Pure Water Occasional. August, 2025
 
In this almost Labor Day Occasional you'll hear about sizing whole house filters for service flow capacity, what NSF/ANSI is all about, cartridge-style sediment filters, whole house water treatment for homes, piles of dead fish at Unicorn Lake, a PFAS map that shows the most polluted areas, "Uncle Putin, Give Us Water," how world water security is plunging and heavy flooding is on the rise, how chlorine sensors increase non-revenue water, how PFAS alters genes, an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease, how the world conference to limit plastic pollution failed spectacularly, how Lake Powell is continuing to drop, how the sea is swallowing villages in the Philippines, the countless and increasing number of water main breaks, the citizen rage in Iowa because of agricultural water pollution,  and, as always, there is much, much more.

Thank you for reading, and sincere thanks from Pure Water Products for your continuing support.  
 
Thanks for reading!

Please visit the Pure Water Gazette, where you will find hundreds of articles about water and water treatment, and the Pure Water Products main website, where there is much information about water treatment and specific information about the products we offer. On both of these information-rich sites, pop-up ads and other distractions are not allowed.
 
 
 

Pure Water Gazette Technical Wizard Pure Water Annie Answers All the Persistent Questions about Water Treatment.

 

How to decide what size whole house filter you need.

 
 

by Pure Water Annie

More good advice from the Pure Water Occasional  Technical Department

One of the critical factors in determining the size of a “whole house” water treatment system, whether you’re removing iron from well water or chemicals from city water, is the rate of service flow you need. To work effectively, the filter must be large enough to handle the volume of water, in gallons per minute, that you plan to run through it.
 
Here’s a chart that will help you take an educated guess at how much water you would expect to use. The numbers are based on Annie’s years of experience in water treatment and some clever theft from other sources.
 
Number of Residents 1-2 Bathrooms 2-3 Bathrooms 3-4 Bathrooms 4-5 Bathrooms
1-2 5 GPM 7 GPM 10 GPM 12 GPM
2-4 7 GPM 10 GPM 12 GPM 14 GPM
5-6 10 GPM 12 GPM 14 GPM 18 GPM
7-8 10 GPM 12 GPM 14 GPM 18 GPM
9-10 12 GPM 14 GPM 18 GPM 20 GPM

 
GPM means Gallons Per Minute of Service Flow.
 

This chart is intended as a suggestion only. The nature of the building and the individuals who live there must be taken into consideration. It is intended for use in sizing for standard residential dwellings. Mansion dwellers must look elsewhere for advice. Note,too, that it only concerns service flow rates. For backwashing filters, sizing must also assure that enough backwash water is available to keep the unit clean. This is expecially important for iron filters. 
 

ANSI/NSF: What’s it all about?

by Gene Franks
 
The Mysteries of ANSI/NSF Certification Explained
 

Editor’s Note:  This article first appeared in the Pure Water Occasional for April 2010. It has since been expanded.
 
 

 
 
A standard question about water treatment products these days is to ask if they are “NSF certified.” For our products, the answer isn’t simple. Some of them carry full third-party certification obtained by the manufacturer, some have certification on some of their components, and some aren’t certified at all. And some have certification from third parties that have no affiliation with NSF.
 
 
“Is your product NSF certified?”  implies–and most take it to mean–that there is some federally sponsored (N for national) certifying agency, probably a branch of the EPA, that  “certifies” products the way that USDA puts its stamp on the rump of a dead pig making it an officially edible ham.  That isn’t the way it works at all.
First, NSF isn’t a government agency.  NSF used to stand for National Sanitation Foundation, but it is my understanding that the letters don’t “stand for” anything now, and the corporate name is simply NSF, a.k.a. NSF International.  NSF started in 1944 when a couple of University of Michigan professors saw a need to set up safety standards for lunch counters and took it upon themselves to start such a service as a university activity.  The agency over the years separated from the university and  grew into a very large and well funded non-profit corporation.
So, how did NSF get the right to dictate “standards” for water treatment devices (and a host of other commercial products)?
 
 
Actually, it didn’t.   ANSI, the American National Standards Institute,  is the official certifying agency in the US.  (Canada has its equivalent in the Standards Council of Canada,  SCC.)   The US EPA, Health Canada, as well as all states of the US and all provinces of Canada rely on ANSI and SCC to determine the standards that are accepted for third party certification of products.
 
