One in Ten Americans Drink Contaminated Water

According to a New York Times report, 10% of Americans drink water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways. The report found that Charleston, VW, for example, has significant levels of lead, nickel, and other heavy metals, causing- in the worst cases- customers to develop painful rashes and significant loss of tooth enamel. The report also notes wells, both private and public, are often the most dangerous water sources, because they are the least regulated. It should be noted that no distinction was drawn between bored wells, which pull heavily on the water table, and properly constructed drilled wells, which are sealed against surface water. As a water consumer, the bottom line is whether you choose to trust water safety to an outside provider- even the government, or would prefer to take the responsibilty yourself.

"Reverse Osmosis?" You'll never learn ANYTHING that way!

Part one in a series on water filtration.

As a teenager, I remember laying my head on a stack of books when I should have been studying.

When questioned how that might improve my grades, I said I was learning through osmosis.

All that "studying" did not prepare me to understand how Reverse Osmosis works, though...

In osmosis,  a solvent passes through a membrane to try to achieve an equilibrium on both sides of the membrane.  This happens naturally when a red blood cell is submerged in water.  These contain a high concentration of solutes including salts and protein.  Water molecules pass through the cell membrane from an area of low solute concentration (outside the cell) to one of high solute concentration (inside the cell).  The cell membrane is selectively permeable, so only necessary materials are let into the cell.  

Osmotic pressure is the catalyst, and can be increased on the high-solute side of the membrane to force the equilibrium and stop osmosis. This is, apparently, represented in the following formula:

δPV = -RT ln(1-x₂) (2)

Presumably, if you continued to increase the pressure on that side, you will reverse that process, and that is how Reverse Osmosis works:  It actually pulls the water away from the solutes, through a semipermeable membrane, leaving pure, "distilled" water: H2O.  This is usually the last stage in a 2 or 3 stage filtration system, and because it takes a long time to pull water molecules through the membrane, small storage tanks are usually part of the system.  A typical home system will fit in a kitchen cabinet and provide about 10-15 gallons per day, delivered to a tap by the kitchen sink.   

Now, since it has been stripped of all the salts (electrolytes) and minerals the water has no flavor- and some folks say that "no flavor" tastes an awful lot like plastic.  But, if one is really concerned about the quality of your drinking water and is willing to pay the $250-$700 for the system, plus another $150 or so in yearly filter replacements, it is by far the best way to be assured of the quality of your drinking water.

 

Where Will You Get Your Water?

Sinkholes like this have become nearly
epidemic all over the US as old pipes
begin to fail.

As a water professional who has lived in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia area all my life, I’ve developed a sort of unique perspective on local happenings. A few years back, following all our Olympic glory and in the middle of a huge developmental boom, we began to see roads collapsing and washing away all over the city- it seemed like a new incident was broadcast every night on the news. Our 80+ year-old infrastructure was in trouble- and there was no money to fix it.
Mayor Shirley Franklin stepped up and took a bold stance- she became modern America’s first “Infrastructure Mayor”, committing to repair and upgrade the City’s infrastructure in her term of office.

Upset Atlantans protest the proposed
closure of West End Station #7.

By in large, the citizens of the Atlanta got behind her- I mean- it sounded like a good idea, right?
Here’s the problem: it is very expensive, it takes a long time, and it's product is not visible.
So- what sounded like a good idea to everyone back then is becoming a hassle as we attempt to navigate our streets and get frustrated with the constant construction traffic. What sounded great before sounds less and less warm and fuzzy with every fire station that faces closure. Infrastructure, and Mayor Franklin, are becoming less and less popular.

As I write this article, the Georgia Legislature begins its 2009 session with a $2.5 Billion deficit, and Atlanta’s could top $80 Million- one of the largest in the nation. With lawmakers calling for a truly balanced budget, will this be the end of Atlanta's commitment to infrastructure?

There is another way- one I recently wrote about:

Rusty supply lines are one of the biggest
threats to US drinking water.

In Detroit, Michigan, their Mayor recently appointed Victor Mercado, a private water industry tycoon, head of the city’s troubled water works. While the system continues to run down, the city has reduced its repair workload, instead focusing its resources on disconnecting delinquent customers. They disconnected over 40,000 customers last year, and had proposed to double that number this year. Now that number will surely adjust upward in light of new economic stresses on Government and citizens.
Potentially, after 2 year’s time, that city will wake up to find nearly 200,000 households without water coupled with little or no positive action toward a rapidly failing infrastructure.
Running the system down, starving it of capital: these are the kinds of measures we usually see in the corporate world before a “hostile takeover”.
Once a system is too far gone, the citizens will accept any alternative, and government will be happy to get the “hot potato” out of their hands at any cost.

Like roads and bridges, water infrastructure is one of the basic services we believe should be available and provided by government. Without water, a city cannot flourish. Without water, people cannot live. Without government protecting and providing citizens access to this basic need, these Profiteers can and will sell their commodity to the highest bidder, and many hundreds of thousands- even millions- may find their interest taking a back seat to industry, by far the largest and most lucrative consumer of water in the world.

If you think this is not possible- take a look at what the World Bank is already doing in third-world nations all over the globe. Water is now treated as a global commodity, and multinational corporations are buying up the rights to that water as quickly as they can. Water which had, for centuries, completely provided for entire self-sustaining communities is suddenly becoming a luxury which poor families simply cannot afford.

