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Posts Tagged ‘water filter’
Where Has All The Water Gone?
Sunday, February 27th, 2011Around the world, freshwater sources are shrinking as lake, river and aquifer levels are falling faster than can be replenished. In addition, the usefulness of water contained in these natural reservoirs is being compromised by pollution from industrial and household chemicals. It is estimated that worldwide water consumption doubles every 20 years, with predictions that demand will surpass supply within 30 years. That may be too optimistic. With all of these conditions persisting, it’s no wonder that public concerned interest in our water resources and drinking water quality is exponentially rising.
Impact of Water Runoff
One explanation for falling water table levels is offered by Richard McGrath, director of codes and standards, Cement Association of Canada: “The increased use of hardscaping (impervious pavements) in our major urban areas allows the direct run-off of oil and other contaminants into the storm water system, preventing the recharging of groundwater levels and natural purification of the run-off water.”
Storm water runoff that would normally seep through the porous ground must often find its own path across toxic paved areas. The resulting environmental waste water is re-routed to man-made runoff areas. Household ‘grey water’, the water waste from sinks and washing is increasingly contaminated with household chemicals. Now, this more toxic soup of water runoff either saturates the surrounding land or gets routed through community sewer systems to water treatment plants where industrial filtration attempts to make it drinkable. More can learned about this phenomenon in our article reviewing the importance of Karst conservation.
Disturbance of Natural Waterways
Another contributor to the depletion and contamination of our water sources is the fact that housing development is no longer limited to geographical locations with a ready source of water. Today, people routinely live in areas where water must be transported hundreds of miles from a distant water source. A great example of this is Las Vegas, NV where water is routed from hundreds of miles away and is recognized as the lifeline to it’s survival. To accomplish this, the natural course of rivers gets rerouted without consideration for the long-term implications. Businesses have the ability to purchase the rights to divert water from a lake, river, aquifer, or other natural source further depleting reserves. Ultimately what occurs is that rivers and lakes that would normally be naturally replenished begin to dry up under the high demand of urban and residential growth. All the while, most residents are completely unaware that their valuable water resources are being increasingly contaminated while also slowly diminishing in availability.
We Need To Protect Our Water Supplies
Waters that were once generously replenished and filtered by nature are now being depleted and soiled by humans. This places a large percentage of the population at an increased risk from their drinking water as these once plentiful and pristine sources are becoming contaminated and scarce. For all of these reasons, it is increasingly important for individuals to monitor the water quality from their faucets and ensure they have a quality water filter at their disposal. Also, it’s imperative that we become more proactive as a society in protecting our existing water supplies for future generations.
A Well Water Filter Ensures Safe Drinking Water
Thursday, September 9th, 2010Many people have a deep well outside their homes and use it as their main source of water. After all, it is free of charge and well water is considered to be clean and safe. This is mostly true, especially if no sign of sickness caused by well water has ever occurred in any person consuming it. Yet, what if you are suspicious that recent occurrences of sickness in your family may be caused by your well water?
Well water is considered clean since it is directly taken from the ground and no direct contamination should be polluting it. However this is becoming less and less the case as humans continue to pollute the environment. This problem was touched upon in our article stressing the need to conserve the karsts that feed these wells. However even if a well is not contaminated by human pollution, there is always the existence of Coliform bacteria.
Coliform is a type of bacteria that is usually found in plants, animals and soils. It does not immediately cause an illness in a person, but it’s presence indicates that other harmful bacteria exist in the water surrounding it. In other words, Coliform is an indicator or a measurement that harmful bacteria can be found in your well water.
Since Coliform indicates the presence of harmful bacteria in our well water, concerned homeowners have the ability to ensure this water supply is safe and clean through water filtration. A well water filter will protect homeowners and their families from illnesses such as upset stomachs, diarrhea, and other dangerous bacteria that can lead to serious consequences.
One effective well water filter is the Big Berkey Water Filter. It is a countertop water filter ready for use in the kitchen, for outdoor activities, and even traveling to other places. The manufacturer of Berkey water filters warranties all it’s products and strives to meet it’s customers needs for high quality water filtration, reliability in times of emergency and travel, and a user friendly design for ease of use and maintenance.
The Big Berkey Water Filter (2.25 Gallon)
Big Berkey Water Filters are designed to effectively remove Coliform bacteria, pathogens and parasites, and now the MS2 and Fr Coliphage viruses. It also removes chemicals and unhealthy minerals like lead and mercury without removing the healthy minerals we obtain from natural healthful water.
Each Big Berkey Water Filter, as well as any of our Berkey Water Filter models, are reliable in times of disaster as they do not require electricity or water pressure to operate. You will also be confident that you and your family can take full advantage of the benefits of your well water while at the same time being fully protected from harmful bacteria that may exist in your well.
Water Contamination as a Result of Fracking
Thursday, July 8th, 2010We are all aware of America’s dependence on foreign oil and it’s desire to decrease that dependency. In the last sixty years over a million wells have been drilled looking for this much coveted substance. Yet as we continue to search for new sources here at home, the practice of fracking is posing increased dangers of water contamination. The gulf oil spill has awakened us to this truth.