 
So, where does NSF fit in?  NSF plays a double role in the certification process.  First, it “authors” standards, at ANSI’s behest, and it is also one of the many agencies that are licensed to perform the testing that is required in the standards for product certification. ANSI/NSF standards are standards prepared by NSF under the authority and approval of ANSI.
 
 
NSF is only one of many agencies that are authorized to test products to the standards set by NSF/ANSI.   Others that are equally empowered to perform the rites of certification include the Water Quality Association (WQA), Underwriter Laboratories (UL), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), Truesdail Laboratories, Mechanical Officials, and the International Association of Plumbing, and more.
 
 
So, when a product is said to be “tested to ANSI/NSF” standards, this means that the product has been tested to standards authored by NSF for ANSI and tested by either NSF or another ANSI-approved testing agency (like the WQA), or even tested by a non-certified third party tester using NSF/ANSI standards.
Something that is often not understood is that if you want to research a product’s certification, you must know the testing agency.  The NSF website lists only products tested by NSF’s testing division.  Products tested to NSF standards by, for example, the International Association of Plumbing, are not listed on NSF’s website. There is no central registrar for all NSF/ANSI tested products.  Each testing agency keeps its own records.  If a product advertiser claims “NSF certification” and you go to NSF’s website for verification and can’t find it, it doesn’t mean that the advertiser is (or isn’t) lying.
 
 
What All This Means
 

There is much confusion in the public mind about what “NSF Certification” means.  What it does not necessarily mean is that the certified product is “guaranteed to work,” or that a level of performance is guaranteed.  There are numerous NSF/ANSI standards that apply to water treatment products.  Not all address performance, although advertisers frequently imply that superior performance is guaranteed simply because their product is “NSF certified.” Certainly this misconception is common among consumers.
 
 
Here are the standards that water treatment devices are most frequently tested and certified under:
 
 
STANDARD 42: Drinking Water Treatment Devices – Aesthetic Effects
 
STANDARD 44: Cation Exchange Water Softeners
 
STANDARD 53: Drinking Water Treatment Devices – Health Effects
 
STANDARD 55: Ultraviolet Microbiological Water Treatment Systems
 
STANDARD 58: Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Treatment Systems
 
STANDARD 62: Drinking Water Distillation Systems
 
And the most recent: STANDARD 401: Emerging Contaminants.
 
Most manufacturers of water treatment devices present their certification information in a straightforward manner that really tells you what their certification covers.  As an example, here’s how KX Industries (a.k.a. Filtrex, the nation’s largest maker of extruded carbon block filters) labels one of our favorite products, the MatiriKX PB1 filter cartridge. KX displays this certificate on the product’s fact sheet:
 
 
The MATRIKX® + Pb1 is Tested and Certified by NSF International under NSF/ANSI Standard 42 for material requirements only.
 
 
What this says is that NSF International (the testing branch of NSF) has performed the necessary tests to certify the product under the materials requirements only of Standard 42 prepared by NSF for ANSI.  The materials requirement under Standard 42 gives you the assurance that the materials used in the product are safe and non-toxic and that the cartridge isn’t adding anything to the water that will cause harm.   Standard 42 materials certification makes no guarantee of performance.  It does not speak to the product’s ability to remove chlorine, lead, or arsenic. It just tells you that it won’t put lead, arsenic or formaldehyde into the water.
 
Note that this is a “component” certification, not a product performance certification.
 
 
When looking at water treatment products, some are certified and marked with the word “component” on the product label.  There is a difference between system certification and component certification. A component is an individual piece of a system and requires less rigorous testing for certification. A certified filter cartridge (component) could be put into a reverse osmosis unit (product) with a cheap faucet that leaches lead into the water.
 
 
The testing a component must undergo to pass requirements for certification include material safety and structural integrity if it is a pressure-bearing component. The material safety test ensures no contaminants are introduced into the the water.The structural integrity test ensures no leaking will occur when exposed to high pressure or repeated fluctuations in pressure.
 
 
System certification includes the aforementioned testing as well as meeting performance criteria. Performance testing must meet the minimum criteria which includes “testing of minimum and rated service flow rates, testing of pressure drop for larger products, and evaluating product design to ensure replacement components are readily removable, waste connections have an appropriate air gap, and the product does not pose obvious hazards.” Each system may be subject to more rigorous testing requirements as well.
 
