| Drinking water contamination is a huge problem in | | | | stick itself onto these particles and rise to the top |
| today's industrialized society. Did you ever wonder | | | | and can be cleared away. |
| how the drinking water treatment process works, | | | | Now the problem is in the actual filtration or |
| and what needs to be done to protect ourselves? | | | | treatment of the water. Many municipal facilities use |
| In this article, I'm going to try to give you a quick | | | | processes like a simple sand-bed filter, which leave a |
| guide on how our drinking water treatment is done, | | | | lot of contaminants still left in the water. |
| that is how our municipal water facilities treat our | | | | What happens is the water slowly drains through a |
| water, from the lakes and rivers to your home. But | | | | container of sand and anything that is smaller will |
| this method is still not adequate to protecting | | | | drain through. The problem with this is, most of the |
| ourselves from drinking water contamination and | | | | time, the sand is coarse, leaving many chemicals and |
| ultimately your health. | | | | bacteria and viruses still within the water. |
| The first stage of drinking water treatment starts | | | | Not only that, there are chemicals, especially |
| with some type of pre-treatment. What this stage | | | | synthetic ones that are smaller in molecular size than |
| consists of varies, but what it does is to basically | | | | that of water, so that is not going to get filtered out |
| pump the water from the source, pre-screen it, that | | | | anyways. |
| is to remove large debris like branches, and then | | | | They also use many chemicals, including chlorine to |
| store it. What follows might consist of | | | | treat drinking water contamination, which can be |
| pre-conditioning and pre-chlorination. | | | | very damaging to our health. Think about it this way, |
| Then it might try to adjust the pH level. Below 7 | | | | many of the guidelines allow for 3 ppm (parts per |
| means it's acidic and what they try to do here is just | | | | million), but simple home test kits for a pool, only |
| to bring it up to at least 7 or above, which would be | | | | allow 1 ppm. If it's not safe to swim in, why should it |
| alkaline. | | | | be safe to drink? |
| I know this might sound boring, but this step is | | | | Now, it's hard to cover exactly what your municipal |
| important since, acidic water does a lot more damage | | | | water supply might do for our drinking water |
| to our body then alkaline water does. Our bodies will | | | | treatment. It could be one of the better ones, but |
| start to take nutrients out of our teeth and bones to | | | | since drinking water contamination is such a large |
| try to level the acidity if the water we drink is acidic. | | | | dilemma that it is too costly for them to clean to |
| Another scary fact is many facilities might not even | | | | levels that most of us would consider acceptable. |
| use this step in its process to clean the drinking | | | | Since drinking water contamination is such a huge |
| water contamination. | | | | problem, it really is up to us to find a drinking water |
| Now, most people wouldn't want to drink water that | | | | treatment process that can be added to clean our |
| wasn't clear, right? So the next step might be to use | | | | water. The drinking water treatment process I have |
| a process called flocculation. All it does is basically | | | | found to be effective is that we to need a good |
| throw in some type of small particles, and all the | | | | multi-stage filtration product to filter our water once |
| material in the water that gives a color will try to | | | | it reaches our homes. |