pH (< 6.5) could be acidic, soft, and corrosive. Therefore, the water could leach metal ions such as: iron, manganese, copper, lead, and zinc from the aquifer, plumbing fixtures, and piping. Therefore, a water with a low pH could contain elevated levels of toxic metals, cause premature damage to metal piping, and have associated aesthetic problems such as a metallic or sour taste, staining of laundry, and the characteristic "blue-green" staining of sinks and drains . The primary way to treat the problem of low pH water is with the use of a neutralizer. The neutralizer feeds a solution into the water to prevent the water from reacting with the house plumbing or contributing to electrolytic corrosion ; a typical neutralizing chemical is soda ash. Neutralizing with soda ash increases the sodium content of the water.
A water with a pH > 8.5 could indicate that the water is hard. Hardwater does not pose a health risk, but can cause aesthetic problems. These problems include:
Formation of a "scale" or precipitate on piping and fixtures causing water pressures and interior diameter of piping to decrease ;
Causes an alkali taste to the water and can make coffee taste bitter;
Formation of a scale or deposit on dishes, utensils, and laundry basins;
Difficulty in getting soaps and detergents to foam and formation of insoluble precipitates on clothing, etc.; and
Decreases efficiency of electric water heaters.
