Pure Water Occasional, January 24, 2020 |
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Introduction to a New Year of Occasionals
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The Pure Water Occasional is the offspring of the original Pure Water Gazette which began as a mail-out paper newsletter in 1986. The paper Gazette, discontinued in 1997, morphed into an online publication which started emailing some of its content as the Occasional sometime in the early 2000s.
The Gazette has existed since then as an online publication with “occasional” email issues.
Below the table, you will find duplicate listing of issues that are archived on the old Pure Water Occasional website. This list, which mainly covers 2009 to 2013, contains broad subject headings.
You can sign up to receive new Pure Water Occasional issues from the home page of the Pure Water Products website.
For a more or less complete list of links to email issues of the old Pure Water Occasional going back to mid-2006, go here:
We haven’t counted them, but there are a bunch. New issues are added periodically to the top of the list.
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University of Texas researchers have developed a new, highly efficient membrane filtration technology based on a process which they describe as an improvement to a natural process in the human body. UT News.
Environmental officials from Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark in late December announced a plan to restrict all PFAS compounds under Europe’s chemical regulations framework. The announcement in Brussels came one day after the submission of a document to the European Commission that lays out a strategy to phase out most uses of PFAS compounds by 2030, one week after the commission proposed a drinking water standard for the entire class of chemicals. The action puts Europe a few light years ahead of the US, where the EPA has not yet set standards for the chemicals. Reference: The Intercept.
Japan's economy and industry ministry has proposed gradually releasing or allowing to evaporate massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. Nearly nine years after the 2011 triple meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi, the radioactive water is still accumulating. The water is needed to keep the cores cooled and minimize leaks from the damaged reactors. There seems to be an agreement among experts that gradual release of the radioactive water is not an ideal outcome but it is the only feasible solution for the huge disposal headache. Yahoo News.
Medical News Today published a long article giving dozens of reasons for taking cold showers. The article is followed by another giving dozens of reasons for taking hot showers. A summation article advises against taking showers that are very hot or very cold.
D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. of Pottsville, PA, which calls itself the oldest operating brewing company in America, was established in 1829. The company has just introduced a state of the art waste treatment system. Water makes up 97% of the ingredients used in beer production. Disposal of water and spent grain are the main challenges of waste disposal. The brewer made significant changes to its water disposal system after years of litigation and over $10 million in fines and fees. Bloomberg Environment.
There are over 90,000 dams on rivers in the U.S., many that were once at the center of a community’s livelihood but are now old, unsafe or no longer serving their intended purposes. Getting rid of dams can be harder than building them. American Rivers Dam Removal Database is now available to the public.
The most recent national data show the expanding scope of PFAS across the US: 712 confirmed sites in 49 states, up by 600 locations in one year. See map. About 200 are at Department of Defense sites. Some are high-profile manufacturing locations. Some are now at the center of big-dollar settlements after litigation. And a few inspire still more questions, like a New Mexico farm where contaminated cows were euthanized because of food supply contamination fears. A geographical mapping also pinpoints Michigan as the state with the most identified locations affected by PFAS contamination. That’s not accidental, state officials said. The reason Michigan has the most identified PFAS sites is because the state has been looking for PFAS contamination. Full Article.
Nature reported research into the creation of artificial water channels that mimic natural structures for the purpose of filtering water.
The city of Joliet, IL voted to approve an ambitious pipeline plan to take water from Lake Michigan. It is expected to cost $1 billion. Planners recommended the more expensive plan because of distrust in the quality and quantity of more readily available river water to supply the city. Details.
Borden, one of America's oldest and largest milk producers, became the second major milk producer to declare bankruptcy in recent months. Milk sales have been steadily declining and production costs are on the rise. The decline of dairy sales might be viewed as bad news for investors and dairy employees, but it has to be seen as good news for water quality advocates. Dairies are major sources of manure, excessive fertilizers, nitrates and other water pollutants. Related article.
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake jolted southern Puerto Rico and left 300,000 of the island's utility customers without water.
Trying to drive on a flooded road is usually a bad idea.
According to the National Weather Service, more deaths result from drowning due to flooding than any other severe weather event. That’s because rushing water is a tricky thing. Is it an inch deep or a foot deep? Is there debris being deposited in the road that can damage the car or the tires? How powerful is the rushing water? There’s no way to know until it’s too late.