 
Carrying products that are system or component certified assures the seller and consumer that these water treatment parts will not leak or put contaminants into the water.
 
 
In addition to this actual certification, the manufacturer’s sheet for the PB1 cartridge informs that lead reduction, chlorine, taste/odor, turbidity and cyst reduction claims are “based on NSF/ANSI Standard 53.” (Since this article was written, the PB1 spec sheet now includes performance data for reduction of PFAS, Chloramine, and VOC as well.) This means that KX didn’t actually submit the cartridge for NSF/ANSI certification under Standard 53 (a health effects performance standard) but that it was tested (by KX or an unspecified third party) and found to perform at the specified levels as determined by NSF/ANSI Standard 53.  (In the case of the PB1, an additional label indicates that the testing to NSF/ANSI standards was done by the Water Quality Association’s testing division.)
 
 
Why  would KX Industries not just have its PB1 cartridge NSF/ANSI certified? Well, cost for one thing. It costs literally tens of thousands of dollars to obtain and maintain NSF/ANSI certification on a single product.  But also because it is a “component” rather than a full product, like an RO unit.  Common sense tells you that no matter how good the filter cartridge or the RO membrane, if you put it into a poorly manufactured, defective end product it will not produce a good result.  As a single example, no matter how good a filter cartridge is, if it is put into an inferior undersink water filter with a cheap faucet that leaches lead into the water, the cartridge certification means nothing. Performance certification has to be done for the entire device, not the individual components.
 
 
Many manufacturers use certification as a selling tool.  They spend  large amounts maintaining product certification and they advertise their products accordingly, often with the implication that uncertified products are not to be trusted.  Other manufacturers–KX Industries, for example, as well as many other highly respected manufacturers–rely as much on their own reputation and experience as third-party certification to sell their products.  The lower price they are able to charge because of the the money saved on certification gives an added selling advantage.
 
 
Certification is important.  It gives the customer confidence that the product meets a certain standard–either in materials it is made from or in its performance.  But if you limit yourself to products that are NSF/ANSI certified you may be depriving yourself of some really superior products as well as spending more than you need to.
 
 
“Let the buyer beware” is a two-edged sword.  It isn’t good to buy an inferior product, but no one likes the idea of paying an extra $30 for a filter cartridge to support the manufacturer’s advertising campaign.
 
 

 
Water filter cartridges whose function is to trap suspended particles come in three distinct styles.  Mr. Robert LeConche, President of Shelco, one of the largest makers of sediment filtration products, describes them like this:
 
 
Wound Filters. Wound filters are versatile all-purpose filters that exhibit rather high dirt-holding capacities. They are relatively low cost, depending on the materials of construction, and work well in most applications. This style of filtration offers great compatibilities because of a wide range of raw materials available for production. Its distinct diamond patterns create fluid channeling from the outer diameter to its center core making it a true depth filter. One caution is that low-quality wound filters used under high differential pressures have a tendency to “unload” or release sediment that was previously filtered out of the solutions.
 
 
Melt blown or Spun. Melt-blown or poly spun filters are almost always made of FDA-grade materials for use in potable water and food and beverage applications. There are two levels of product efficiencies, Nominal and Absolute rated. Nominally rated cartridges should offer efficiencies ranging from 70% to 80%. Absolute or High Efficiency Melt Blown Cartridges will offer efficiencies in the range of 90% to 99%. Melt-blown filters are usually a lower cost option to wounds or pleated cartridges (although they may require more frequent cartridge changes).
 
 

Pleated. Pleated filters offer higher flow rates with lower clean differential pressures and extended filter life than most cartridge filters. They are almost always made of FDA grade materials for use in potable water and food and beverage applications. Pleated filters can be used alone or as final stage filtration in multi-stage filter systems. Although pleated filters typically are more expensive than other filters, they have a longer filter life and some can be clean and reused (when appropriate). Pleated cartridges also offer nominally rated and  bsolute rated alternatives.

As to which is “best,” our answer is usually that it depends on the individual case. Some customers prefer one, others swear by another.  Whichever works best in your situation is the best.

Wound string and melt-blown cartridges are called “depth” cartridges because they can trap and hold particles beneath the surface, while pleated filters trap and hold sediment on the surface only. However, pleated filters have much more surface area than the other styles because of the unique accordion shape.  Although pleated cartridges usually cost more, they can be washed and reused in most cases. The rule of thumb is that pleated cartridges of 5-microns or more can be reused; tighter than 5 microns, reuse usually is impossible. Because of their great surface area, pleated cartridges can often support a higher service flow rate as well.
 
