Pure Water Occasional, October, 2024
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In this early fall Occasional, you'll learn about the world's oldest river and the world's oldest water filter, modern zeolite backwashing filters, problems with the global water cycle because of human activities, the growing problem of nitrates in water and how to deal with them, corrosion, residential treatment for PFAS, how to sanitize your filter or RO unit after a boil water event, the record-breaking rainfall levels from Hurricane Helene, and, as always, there is much, much more.
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Zeolite Filter in Guatemala May Be the World’s Oldest
“About 2000 years ago at the Maya city of Tikal in northern Guatemala the residents had a sophisticated water filter system. Special X-ray analysis and radiocarbon ages showed that drinking water in the Corriental reservoir — an important source of drinking water — was filtered through a mixture of zeolite and crystalline quartz. These minerals are used in modern water filtration.” The Hindu
An article from Scientific Reports describes “researchers’ findings from Tikal, Guatemala, where zeolite was found in one of the largest storage facilities of Maya drinking water in use during the Late Preclassic to Late Classic cultural periods (~ 2200–1100 yr. B.P.). The apparent zeolite filtration system at Tikal’s Corriental reservoir is the oldest known example of water purification in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest known use of zeolite for decontaminating drinking water in the world.”
Scientific Reports describes the filtration system as composed of clinoptilolite (the zeolite species most p0pular in today’s filters), mordenite and sand-sized quartz crystals, held together as a filter by stone walls, woven reeds, or palm fibers. University of Cincinnati scientists who examined the filtration system say that it produced exceptionally clean water, reduced microbial contamination, and “would have protected the ancient Maya from harmful cyanobacteria and other toxins that might otherwise have made people who drank from the reservoir sick.”
Natural zeolite has become an indispensable tool in modern water treatment. For residential treatment, zeolite, especially the variety known as clinoptilolite, has largely replaced the old residential “multi-media” sediment filters, which consisted of layered materials like sand, garnet, and anthracite. Zeolite (furnished under a variety of brand names) replaces multi-media with a single substance which is lighter, easier to maintain, easier to backwash, and in general more effective. It supports high service flow rates and needs less backwash water to maintain. Natural zeolite can be adapted to a number of uses, including reduction of iron, hardness, and ammonia.
Fully automatic modern zeolite backwashing filter (made with natural clinoptilolite) filters down to 3 to 5 microns and supports high residential flow rates.
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New Articles on the Pure Water Gazette Website
The system that moves water around the Earth is off balance for the first time in human history
By Laura Paddison, CNN Wed October 16, 2024
Humanity has thrown the global water cycle off balance “for the first time in human history,” fueling a growing water disaster that will wreak havoc on economies, food production and lives, according to a landmark new report.
Decades of destructive land use and water mismanagement have collided with the human-caused climate crisis to put “unprecedented stress” on the global water cycle, said the report published Wednesday by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a group of international leaders and experts.
The water cycle refers to the complex system by which water moves around the Earth. Water evaporates from the ground — including from lakes, rivers and plants — and rises into the atmosphere, forming large rivers of water vapor able to travel long distances, before cooling, condensing and eventually falling back to the ground as rain or snow.
The World's Oldest River
The oldest river in the world is the subject of some debate, but is largely agreed to be the Finke River, which is also known as the Larapinta by Indigenous communities in Australia. The river flows only a few times a year after heavy rainfall and extends around 600-750 kilometers (372-466 miles) to its outlet at Lake Eyre. Thought to be around 350 to 400 million years old, the Finke river has its source in the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory of Australia. Indigenous legend tells the story that the river was formed when the Rainbow Serpent went north from Lake Eyre.
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Nitrates: The Basics
Fertilizers and fecal waste from humans and animals are the main sources of nitrate pollution of water.
The primary sources of nitrates in water are human sewage, livestock manure, and fertilizers. Areas with a high density of septic tanks and animal agriculture in close proximity to the drinking water source are most vulnerable to contamination by nitrates. Research has shown an increase in nitrates in water as both agriculture and population grow. While nitrates used to be a “well water” problem, many urban water suppliers are now having to work to keep nitrate levels down. (See Nitrate Levels in Drinking Water Are on the Rise.)
The foremost health hazard associated with excessive levels of nitrates in water is blue baby syndrome, a condition that affects the blood usually in infants 6 months old or younger. Young infants’ digestive systems convert nitrates to nitrites that can be fatal.