Six inches of water will reach the bottom of most passenger vehicles, causing the loss of steering and control; 1 foot of water will cause most vehicles to float; and 2 feet of rushing water can sweep away almost all noncommercial vehicles — including sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
In the good old days when gas stations like the one in the picture lined highways, when the oil company closed the station, it didn't bother to dig up the underground storage tank. When corrosion and rust eat away at aging metal tanks, gasoline or other chemicals seep into soils and groundwater. Federal regulations enacted in the 1980s require gas stations to replace leaky metal tanks with more durable fiberglass tanks, but the nation is still full of aging metal tanks. In most cases taxpayers are handed the bill for the expensive cleanup.
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Residential water filters and reverse osmosis units normally use filter carbon in some form, and the carbon used in residential units is normally new carbon. There is no program we know of that recycles filter carbon from small household filter cartridges for reuse as filter carbon. Over the years some vendors have advertised recycling of spent filter cartridges, but these programs were, in our view, more about marketing than recycling, designed to appeal to environmentally conscious customers and to promote cartridge replacement sales. Recycling of small cartridge carbon is simply not economically feasible.
However, carbon recycling does happen, and in a big way, with large industrial and municipal filter applications.
Here’s an interesting account of how carbon recycling works, from the Calgon Corporation, a major provider of filter carbon.
What should treatment operators know about the differences between virgin and reactivated GAC when evaluating options for PFC removal?
Although virgin and reactivated GAC may be of the same starting material and same activity level, they are two distinct products. Virgin GAC is an activated carbon product that has not been used in a previous application, so its quality and performance are consistent. Reactivated GAC is a product whose capacity was exhausted (spent) in a previous application and has undergone a high-temperature thermal process to destroy adsorbed material (remove contaminants) and restore a majority of the adsorptive capacity that allows the product to be reused in appropriate applications. The reactivation process alters the pore structure and can impact performance/quality, but can still provide a cost-effective treatment solution.
Within the term “reactivated GAC” it is also important to distinguish between a custom-reactivated GAC and a pool reactivated GAC. A custom-reactivated GAC is a product that has been previously used and spent in a specific customer’s application, removed from service, segregated from other spent GAC, reactivated, and returned to the same customer for reuse. In a pool reactivated product, spent carbons from a variety of customers’ applications are co-mingled, reactivated, and used for a variety of non-potable applications. The quality of a custom-reactivated product is generally higher than the quality of a pool-reactivated product, but is highly dependent on the application in which it was used, the reactivation conditions, and the initial carbon product. Custom reactivation is most economical for quantities above 20,000 pounds. It is vital to select a virgin material that can withstand multiple cycles of treatment and reactivation. A reagglomerated, bituminous, coal-based product has been shown to be a superior base product for reactivated GAC.
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Ten Things You Should Know About Water
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According to an article from the Circle of Blue website, there are ten things you should know about water.
The list is a few years old, so some of the items are a little off. For example, there are now way more than 304 million living in the United States but a toilet flush in a modern residential toilet is required to take less than 2-7 gallons of water.
You should know, too, facts about water certainly aren't limited to ten. There are, for example, 100 Amazing Facts about Water That You Should Know. Probably no one really knows how many ordinary facts, how many essential facts, and how many amazing facts are known about water. Here are Circle of Blue's ten, which would not necessarily be our choice for the top ten:
10 Things You Should Know About Water
1 – One drop of oil can make up to 25 liters (6.6 gallons) of water undrinkable.
2 – Seventy percent of the world’s water is used for agriculture, 22 percent for industry and 8 percent for domestic use. Low and middle income countries use 82 percent of their water for agriculture, 10 percent for industry and 8 percent for domestic use. High income countries use 30 percent of their water for agriculture, 59 percent for industry and 11 percent for domestic use.
3 – A person is able to survive one month without food but only five to seven days without water.
4 – Of all the Earth’s water, 97.5 percent is salt and 2.5 is fresh. Of that water, about 70 percent is locked in glacial ice and 30 percent in soil, leaving under 1 percent (.007 percent of the total water) readily accessible for human use.
5 – A water footprint, or virtual water, is the amount of water used in the entire production and/or growth of a specific product. For example, 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) of beef has a water footprint of 16,000 liters (4,226.8 gallons); one sheet of paper has a water footprint of 10 liters (2.6 gallons); one cup of tea has a water footprint of 35 liters (9.2 gallons); and one microchip has a water footprint of 32 liters (8.5 gallons).
6 – It takes 94.5 to 189.3 liters of water (25 to 50 gallons) to take a five-minute shower; 7.6 to 26.5 liters (2-7 gallons) to flush a toilet; 7.6 liters (2 gallons) to brush one’s teeth; and 75.7 liters (20 gallons) to hand wash dishes.