A well-used wound string filter. Note the diamond patterns mentioned by Mr. LeConche.
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

How Water Is Treated for Use in Homes

If you live in a city  . . .

your water comes to you in pipes from a municipal water supplier that gets water from lakes and rivers and sometimes wells, treats it a bit to make it clear, odor-free, germ-free, non-corrosive, and generally palatable, then pumps it through a maze of pipes to your home.


As part of its treatment, the city water plant adds chlorine or a mixture of chlorine and ammonia called chloramine to the water to kill pathogens. The treatment plant also adds other chemicals to clarify the water and prevent corrosion in pipes.  Some cities also add a product called fluoride which is believed to prevent tooth decay.


Between the city water plant and the home lie miles of pipe, some of it very old,  made of a variety of materials and in varying states of repair.  The quality of the water is affected a lot by pipe materials and by contaminants that can enter the water if the pipe leaks or is broken. The water that leaves the treatment plant is not the same water that enters the home. A lot of things happen to it along the way.


Most city water plants do a praiseworthy job of taking some pretty dirty raw water from a lake or river, getting the mud and sticks out of it and turning it into water that looks clear, tastes good, and won’t cause a cholera epidemic. They supply water that is of really high quality for hosing down driveways and flushing toilets. People who have watched a plumber cut open a pipe entering their home, however, usually don’t feel good about drinking their tap water anymore, or even bathing in it.


This very decent water delivered by the city can be made excellent in the home, which is, after all, where the fine polishing of water should take place. Home treatment makes much more sense than trying to supply top quality drinking water for flushing toilets and mopping floors.


Point of entry treatment for city water most often consists of cartridge or tank-style activated carbon filters to remove disinfectants (chlorine or chloramine).  If the water is “hard” (meaning that it has lots of calcium and magnesium in it), it can be treated with a conventional water softener or one of the several newer “salt-free” alternatives. Treatment for hardness is mainly done to protect pipes and fixtures and to make water more aesthetically pleasing.  Adding a point-of-entry ultraviolet (UV) unit to assure bacteria-free, cyst-free water for the whole home is becoming more popular, especially in light of the increasing number of “boil water” alerts.


For point-of-use treatment for the water that you’re going to drink, cook with, or make ice with,  a variety of countertop and under-the-sink systems are available, from simple, very tight carbon filters that improve taste and odor and remove chemicals to the more comprehensive treatment, reverse osmosis. The real king of point-of-use drinking water systems is reverse osmosis.  A good undersink reverse osmosis unit can provide top quality drinking water for a moderate cost.  RO, as it is called, removes virtually anything one would want removed from water, including the more difficult contaminants like arsenic, lead, chromium 6, fluoride, chloramines, trihalomethanes, and a wide range of pesticides, herbicides, “pharmaceuticals,” and so-called “emerging contaminants." RO also removes the PFAS group of "forever chemicals" that are now so much in the news. 
 
Typical treatments for city water:
 
Point of entry: Whole house carbon filtration and (if needed) water a  softener or a TAC softener substitute for hardness.  Ultraviolet (optional) for bacteria.

 
If you live outside the city . . .
 
your water usually comes to you from a well on your own property. A well is essentially a hole in the ground with a pipe through which water is sucked up to the surface from an underground pool. It's like drinking from a glass with a drinking straw. Also, many non-city dwellers pull their water through pipes directly from a pond or stream and treat it themselves.

 
If you have a well or draw water from a lake or river, you are your own water treatment superintendent, so you need to pay attention to what you're about. The first thing you should do is get a good, comprehensive water test. This will cost you a couple of hundred dollars, but it will pay for itself easily in what you'll save by not purchasing unnecessary or inappropriate equipment. If the test shows that your water is perfect, the peace of mind you gain will pay for the test.

 
The reason the well test is needed is that you don't have the benefit of the testing that's done for your with city water. If there's arsenic in the city's water source, the city is obligated to take care of it and to tell you about it. If there's arsenic in your well, the only way you'll know is by having a good test done.

 
With private water sources there is a much greater chance that extreme treatment will be needed. Here are some of the common issues with well, river and pond water, along with some of the ways they can be corrected.
 