Our American lifestyles are highly dependant on access to a lot of water. But on a level of necessity I see very few issues that could be more important than where our water will come from in the future. If we don’t know the answer to this question, we should begin to understand what is happening to infrastructure around us, and begin looking at all options to protect our own access. We should contact our legislators and let them know that we do not want any infrastructure to be privatized. We should ask them to commit to protect the rights of private citizens to collect water off their own property- including by wells and rain cisterns. We should let them know that we expect them to favor individuals’ access to water over corporate agendas. Water is fundamental to life. Are we really willing to give that up?

of International Intrigue, Chlorine, and Tap Water

In January 2005, Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko, the informal leader of the Ukranian Opposition Coalition, became the third and current President of the Ukraine, after a revote, recount, and a runoff election against the state- sponsored opposition candidate.
Not exactly what one would call a clean victory, but given the story of intrigue that ran through this campaign, is one that certainly should have been expected.

In fact, during the campaign in 2004, Yushchenko became violently ill and was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes, due to a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products. Yushchenko claimed such poisoning to be the work of government agents. After the illness, his face became heavily disfigured: grossly jaundiced, bloated, and pockmarked.

A British toxologist declared the changes in Yushchenko's face were due to chloracne, which can be the result of dioxin poisoning. Later, a Dutch toxicologist found levels of dioxin in Yushchenko's blood that were 6,000 times above normal and also stated his changes in appearance to be the result of chloracne.

Yuschenko, before and after dioxin poisoning

So, what is dioxin? It is the name given to an entire group of poisons mainly derived from and related to Chlorine, which is universally used to chemically disinfect water. Chlorine kills germs, bacteria and other living organisms, and is contained in every ounce of water that comes out of municipal water treatment plants.
Now, the levels of chlorine in municipal water are nothing compared to the immediate danger of deadly bacteria in untreated water, and chlorine is certainly the least expensive and surest method of protecting consumers against such dangers; and by its self, the amount of chlorine in tap water has been shown to be of a safe level for exposure. But coupled with all the other environmental exposures to dioxins, and the fact that these chemicals bioaccumulate in our bodies, prudence would suggest that we limit every exposure that we can control.
These compounds readily pass through the cell wall and attach to the fatty acids of the cell, disrupting the life sustaining functions. It should be noted that the EPA sets the recommended exposure level to these compounds at zero.

It has been estimated that the "shower steam" in your bathroom can contain up to 100 times the amount of chlorine than the water, because chlorine evaporates out of water at a relatively low temperature. If you bathe or shower in unfiltered tap water you are inhaling and absorbing an unsafe amount of chlorine into your body. This single daily exposure accounts for almost half of the average person’s dioxin intake.

If you are running for president in a former soviet bloc nation, you should be sure- get your water from a well. Repeated exposures to these chemicals will not help you build up an immunity, but rather, lay the foundation for your opposition’s plot to remove you as a threat.
If you are just a “regular” citizen simply concerned about your health, you may want to heed that same advice. After all, you may never be the specific target of a murderous plot, but; in light of the EPA's recommendations, you certainly can not be too careful!

Our Human Experience- as seen thru Water

It is generally accepted that our attitude affects our experience of our surroundings- a "Positive Mental Attitude" is said to be foundational to success.

It is one thing to chock it up to "rose colored glasses", but can it be shown that our attitude actually changes the very structure of the world around us?

Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, has recently published a book which set out to prove just that, and to do it using the very foundation of life on this planet: water.

Since water is essential for the survival for all known forms of life, it might be expected that it could, through Mr. Emoto's methods of study, give us some clues even to the very nature of our existence.

Here's how it started:

Mr Emoto took water samples from around the world, froze them and studied their crystals under a microscope. Water from clean

lakes and streams was shown to have complex and often near- symmetrical crystalline formations, like lovely perfect snowflakes. Water from polluted sources, on the other hand, presented broken and malformed crystals. His control- distilled water- had an almost perfectly round crystal.

He then allowed his ice to thaw, and exposed the polluted samples to prayers or music.

After that exposure, he then refroze his samples. He found dramatically different crystalline formations: the "polluted" samples now had crystal structures similar to the "clean" ones.

That got him thinking: what if he took his distilled water (that near-round, untainted- but unaffected water) and exposed it to different positive or negative input. The results were similar to the first experiment:

When that distilled water was exposed to positive input- like the word "Love" printed and taped to the jar, beautiful crystals formed.

When it was exposed to negative input- like the word "Hate", again, printed and taped to the jar, the crystals were malformed.

Further studies found that the "positive" water hydrates better, allowing this water to be more readily absorbed into living cells.

Some readers of Mr Emoto's findings have really been taking off with this information-

They are taping positive words to their tap water containers before using that water on cut flowers, then studying the effects of this water on the flowers by gauging how long they stay fresh. Practitioners are claiming huge success, although there has been no published study in this area.

All this research does present some really interesting questions, though- not only about what we put in our body, but what we put into our environment as well.

Think before you speak. Think before you drink.

Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water?

Americans are living longer and longer. It's all about advancement in medical research, and most of that advancement has to do with pharmaceuticals. We are a pill-popping Nation, and a new study by the Associated Press highlights our drug use is a most unusual way:
They have found a vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.

It's not that they tested some water supplies and didn't find pharmaceuticals, the study group found these drugs in EVERY test they conducted!

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

Image courtesy of  Danilo Rizzuti /

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

* Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.
* Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
* Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
* A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.
* The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
* Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

How could this happen? Its simple:

People take these drugs. They pass through their bodies and are flushed back into the system.
By law, our water treatment plants test and treat bacteria and metals- add chlorine and fluoride, but the federal government doesn’t require any testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water, and, therefore requires no testing or treatment for these contaminants.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

“We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

So maybe it's not just the hormones in the chickens we eat. Maybe its not only the antibiotics in the beef we eat. Maybe its not the chemical levels in our fruits and vegetables-
Maybe its our water!

Maybe we should think before we drink.