A very popular process miners use when searching for oil or natural gas is fracking (or fracturing, fracking, fracting or hydrofracing). This involves pumping millions of gallons of water with or without chemicals to find new weak points at which gas or oil may be reached. The pressure is intended to fracture the earth, thus releasing the natural resource.
The obvious concern is having millions of gallons of chemicals pumped into the earth where it may contaminate public water sources. Recently, for example, much concern about this arose on the Delaware River. “American Rivers named 74 miles (120 km) of the (Delaware) river that originates in New York State and flows along the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey as the most endangered in the United States because of the potential for contamination by chemicals used in a gas-drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.”
Will these chemicals contaminate public water sources? The mining companies say, “No” and point out that no evidence to date has proven that fracking has contaminated public water systems. However, these past couple months we’ve witnessed first hand the worst environmental disaster the US has faced to date, and most of us feel as though we cannot trust these corporations who have loose or no corporate environmental ethical standards entirely.
This is an anonymous, unverifiable quote from the internet: “One guy in Texas was talking about how after fracking was done near his home that the water pressure changed and it blew several of his water pipes out. The water began to stink and gave his daughter a terrible rash. His horses refused to drink from the water trough, now covered with an oily film. Texas officials had little interest in investigating this and the oil and gas companies have no obligation to even disclose what they are pumping into the ground.” This debate is obviously ongoing.
The truth is, Americans are dependent both on clean water and on petroleum products. We cannot live without water, and we cannot carry on our present lifestyle without oil and gas. Therefore, we must find ways that provide both clean drinking water and petroleum access without one affecting the quality of the other. We need to do this while we continue our push to develop alternative energy technology.
If your water comes from a source influenced by fracking chemicals, then water contamination is a potential risk. If you favor the idea of utilizing our own natural resources here in the US and Canada, then you should be aware of the increased risks we will expose our water to in the process.
An immediate safety precaution requires that you do not wait until the well drillers or the environmentalists have proven the accuracy of their side of the debate. A safe, inexpensive solution is to use a berkey water filter to filter your drinking water even if it comes from a purification plant that has been tested and certified. This precaution is even more urgent if your water comes from open sources such as wells and cisterns that are more vulnerable to fracking practices. When it comes to safe drinking water, you can never be too cautious.
Safe Drinking Water Act No Longer Protecting Our Drinking Water
Thursday, December 17th, 2009In another damning blow to our US drinking water quality, the New York Times printed another article today as part of their “Toxic Waters, Outdated Laws”, series. (Last week’s drinking water article commentary here) I stumbled across this as I raced through the airport trying to catch a flight to Nashville. There I see it, at the airport mini-mart kiosk on the front page of the NYT; That tap water is legal, but may be unhealthy. As I read these sorts of articles and scientific reports often, I was expecting some more rehashing of the usual dismal conditions of our municipal water systems. This was the case, however there was an important connection made relating the growing problem of our water quality to the shrinking amount of funds to fix it.
Drinking Water Quality Downtrend
Not only are we failing miserably in keeping pace by defining and categorizing all the chemicals that continue to show up in our drinking water. But, even if we do, the majority of municipalities are going to be unable to afford the type of upgrades or replacement treatment facilities that would be needed to remove these chemicals. This is a scary thought, trying to fix a behemoth of a problem that continues to grow fast, with limited funds and resources to do so. The reality is that the water quality challenges the US and most other developed countries are facing would be intimidating if we had unlimited funds and finances. As a society are we really ready to acknowledge the severity of this problem and fight this uphill battle? Home water filters are only a short term solution to a long term problem. Here are some of my favorite quotes that appear in the article.
“Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Water Drinking Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used withing the United States according to the Environmental Protection Agency.” Mind you, the Safe Water Drinking Act is 35 years old and no additional chemicals have been added to the regulated list since 2000!
“People don’t understand that just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks” Dr. Pankaj Parekh - Director of the water quality division for LA, California. - Speaking in regard to challenges he’s faced in trying to reduce/remove chemicals that are not on the SDWA watch list.
“For years, people said that America has the cleanest drinking water in the world. That was true 20 years ago. But, people don’t realize how many new chemicals have emerged and how much more pollution has occurred. If they did, we would see very different attitudes.” William K Reilly, EPA administrator under President George H. W. Bush
“Government scientists have evaluated 830 contaminants most often found in water supplies…and they have determined that many of them are associated with cancer or other diseases, even at small concentrations. Yet, almost none of these assessments have been incorporated into the SWDA or other federal laws”
“In May, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the Water Infrastructure Financing Act which, if approved by congress and signed by President Obama, would authorize $14.7 Billion in loans to help states improve their systems.” A step in the right direction, but the article also quotes that a new system for LA could be upwards of $800M. We simply need to move faster and act with more urgency.