Bacteria - pathogens like E. coli can be controlled by chlorination or ultraviolet treatment.
 
Iron and manganese - treated with iron filters that often require pre-treatment with aeration, hydrogen peroxide or chlorine. Iron and manganese can also treated with a water softener.
 
Hydrogen Sulfide (rotten egg odor)  - treated by chlorination or aeration followed by filtration.
 
Arsenic, Chromium, Nitrates - reverse osmosis for drinking water. (Frequently left untreated for point of entry.)

Pesticide, Herbicide, general chemical contamination - Carbon filtration.
 
Hardess-  treated with an ion exchange water softener.

Tannins (tea colored water) - Ion exchange and carbon filtration.

Sand, Sediment - Backwashing or cartridge style sediment filters.
.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

Water News for August 2025


 

 
Dead Fish in Unicorn Lake, Denton, TX.

Officials determined the most likely cause of the large number of fish deaths was a temporary drop in dissolved oxygen, either due to recent weather conditions or algae activity within the pond.  Skeptics said that a more likely cause was overflow from an upstream pond known to be polluted with raw sewage.  Full Story: Denton Record Chronicle.
 
PFAS and Your Community

A map prepared by EWG using EPA data shows highest levels of PFAS contamination in the Eastern US.  Here's the map, if you want to check on your community.
 
Uncle Putin, Give Us Water

Children in occupied Ukraine have adopted the plea "Uncle Putin, give us water" in imitation of past generations' pleas for mercy addressed to oppressive Russian rulers.

Residents of Donetsk and other parts of the Donbas region occupied by Russia since 2014 are suffering from a water shortage that threatens to escalate into a humanitarian catastrophe. In many households in this war-torn region, water currently flows only every three days for a few hours. When it finally runs from the tap, the water is often blackish, foul-smelling, and unfit for consumption. The water pressure in the pipes is so low that the upper floors of apartment buildings are not supplied. Full story in Le Monde.
 
 
World Resources Institute Paints Bleak Picture Regarding Water Security

A total of 25 countries – home to a quarter of the global population – face extremely high water stress each year, regularly using up almost their entire available renewable supply.

That is according to a new report by the World Resources Institute (WRI), which defines a country facing ‘extreme water stress’ as one that uses 80% of its available renewable water supply annually.
 
The six most water-stressed countries are Bahrain, Cyprus, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar, leaving them vulnerable to shortages.
 
The research also found that half of the world’s population — around four billion people — live in countries under ‘highly water-stressed conditions’ for at least one month of the year, using 40% of their supply. ISEP.
 
Heavy Flooding Worldwide

Sudden floods triggered by heavy rains have killed more than 400 people across parts of Pakistan, India-administered Kashmir and Nepal with scores of people still missing.
 
In northwestern Pakistan, at least 321 people were killed in the space of 48 hours with more than ten villages in the Buner region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province devastated by flash flooding.

It comes after India’s Meteorological Department said on Wednesday that the rainfall was due to a “cloudburst,” which is a sudden and heavy downpour of more than 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain in just one hour.
 
Analysts warned the human-made climate crisis has exacerbated the intensity and frequency of seasonal floods in the Himalayas this year.  MSN
 
Non-Revenue Water Resulting from Chlorine Sensors

Non-revenue water (NRW) losses are a significant concern for drinking water utilities worldwide because they represent water that is produced but does not generate revenue, impacting both financial sustainability and resource management. Water is lost through leaks, pipe bursts, or overflows in the distribution system. Aging infrastructure, poor maintenance, and high system pressures often contribute to these losses.
 
One often overlooked source is water losses generated from chlorine sensor waste streams. Most chlorine sensors require 70,000 gallons (265,000 liters) or more per year per sensor of treated water to be disposed of. This is true for online DPD instruments but also amperometric sensors. With an estimated 88,268 analyzers in operation across 29,423 chlorine-using community water systems, the total wasted water is 6,178,771,200 gallons (23,390,000,000 liters) per year. --Water Online
 
PFAS and Changes In Gene Activity

New research suggests exposure to some common PFAS or “forever chemical” compounds causes changes to gene activity, and those changes are linked to health problems including multiple cancers, neurological disorders and autoimmune disease. The Guardian 
 
Five Dead in NYC from Legionnaires' Disease

Four people in New York City's Harlem neighborhood have died from an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, an aggressive and potentially deadly form of pneumonia. The city has seen 99 confirmed cases with 17 people in hospital with the infection, according to the New York City Department of Health.  Officials have traced the outbreak back to 12 cooling towers on 10 buildings where bacteria were growing, including at a hospital and a health clinic.  Eleven of the 12 cooling towers have undergone remediation efforts, and the final one is expected to be fixed with the week, according to New York Mayor Eric Adams.
 
