How to Improve Your Drinking Water

Duane Johnson

Family Handyman
Dec, 1998

A pleasant-tasting glass of water from the kitchen faucet is by no means a sure thing, at least in my neighborhood. Our water smell and tastes bad, and there's a month in the summer when it develops an unpleasant fishy taste. Our municipal water authority assures as that it's safe, but that doesn't make our coffee or tea taste any better.

Our experience is a common one. Water experts classify "bad" water two ways: contaminated water that affects your health, and water that offends your senses. The first group includes contaminants such as lead, nitrates, harmful bacteria and viruses, and solvents. Your local water utility spends a lot of time and money controlling these types of contaminants. The second includes substances like chlorine, sulfur, iron, calcium and sediments. It may sell or taste bad, but it won't make you sick or lead to chronic health problems. So public controls are more lax here. Of course, if you have your own private well, the responsibility for safe, clean water falls entirely on your shoulders.

If you have questions about you water supply, this story will tell you how to get answers and what you can do to improve it.

HOW CLEAN IS CLEAN?

Despite visions of fresh, clean water in some pristine wilderness setting, water has rarely been pure--that is, free from contamination. Naturally occurring chemicals from leaves and animal feces as well as substances from rocks and soil, like iron and calcium, typically contaminated it. So did "biologicals," like disease-causing bacteria, viruses, parasites, algae and insects. And water usually had some unique taste, odor, color and cloudiness.

Ensuring safe, clean drinking water has always been difficult, and during the past 100 years, delivering dean water has become vastly more complex. Thousands of new chemicals, developed for industrial, agricultural and home use, have been released into the environment. Many of these have seeped into the water supplies. And some are toxic. Even deep groundwater has been affected.

It's difficult and costly to remove all foreign substances from water. (Water wouldn't necessarily taste good if you did.) Rather, the goal of water treatment is to reduce contaminants to acceptable (safe) levels and make water palatable.

HOW TO DETECT BAD HEALTH EFFECTS

Short of actually getting sick, the best tools you have for detecting bad water are your senses of taste, smell and sight. If your water tastes or smells odd, or it changes color or appears cloudier than normal, call your local water utility to find out what's Causing the problem.

Municipal water systems are generally safe and reliable. Municipalities are required by law to test their water frequently for excessive levels of potentially harmful contaminants listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and make those results available to the public. If you're concerned or simply curious, ask your water utility for a copy of its latest Water Contaminant Analysis Report and compare contaminant levels with the EPA guidelines. The water utility will have copies of the EPA guidelines, or you can get them from your state health department or from the EPA safe drinking water hot line.

What's more, any engineer at the water utility can tell you what you're tasting, smelling or seeing in your water. Seasonal changes in the sources (rivers, lakes or groundwater), heavy rainfall, high temperatures or altered treatment methods can all cause detectable differences. The effects are rarely harmful, but at least you'll know what's going on.

Three conditions could merit further investigation:

1. The water delivery system itself sometimes introduces health risks. Lead and asbestos, two potentially hazardous materials once used in supply pipes, are two common examples. Your water utility can outline the general risks in your area, but in the case of lead, the effect in each household can vary. Although dust from old lead-based paint is the primary cause of lead poisoning, lead can leach into the water from old brass valves, soldered joints or lead pipes. If you have reason to believe the risk is significant, have your water tested by an EPA or state-certified laboratory. For more details and simple solutions, call the safe drinking water hot line listed above and ask for the brochure "Lead in Your Drinking Water."

2. Family members with impaired or weakened immune systems from a medical condition or simply old age may be more vulnerable to certain biological organisms or other substances. Discuss health risks with your physician to determine whether water purification is advisable.

3. You simply want to set higher standards than your water utility delivers, especially if you have reason to suspect the safety of your water.

If you're concerned about your water supply, study the issues first. Your public health department and the EPA have fact sheets covering most common contaminants that pose a health threat (see chart, p. 86). The sheets include strategies on how to control them. Much of this information is intended for private well owners, who have to ensure the safety of their water systems themselves, but you can use similar strategies and equipment in your home.

COMMON WATER CONTAMINANTS THAT AFFECT YOUR HEALTH

Contaminant Source

Biological Sewage,
Organisms animal
bacteria, waste and
viruses, other
cysts sources

Nitrates Often from
agricultural
runoff

Heavy Usually
Metals from
mercury, industrial
zinc, copper wastes
and others

Lead Usually
from solder,
fixtures and
leads pipe n
homes and
city water
lines

Organic Industrial
Chemicals and
solvents, agricultural
petroleum wastes
products,
pesticides

Trihalomethanes Byproducts
(THMs) of water
chlorination

Radon Naturally
occurring
gas in soil

Exotic Some
Toxins natural,
arsenic, others from
dioxins industrial
and others waste

Asbestos Some
natural,
some in old
water
supply pipes

WATER TREATMENT FACILITIES MONITOR AND CONTROL THESE CONTAMINANTS

The potential for health problems is higher in a small municipal system or private system where testing may be less frequent and the system may have fewer skilled personnel to operate it. The risk is also higher if you have your own well. Test your well annually and even more often if you're aware of potential contamination sources nearby. Contact your state health department for testing guidelines. And keep in touch with local health officials who monitor local water conditions and potential contaminants. For example, nitrates from fertilizers and pesticides can be a problem in agricultural areas, and solvents (volatile organic compounds, or VOCs) and other chemicals can seep into groundwater in industrial or landfill zones.

