Ahead of World Water Day, Gallup examines how satisfied the world’s citizens are with the quality of their water and finds that people in sub-Saharan African nations are the least likely to be satisfied with their water’s quality.
Image taken on 2008-01-30 10:08:35 by International Rivers.
Let’s face it, a water quality report is more of a PR exercise than an accurate report into the quality of our water. So don’t use it as a measure of your local supply or you could be storing up trouble for the future.
In a way it is a pointless exercise as recent studies have shown that we have over 2000 toxic chemicals in our drinking water, with more being discovered all the time. The quality and frequency of the testing done is very uneven and cannot represent a true picture in any way. Otherwise our supplies would not be so polluted.
The water quality report is there just to try and ease our concerns and show that our local municipality is dealing with the problems, but that is simply not the case as the following quotes illustrate.
“Drinking water plants are old and out of date, and supplies are increasingly threatened by and contaminated by chemicals and microorganisms,” states the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“The way we guarantee safe drinking water is broken and needs to be fixed,” says Carol Browner, U.S. EPA chief.
The best way forward is to do what millions of others are doing and simply installing an effective water purification system at home. The very best are multi-stage carbon block filters, as recommended by the US EPA, and an ion exchange and sub micron filtering will help to remove 99% of all contaminants, including prescription drugs.
Then you will have the peace of mind of knowing whatever contamination may come along next or a debate on the dangers of lead in the water, you will be unaffected, having protected yourself and your family from the very real dangers of pollution, whatever the water quality report says.
Are you frustrated with the amount of conflicting information out there on water quality issues? The municipal treatment centers pretend all is well, but several high level studies paint a very different picture.
As we are made up of 70% water, the quality of what we drink directly corresponds to our health and well-being. Despite what the municipals tell you, we have thousands of toxins in our drinking supplies including chlorine, lead, parasites, prescription drugs and many more.
Pesticides regularly turn up in drinking samples across the country, showing that we have many serious water quality issues to resolve. The problem is that only a tiny percentage of what we use is for drinking, so the treatment plants cannot make it cost-effective enough to make all our water pure.
Here are some quotes to show you what I mean:
“Each day, millions of Americans turn on their taps and get water that exceeds the legal limits for dangerous contaminants,” quotes USA Today.
“Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is as much as 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine,” says the U.S. Council of Environmental Quality.
The situation is likely to deteriorate further with the year on year increase in prescription drug use, and with more chemicals being used all the time in industry. It is up to us to protect ourselves and our children from this very real threat by getting a home water purifier.
The only effective ones recommended by the US EPA are carbon block filters. The multi-stage ones with ion exchange and sub micron filtering will remove 99% of all the contaminants, leaving you with safe pure water and with all the essential minerals left in.
It really is a sad state of affairs when we have to take action like this, but very necessary if we want to safeguard the health of our family, and stay healthy into the future.
Then, water quality issues will not affect you anymore, as you will be fully protected!
To commemmorate Earth Day 2009, this video identifies the threat marine debris poses to water quality and wildlife habitat, and identifies how each of us can contribute to a cleaner water environment.
Image taken on 2008-07-21 19:30:07 by U.S. Geological Survey.
Nothing is more important in aquarium keeping than water quality management. There are many excellent products available out there to assist in water quality management, but in my opinion, there is still no replacement for water changes, good filtration, and good feeding habits.
Water Changes; changing water in more frequent, smaller amounts is preferable to larger less frequent changes. Make sure the water going in has the right chemistry (PH, ect.) and temperature. I like to use reverse osmosis water, then add the elements I need back in (especially for saltwater or soft water aquariums such as discus). Well or spring water is also usually excellent. Otherwise use a de-chlorinator (sodium thiosulfate), if chlorine or chloramines are present (Wonder shells remove chlorine, stabilize KH, and add electrolytes). Water changes are important for Nitrate removal and buildup of toxic organic and inorganic material.
Good filtration consists of biological, chemical, mechanical, and germicidal.
-Biological: Sponge Filters are excellent bio filters (generally used in smaller aquariums, but there are larger ones now available, as well a sponge pre-filters for intakes of other filters, such as canister and HOB filters), wet/dry on a larger scale, fluidized bed, and under gravel filters (Your canister filter, power filter, ect also can be biological filters- just make sure to not change all media during cleanings. You want to wash some of the media out in used aquarium water. Ceramic bio rings are excellent in canister filters for bio filtration). Live rock in marine aquariums also acts as bio filters. Biological filtration removes ammonia and nitrite from your water (anaerobic bacterial can remove nitrates in limited quantities in saltwater). Nitrates are best removed by plants such as Hornwort in freshwater. There is much more information available about Bio-Filtration here: “The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle”
-Chemical filtration is achieved by carbon, zeolite (freshwater only for zeolite), and many other inorganic filter media such as resins.
-Mechanical filtration is the removal of debris from the aquarium via filter floss, cartridges, ECT. Canister filters excel at mechanical filtration. HOB (Hang on the back- power filters) are also reasonable mechanical filters (The Aqua Clears are not very good mechanical filters, but generally good bio-filters)
-Germicidal filtration is the use of uvc radiation or ozone to kill disease pathogens in the water. I highly recommend UV sterilization in ANY aquarium, especially fish tanks with high disease risk rates for disease such as goldfish or discus.
Good feeding habits simply means feeding what the fish will consume in 2-3 minutes (very general rule), twice per day. Also using a quality food that is highly digestible is very important for less waste (Spirulina 20 flake, HBH, Omega, Sanyu, Hikari, and Ocean Nutrition are excellent, TetraMin in my opinion has too much cereal and indigestible amino acids). Most fish foods available have too high of a cereal content and not enough fats and fish proteins.
This is a VERY general discussion about water quality; See our full Aquarium Information site below.
Let’s face it, most people realize that our water quality is not what it should be, but not many are aware of just how bad it’s got, and how that can impact on your health and well-being.
You may have read the recent report from the AP agency which stated that,” U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking quality water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked.”
Federal and industry officials say they don’t know the full extent to which these drugs are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them, making it hard to assess the water quality impact.
With further studies showing that we have over two thousand toxic chemicals in our supplies that can cause cancer, with herbicides and pesticides showing up in most samples of tap water, the situation is clearly critical.
We must take some responsibility for the lack of quality ourselves as we demand the latest gadget and buy more and more things. The result is more manufacturing and more chemicals being used, sprayed on the fields etc and this all finds its way into the water supply and into our homes.
I think the new phenomenon of pharmaceuticals in the supply is the most worrying when it comes to water quality, as the municipal plants can’t seem to prevent them getting into our homes as these synthetic drugs have such small molecules only a sophisticated filtration system can block them.
Fish are even reported to have changed sex in our rivers due to the huge amount of hormones, antibiotics and other prescription drugs that exist. So how can we avoid putting our health a risk?
The best solution is a high quality home filtration system, with the most effective being multi-stage carbon block filters with ion exchange. These will remove 99% of all the contaminants, leaving you with healthy tasting pure water again as it should be.
Then you can rest assured that whatever the next contamination scare that comes along may be, you are fully protected with the best water quality possible.
Image taken on 2008-07-22 11:09:39 by U.S. Geological Survey.
Image taken on 2009-02-14 13:42:35 by bryankennedy.