Since the outbreak began on July 25, the New York City Health Department has reported 108 cases of Legionnaires' disease in Central Harlem — a historically Black neighborhood in Upper Manhattan. The latest death was reported on Aug. 18 after health officials concluded that a person with the disease who died before mid-August was associated with the Central Harlem cluster.
Legionnaires' disease is relatively rare, with less than 18,000 people hospitalized in the US every year, according to medical research center Cleveland Clinic.
 
Transmission does not happen from person-to-person contact, but rather by mist in the air. The Legionella bacteria grows in stagnant, warm water, like the water that collects at the bottom of building cooling towers. The risk of serious complications from the disease, including lung failure and death, is highest for people aged 50 over as well as for smokers.  MSNBC 
 
 
Effort to End the World Plastics Pollution Crisis Fails

Negotiators in Geneva have rejected the draft treaties for an agreement to end the plastics pollution crisis. The main sticking point has been whether the treaty should impose plastic production limits or focus instead on waste management, recycling and reuse, with oil- and gas-producing countries and the plastics industry opposing production limits. Countries in the latter camp include Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, reportedly with the support of the US.  The Guardian 
 
Is Natural Mineral Water Still Natural if it has been filtered?

This is a debate that has been going on in France since the 18th century. The debate has heated up.  See the full story in The Conversation. 
 
Lake Powell
 
Water levels at Lake Powell, the giant reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border, have dropped to their lowest point in three years, prompting boat ramp closures and raising fears about downstream water supplies and hydroelectric power generation that could affect millions of people across the West.
 
Of greater concern in the long term is how dropping water levels will impact both power generation and water supply: There's a chance that Lake Powell's water level could fall to an elevation that would force the stoppage of power generation at the Glen Canyon Dam, which would affect electricity supply to millions of people in many states.  USA Today.
 
The U.S. National Park Service announced that one of the primary boat launches within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah – the Wahweap Main Launch Ramp – will be closed starting Aug 18. And the Park Service is relocating the Rainbow Bridge floating dock into deeper water.
The sea is swallowing up coastal villages in the Philippines 

Residents of Hagonoy, a municipality on Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island, are seeing their homes and streets flooded more often as global heating causes sea levels to rise. A powerful series, with excellent photos:   The Guardian.  
 
Near Deaths from Hot Tub 
 
Health issues prevented two women, who were in their 80s, from climbing out of a hot tub after they became unresponsive after overheating and developing hyperthermia.   A third woman got in the hot tub to keep the women’s heads above water while a fourth woman called 911.They recovered after treatment consisting of immersion in cold water. New York Times.  
 
Water Sommeliers

When you go to a restaurant, how often do you think about what the water tastes like?  Now more than a dozen restaurants in the US offer a water menu. A restaurant in England now has a water sommelier at hand to explain the distinct taste notes offered by each choice – with one bottle costing as much as £19 ($25).  For a full explanation of what may be a growing trend to offer diners expensive water served in wine glasses in restaurants, see The Guardian.
 
Water Main Breaks: Summer Epidemic

Summer is always the most stressful time for aging water infrastructure. With many cities nursing along piping that has been in place for decades, water main breaks and water infrastructure failure abound in the summer months.  Here are a few notable cases from this month's news involving water main breaks and contamination that can be blamed on aging infrastructure.
Action at the EPA

We decided to skip reporting EPA actions for August. They were numerous and very much the same. Most EPA activity for August consisted of rolling back regulatory policies of previous administrations in an effort to "make America great" by freeing businesses from onerous environmental protection standards. We all long for the good old days when U.S. rivers were catching fire because of the toxic chemical load from unregulated businesses.
 
 

Basic Heavy Duty Whole House Cartridge Filters

 
 
 
 
 
Heavy duty cartridge filters can be used to treat chlorine, chloramine, chemicals in general and even iron and lead.  They are especially versatile because parallel installation greatly increases life of cartridges and overall effectiveness.  Parallel installation also greatly decreases pressure drop. 
 