Nitrates and nitrites are very soluble and cannot be precipitated from water. They are not removed by conventional filtration. This means they have to be treated with a chemical or biological process. The best residential treatments for nitrate contamination are reverse osmosis, distillation, and anion exchange.
Reverse osmosis is normally the drinking water product of choice for residential applications. Anion exchange can also be effective but it is important to have a water analysis to show other contaminants. Anion treatment is less effective in water with high TDS, hardness, and sulfates.
EPA maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) are 10 mg/L for nitrate and 1 mg/L for Nitrite. It is often suggested that these regulatory limits should be lower.
Undersink reverse osmosis units normally remove 93% to 96% of nitrates.
For reverse osmosis removal percentages for many other water contaminants, here's a chart.
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Corrosion of water pipes has many causes, and not all are well understood. Corrosion causes leaks and also affects the quality of drinking water.
Here are a few of the main reasons why water pipes corrode. Some are simple and easy to remedy; others are complex and hard to diagnose. Often, more than one of the following contributes to the breakdown of pipes.
Galvanic. Galvanic corrosion is common with metal pipes. It occurs when pipes made of different metals are joined. A small electrical current flows from one to the other. Galvanic corrosion is easily prevented by installing a dielectric union when joining the pipes, but in the effort to save money, dielectric connectors are often left out.
Galvanic Corrosion
Dissolved Gasses and Chemicals. High levels of dissolved gases, like oxygen or carbon dioxide, can corrode metal pipes and cause pinhole leaks. High levels of chlorine can be corrosive to pipe, and high levels of fluoride corrodes stainless steel. Chloramine is associated with the leaching of lead from inner pipe surfaces.
Low pH. Water with low pH attacks copper pipes and causes pinhole leaks. Copper is subject to corrosion when the water is below 7.0 pH. This is usually not a problem with city water, but it can be a significant issue for well owners.
Low alkalinity. Alkalinity is related to pH, but it isn’t the same. Low alkalinity leaves pipes vulnerable to acids.
Low TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). Nature hates a vacuum. Water that has a low dissolved mineral content can pull minerals from metal pipes.
Low Alkalinity Can Cause Pinhole Leaks in Copper Pipes
High Temperature and High Flow Rates. Hot water is much more corrosive than cold. The faster water flows through a pipe, the more it breaks down the pipe.
Microbiological. Microbes, if given a food supply and oxygen, can corrode pipes causing interior buildup and subsequent leaks.
Corrosion in a water distribution system can cause health issues as well as damaging water leaks. When pipes are corroded, some of the metal from the pipe enters the drinking water and is consumed. Pipes and fixtures containing copper, lead, and brass (brass contains lead) can cause a variety of health problems.
While the municipal supplier regulates such contaminants as lead at the water plant, no one is checking the actual amount of lead or copper that comes out of the kitchen tap.
Pipe corrosion is a compelling justification for having a drinking water system under the kitchen sink. A comprehensive treatment system like reverse osmosis takes care of virtually any contamination that enters the water on its way from the water plant.
People often purchase a water filter when a plumber shows them the inside of a pipe during a plumbing repair. The pristine water described in the city’s annual water report has to come through miles of dirty pipes before it gets to your drinking glass.
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Home Treatment Strategies for PFAS
While a small amount of PFAS may enter the body through the skin during showering in contaminated water, dermal uptake from contact with water is of little significance as compared with ingestion of PEAS-contaminated water or contamination from food packaging. Therefore, the practical strategy for home water treatment is to eliminate PFAS from drinking water and not worry a lot about water for bathing or other household uses.
For drinking water, reverse osmosis is a trusted solution. It removes PFAS handily. A good carbon drinking water filter is also a reliable PFAS reducer. High quality carbon block cartridges have an impressive treatment capacity for PFAS. Our standard double undersink filter with MatriKX PB1 and CTO+ cartridges is rated for over 6000 gallons of PFAS removal between cartridge changes. That’s a lot of drinking water. The usual “change once a year” recommendation applies.
For point of entry (whole house) treatment, if you want high PFAS reduction you’ll need to reduce your service flow rate and change cartridges more often. A single MatriKX CTO+ in whole house 4.5″ X 20″ size has a 21,000 gallon PFAS reduction capacity at 3 gallons per minute. Two of these installed in parallel would give a 42,000 gallons capacity at a service flow of six gallons per minute.