7 – 6,000 children die each day from preventable water-related diseases.
8 – The population of the United States is approximately 304 million; the population of Europe is approximately 732.7 million; 1.1 billion people lack adequate drinking water access; and 2.6 billion people lack basic water sanitation.
9 – The average American uses about 575 liters of water (151.9 gallons) per day, with about 60 percent of that being used out-of-doors (watering lawns, washing cars, etc.). The average European uses 250 liters of water (66 gallons) per day. 1.1 billion people lack adequate water access, using less than 19 liters (5 gallons) per day.
10 – The average American uses 30.3 times more water than a person who lacks adequate water access; the average European uses 13.2 times more water than a person who lacks adequate water access.
Another important thing about water that you might not know is it can run uphill. At least, it can appear to run uphill the way stagecoach wheels used to turn backward in old western movies. See this.
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Filter Cartridges: Their Ups and Downs
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The replaceable cartridges used in water filters have been improved remarkably in recent years although the general format has remained much the same for standard units.
The group picture above illustrates the various standard styles and sizes, plus a unique, "proprietary" cartridge for contrast. By size, we classify standard cartridges into 4 sizes. (This is our own classification, so don't expect anyone else to know what you mean if you say "size 1" or "size 3.")
Standard Cartridge Sizes
Size 1: Basic drinking water size. Essentially 9.75" X 2.5"--and this can vary a little. These are commonly called "ten-inch cartridges." Almost everyone who makes a water filter makes something in this size, and it is the standard size for most undersink drinking water units. We stock 40 cartridges (including carbon blocks, sediment cartridges, media cartridges, and ceramics) in this size. In the picture, the blue cartridge, second from left, is Size 1.
Size 2: 2.5" X 20", more or less. Used mainly for low-flow whole house filters. The tall thin cartridge, 5th from left, is Size 2.
Size 3: The 9.75" X 4.5" cartridge, third from left, is Size 3. This size is very common for whole house sediment filters and is often called "Big Blue" size because of the popular Pentek housings that made the size standard.
Size 4: The 4.5" X 20" cartridge on the left is what we call Size 4. It is often known as "20 inch Big Blue" in the industry. It's big enough to use for most whole house purposes.
Flow Pattern
Water can enter one end of the cartridge, flow lengthwise through the cartridge and exit the other end (Axial Style) or flow through the wall of the cartridge from outside to the center (Radial Style).
Radial Flow cartridges have no up or down. The 4.5 X 20" in the picture is a radial flow carbon block. Water flows from the outside of the cartridge though the wall to the center, then exits the housing from the center of the cartridge. Cartridges marked 9.75 X 4.25" (a "pleated" sediment cartridge) and 2.5 X 20" (a "melt blown" sediment cartridge) are also radial cartridges. With these cartridges, it doesn't matter which end goes up in the housing. The most important thing is to keep them centered during installation so that the knife-edge seals built into the filter housing can seat properly.
With Axial Flow cartridges, the correct up and down orientation must be followed or the cartridge simply won't work. The blue cartridge is the only standard-sized axial in the picture. The "which end goes up" difficulty arises because manufacturers have no standard way of labeling and the axial cartridges can be used in both undersink-style housings and countertop-style housings. The cap of an undersink filter serves the same function as the base of a countertop filter, so if the label says "This End Up," in an undersink filter up is up, but in a countertop filter, up is down.
The narrow end of the axial filter goes toward the cap or base. The wider end of the cartridge, which often has slits for water to enter around its perimeter, goes into the "sump"-- the long part of the filter housing, whether it's pointed up or down.
The best news about all this is that if you get the cartridge in upside down, it won't do any damage, and you'll know it right away because no water will go through the filter. Fix this by taking the cartridge out and turning it over.
How to tell an axial from a radial? The easy way is to look through the center hole as if you were looking through a telescope. If you can see through, it's a radial flow. If you can't, it's an axial.
Irregular and Proprietary
The "Q Series" cartridge in the picture is what is called "proprietary." Proprietary filters are usually made so that you have to go back to the manufacturer to buy replacement cartridges. It's a unique size, and you can't get cartridges from other sources. The Q Series cartridge shown is disposable. You change it the same way you would change a light bulb. Propriety units can be very nice, but cartridges usually cost more and you're out of luck if the manufacturer discontinues it.
The cartridge labeled "Candle" is becoming a fairly rare style. It has threads on one end that screw into a threaded cap. This style is used almost entirely now by Doulton, the maker of ceramic filters. The cartridge in the picture is a candle-style carbon block--now very hard to find.