Installation is easy because no electricity or drain connection is needed.
 
The "20-inch Big Blue" unit shown above uses standard 4.5" X 20" cartridges. A great variety of sediment and carbon block cartridges are available in this size as are also media cartridges for treatment of lead, iron, and hardness. This is a standard-sized unit and cartridges and accessories like o rings and wrenches are readily available.
 
Here is some pricing (current prices, subject to change) for the basic unit without cartridge and a full filter with a single cartridge.
 
Compact Whole House Filter without Cartridge. $121. This housing accepts all standard 4.5″ X 20″ filter cartridges.  Depending on the cartridge supplied, it can treat sediment (sand, rust, particulate in general), chlorine, chloramine, VOCs. PFAS, organic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, taste and odor, iron, low pH, hardness and more. — This product can be ordered by phone.  The part Number is WH209.
 

For details about the filter cartridges listed below, go here – Filter Cartridges, 20″ X 4.5″ (Size 4) .  Any cartridge listed on the page will fit the WH209 housing shown above.
 
You can design your own whole house filter by using the WH209 filter with any cartridge shown at Filter Cartridges, 20″ X 4.5″ (Size 4) .
 
Here are some examples total cost for the housing plus a single cartridge.
 
With CTO Carbon Block, FC403. –  $189.
 
With CTO+ Carbon Block, FC401. – $210
 
With Pentek High Performance Chloramine Cartridge, FC412. — $307.
 
With Chlor Plus 20BB Pentek Chloramine Cartridge — $340.
 
With Pentek Iron Removal Cartridge. FC410 – $254.
 
With 5 micron wound string sediment cartridge, FC453  — $153
Don’t hesitate to call if there are questions.
 
New on the Pure Water Gazette website:

Outrage in Iowa–Residents demand action to clean up dangerously polluted water by Carey Gillam

Pure Water Gazette Note: The article below reflects the public demand for regulation of water polluters. It shows how out of touch the current Washington administration is. The new administrator of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, has made clear that under the new administration the regulation of water contamination will be significantly narrowed, as such regulatory principles as the strict enforcement of “water of the United States” laws “placed unfair burdens on the American people and drove up the cost of doing business.”  Zeldin has made clear that the EPA’s focus will now turn to freeing business from the onerous concerns of water protection. Is that what people want? The Iowans described below seem more concerned about shutting down the cancer epidemic than helping agribusiness avoid those inconvenient water-protection rules. 


Freshwater Is Rapidly Disappearing by Christian Bonawandt

For a planet that is 71% water, Earth is in a shockingly short supply of drinking water sources. Freshwater comprises only about 3% of all water, and less than half of that is accessible to humans. New research published in the journal Science Advances reveals that this meager quantity has been rapidly dwindling for more than 20 years due to a combination of factors related to both climate and direct human activity. Using NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data, the research shows that areas experiencing drying have been expanding at a dangerous rate since 2002, depleting available drinking water for 75% of the world’s population and contributing to rising sea levels.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Water Tests for Your Home

 

The exceptional value of a good water test and how to understand what it means

For some years we been offering high quality water tests to our customers provided by National Testing Laboratories of Cleveland. General information and pricing for these excellent tests can be found here on our website.
 
The lab offers a comprehensive test (Watercheck) as well as specific city water and well water versions. A number of individual analytes not included on the standard tests (iron bacteria, for instance) can also be added if needed.
 
How It Works

The test is ordered from our website. Upon receipt of the order, we send you a test kit. You then take samples of  your water, as directed in the kit, and overnight the samples to the NTL laboratory in Cleveland. The lab reports the results to you in an easy-to-understand format and also sends us (Pure Water Products) a copy of the results so we can help with interpretation and recommendations for treatment if you ask us.
 
The lab also makes available valuable online information to help with understanding the test result. Here are a couple of valuable reference guides provided.
 
A comprehensive chart giving detailed information about water contaminants such as commons sources of the contaminant in drinking water, the allowable amounts, the treatments required for removal with very helpful color coding for classification of the contaminant.
 
An informative brochure telling how to deal with water issues revealed by testing.
 
Please visit our website for more information:
 
Professional Water Test (from National Test Laboratories)  — Information and ordering from our website.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Places to visit for additional information:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks for reading. 
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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