PFAS can also be effectively treated with ion exchange. This strategy is often used by municipal water suppliers, but it is not currently as practical or as affordable for home use as carbon filtration and reverse osmosis.
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Water News for October 2024
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $3.6 Billion for Water Infrastructure Through Investing in America Agenda
On October 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $3.6 billion in new funding under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to upgrade water infrastructure and keep communities safe. Combined with $2.6 billion announced earlier this month, this $6.2 billion in investments for Fiscal Year 2025 will help communities across the country upgrade water infrastructure that is essential to safely managing wastewater, protecting local freshwater resources, and delivering safe drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. This funding is part of a five-year, $50 billion investment in water infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – the largest investment in water infrastructure in American history. To ensure investments reach communities that need them the most, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law mandates that a majority of the funding announced today must be provided to disadvantaged communities in the form of grants or loans that do not have to be repaid.
It Could Take Over 40 Years For PFAS To Leave Groundwater
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, known commonly as PFAS, could take over 40 years to flush out of contaminated groundwater in North Carolina’s Cumberland and Bladen counties, according to a new study from North Carolina State University. The study used a novel combination of data on PFAS, groundwater age-dating tracers, and groundwater flux to forecast PFAS concentrations in groundwater discharging to tributaries of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.
The researchers sampled groundwater in two different watersheds adjacent to the Fayetteville Works fluorochemical plant in Bladen County.
“There’s a huge area of PFAS contaminated groundwater – including residential and agricultural land – which impacts the population in two ways,” says David Genereux, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State and leader of the study. “First, there are over 7,000 private wells whose users are directly affected by the contamination. Second, groundwater carrying PFAS discharges into tributaries of the Cape Fear River, which affects downstream users of river water in and near Wilmington.” Water Online.
Boil Water Alerts, and How to Sanitize Your RO Unit or Undersink Filter
Because of this month’s high number of flood water from storm events, we’ve had questions about how to sanitize a home RO unit after a “boil water” event. See the Pure Water Gazette website.
Temporary Change in NYC Water
New York City Has “the champagne of tap waters,” but that is about to change. New York’s water is delivered via the 85-mile-long Delaware Aqueduct, said to be the longest tunnel in the world, but the aqueduct is currently leaking, so for the next eight months, the aqueduct’s water output will be cut in half while crews fix it. As the city is supplied with water from alternate sources during the repair, quality is expected to drop. The Guardian.
Hurricane Helene Dumps 40 trillion gallons of rain
The amount of rainfall is enough to fill Lake Tahoe – with its depth of 1,645ft and surface area of 191 sq miles – or 60m Olympic-sized swimming pools. It could also fill the Dallas Cowboys’ 80,000-seat stadium 51,000 times over.
“That’s an astronomical amount of precipitation,” said Ed Clark, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s water center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
But only about 2.6% of the 4.3 million properties across North Carolina — or around 115,000 properties — had flood insurance. Clark said the estimate of 40tn gallons was, if anything, conservative. Also, if that amount of water had fallen in the parched western states, it would have been enough to fill Lake Powell and Lake Mead twice over, he said. The Guardian.
Dental Health Benefits of Fluoride in Water Have Declined
Recent research indicates that adding fluoride to water may have little benefit for dental health because fluoride is now added to everyday products like toothpaste. The Guardian
Dire Predictions for the Future Because of Human Mismanagement
“Hurricane Helene was fuelled by a record-hot Gulf of Mexico, and a new analysis has shown how that heat was 200 to 500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating. In addition to increasing rainfall by 10%, the climate emergency has made Helene’s wind about 13mph, or 11%, more intense. Scientists are now predicting that monster hurricanes like Helene are now twice as likely to happen due to global heating.” The Guardian.
Water as a destructive force during a hurricane. “As a hurricane approaches a coast, the churning winds force ocean water up on to land; atmospheric pressure from the storm also helps squeeze the water ashore. Water is heavy, and it can move fast in a surge, sweeping people to their deaths, throwing boats and vehicles, and pulverizing structures.” The Guardian.
More than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet, unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the destruction of the ecosystems on which our fresh water depends, experts have warned in a landmark review. The Guardian
Half the world’s population already faces water scarcity, and that number is set to rise as the climate crisis worsens, according to a report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Full story from The Guardian.
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Places to visit for additional information:
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Pure Water Products, LLC, 523A N. Elm St., Denton, TX, 76201. www.purewaterproducts.com. Call us at 888 382 3814, or email pwp@purewaterproducts.com. |
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