Water from lakes, rivers, aquifers, and wells, may seem clean in nature, but it contains several contaminants. The most common forms of water contamination include compounds that are organic, inorganic, radiological, or biological. Water treatment processing facilities and home tools should remove the most serious of these contaminants. How healthy is your drinking water? Does it have any contaminants in it that could put your health at risk or affect its taste?
Common Contaminants in Your Water
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), examples of common water contaminants include the following:
- Physical impurities: Sediment or dirt often from surface water sources
- Chemical substances: Often from human-made substances, such as drugs, fecal matter, salts, pesticides, nitrogen, bleach, copper, lead, arsenic, and metals
- Radiological products: Radioactive chemicals such as cesium, uranium, and plutonium
- Biological matter: Biological substances can sicken those exposed to them and include bacteria, viruses, parasites, and protozoa
With 90 contaminants under EPA regulation, keeping track of them all can be difficult. However, cities must make the results of water testing for many of these available to the public. If you have concerns about the amounts of contaminants in your water, contact your local utility provider.
How to Remove Contaminants from Water
The most common water treatment processing methods involve coagulating, sedimenting, filtering, and disinfecting the water. While this thorough system treats water to meet drinking water regulations, it does not purify the water of all possible substances that could cause sickness.
Those with compromised immune systems or sensitive systems may want to get rid of even the small amounts allowed of some substances in water. For instance, to more completely remove chemical contaminants, you cannot simply use a filter. Even the finest filters, nanofiltration filters that have the smallest opening, will not take out chemicals from the water. You need a reverse osmosis system to get rid of chemicals. In fact, this type of system can remove almost 100% of water’s impurities.
If you have concerns about chloramines that treatment facilities add to water as a disinfectant, you can use a filter designed to reduce this chemical by up to 85% in your drinking water. Such a filter works with existing home water treatment systems.
Reverse Osmosis or Home Purification
The more contaminants a water treatment system removes from your water, the less water the system can process due to the extra time required. For this reason, reverse osmosis systems, which perform better than even nanofiltration filters, can only supply water to a single faucet.
Whole-home systems use filtration and water softening to treat the water. The amount of contaminants processed out by these systems depends on the type of filter used.
Get Rid of Water Contaminants with the Help of Best Home Water Treatment Systems
If you want to get cleaner, safer, and healthier water, pick up the phone and call us at Best Home Water Treatment Systems at 951.338.8616. We can guide you in choosing the best solution for contaminant removal and professionally install it in your home.