HOW TO TRACK DOWN BAD `AESTHETICS'

Most strange tastes, smells and colors, characteristics that water experts call bad aesthetics, aren't a health risk; they just bug you. These include water that corrodes or clogs pipes, stains sinks and drains or leaves rings of crud around the toilet bowl. There are few mysteries in a local water supply. The engineers at your water utility have seen it all before and can usually identify the problem if you describe the symptoms. They'll often tell you possible solutions, too. Common problems include:

Chlorine smell or taste. If your water smells or tastes a bit like a swimming pool, you're probably dealing with the disinfectant that the water utility uses to kill bacteria and other biological contaminants. If you let drinking water sit or pour it back and forth a few times, enough chlorine will dissipate into the air to improve the taste of the water. Or you can remove chlorine with simple filtration devices.

Hard water. You probably have hard water if minerals both build up around faucets and clog them; persistent soap scum shows up on shower tiles, tubs and wash basins; and soaps and detergents leave residues or don't clean well. Hard water contains excessive dissolved calcium and magnesium, which form scale and inhibit the cleaning power of soaps and detergents. Although it won't harm your health, hard water makes cleaning more difficult and requires more plumbing maintenance. Hardness is readily removed with a water softener that you connect to the main water line. 

Stains. Brown or black stains on sinks, or a rusty or metallic taste usually signals excessive iron and/or manganese in the water. In this case, the water might even be reddish when run into a glass. Stains and bad odors can also be caused by dead leaves and other organic material. Many stains, colors and odors are easily removed by inexpensive whole-house filtration. But some, dissolved iron, for example, require more specialized equipment.

Cloudy. Hazy water is usually caused by fine sediments in suspension. Sometimes they can clog up appliances, like an ice maker. These are easily removed by inexpensive, whole-house filtration.

Fishy or musty smell or taste. These are usually caused by the naturally occurring algae and bacteria that grow in most surface water sources. This is the one that vexes my community every summer. It's also easily handled by inexpensive filtration.

Rotten egg smell. The sulfur smell is hydrogen sulfide produced by bacteria that live in deep wells. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine you were in Yellowstone! This water is generally acidic and will corrode your plumbing system. The solution requires professional analysis and special equipment.

Most aesthetic contaminants can be eliminated at little expense. But before you spend a dime on solutions, contact your local water utility or public health department to get firsthand information about the contaminants and suitable control methods. If these experts are baffled or unsure, you might have to take a water sample to an environmental testing lab to identify the exact type and volume of contaminants. Your public health department can provide a list of certified testing labs.

Or you can hire a water-quality contractor to evaluate your water.  Testing for simple conditions like water hardness or acidity is inexpensive and sometimes free if the contractor hopes to sell you a conditioning system.

The key is to identify the scope and type of problem before focusing on a solution. With the confusing array of water treatment devices on the market, it's easy to buy high-powered solutions to problems you don't have!

SOLUTIONS TO AESTHETIC PROBLEMS

Most solutions involve adding a filtration system to your main water supply lines (a whole-house system) or at individual faucets (a point-of-use system). Manufacturers make various types of filtering media designed to eliminate specific contaminants. Pick one that effectively removes the offensive element in your water supply. (See "Reports," p. 78, for more details on comparing point-of-use systems.)

The most common filters include media screens that physically filter out particles like dirt, sediments and rust, or activated carbon filters that remove chlorine and many other bad tastes and odors. Manufacturers often combine both types to make a multipurpose cartridge (see photo, p. 87). Labels on the packaging tell you what each filter does. And look for an NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) or other mark that confirms that they have been tested to a certain standard. Your public health department or the NSF  can tell you what the standards are and which ones apply to the elements you want to remove.

Another common water-conditioning method, water softening, involves an ion exchange principle that uses sodium or potassium chloride. Water softeners can sometimes reduce iron contamination too.

REMINDER: None of these filtration systems are maintenance-free. You'll have to change filters or recharge them periodically according to the manufacturer's guidelines.

You're not likely to need more complex, expensive water treatment methods like distilling, adding chemicals or reverse osmosis unless you're dealing with health issues or have your own well. However, many homeowners install a reverse osmosis (RO) system as a safety backup to their municipal water supply. It serves a dual purpose. First, it clears out most aesthetic contaminants, delivering purified drinking water at a lower cost in the long run than bottled water. And second, it ensures safer water by lowering the level of many contaminants well below the EPA maximums. It can also filter out many contaminants not detected by standard testing methods. However, RO systems also filter out fluoride, an element added to water to help prevent tooth decay. And they're recommended only for soft water.

 

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