The "Inline" cartridge is a widely used standard style that comes in many sizes. It is a disposable filter, used especially for refrigerators and reverse osmosis polishing filters. Depending on the fittings supplied, it can be installed almost anywhere you want to add an extra filter.
A popular RO inline postfilter made with coconut shell carbon and calcite, to remineralize and raise pH
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UPS 2020 rates include a percentage rate increase plus a $24 handling fee for heavy packages. The heavy package fee will now be applied to 50 pound packages where 70 pounds was the previous limit. This matters a lot. Since we pay shipping on almost everything we sell, our shipping cost on a cubic foot of softener resin or a half cubic foot of Filox iron media just jumped $24 because of the handling charge. There are lots of things we ship UPS that fall into the 50 to 70 pound weight range. Although Katalox Light is called light, a cubic foot of it is way over the UPS 50 lb. limit. This cost increase affects not only filter media but other items like large filters and water softeners. Look for our prices to increase on heavy stuff. Sorry. The $24 per box handling fee is a larger increase than we can absorb without some help from customers.
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This is a classy Fleck 2900 NXT2 softener with 300,000 grain softening capacity. We have a full range of 2900 (and other Fleck control) softeners in Simplex (single tank) and multi tank styles. The 2900 series is made up of softeners much larger than needed for residential users. The unit in the picture is on its way to a multi-unit assisted living facility. Please call or email for information.
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Replacement Parts for Water Treatment Equipment |
The picture shows an important water filter part. If you don’t recognize it, it’s a spring from the pressure release button on a Big Bubba high volume filter. It might seem like a pretty insignificant part, but if you have a Big Bubba supplying your home and it springs a leak at the pressure release button, being able to get this spring can be what decides whether you have water for your home or not.
Now, I would like you to try an experiment. Go to a Google search bar and type in “big bubba pressure release button” or something similar. You’re likely to find us, Pure Water Products, among the first results. Look at our page and you’ll see that we offer the button. If you look at other vendors’ pages, you’ll almost certainly discover that they don’t sell it. And if you order it from us, you’ll also find that we have it in stock and will ship it in most cases the day we get your order.
The point is, we don’t just sell products. We support them as well. Here are some examples:
We have a full RO Parts Page that not only sells every part for our RO units (and many others as well), but explains how to choose the right part. (Type “ro parts” into a Google bar and we’ll be on the first page.)
We have a full parts page for aeration equipment, emphasizing AerMax, the brand that we sell, but we also stock parts for the old venturi systems.
We have a full parts page for countertop water filters. We don’t know of any other on the WW. Likewise, we have a page of parts for undersink filters.
We have a full selection of parts for the WellPro Dry Pellet Chlorinators that we sell. If your chlorinator fails because you need a $3.50 pellet dam, type “wellpro pellet dam” into a Google bar and you’ll find it at the bottom of our regular WellPro page with an illustration to show you how to identify the part.
We have an entire website that sells nothing but classic blue housing Pura ultraviolet equipment. We stock every screw and every O-Ring. If your unit freezes and the sump cracks (this happens more often than you would suspect), we can send you a replacement. Break the quartz sleeve, we have it in stock and can get it to you overnight so that you won’t be without water. When the manufacturer changed its housing style a few years ago, we went to considerable trouble to put up a one-of-its-kind model identification page so that Pura owners can identify their unit and get the right part.
We have a page that sells quick connect fittings and a page that sells parts for quick connect fittings. We sell parts for softeners and backwashing filters, parts for Stenner injection pumps, complete parts for Watts R12 large RO units, replacement heads for Aquatec pumps, O rings for everything, including the membrane housing O rings for a Watts R12 RO unit that Watts doesn’t even have.
For softeners and backwashing filters, we sell mineral tanks, o rings, control valves and control valve parts.
In short, we have parts for most of the things we sell, and parts for some things we don’t. So if you find that the Big Bubba you got from the train wreck dealer on eBay has a cracked pressure gauge and a spring missing from the pressure release button, don’t despair. We love selling parts to people who bought their Big Bubba elsewhere.
Can’t find the part you need? Please call or email.
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How Do You Treat Water Contaminants? |
Here are a couple or quick reference sources that we try to keep up to date. The first, from the Pure Water Gazette website, is an extensive list of water contaminants with a quick, general reference to how they are treated. The second, from our main website, is a pretty extensive list of contaminants with a lot more information about how they get into the water and how they are removed.
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Places to visit for additional information:
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Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the next Occasional!
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