Water Filter News

As water crisis hitting several parts of the world, the Pittsburgh region distinguishes itself as a place where water abounds.
But from experts’ point of view, water here is not safe from problems.

Unlike other region, Pittsburgh doesn’t have problems like drought, melting mountain snow-pack and dropping river levels , said Ty Gourley, project manager for the Regional Water Management Task Force, an 11-county Western Pennsylvania group that seeks to improve water management and quality. The Army Corps of Engineers calls the city’s watershed one of the nation’s most reliable.

“We have an overabundance of water,” Gourley said.

“And no one expects Pennsylvania to get drier,” said Douglas Lecomte, a meteorologist from the federal Climate Program Office in Maryland. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded Pennsylvania winters are going to get wetter.”

Here, the issue is quality not quantity — whether it’s the state of an aging infrastructure or synthetic chemicals polluting drinking-water supplies, experts say.

John Schombert, executive director of the 3 Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Program, a nonprofit in Lawrenceville said, “Ninety percent of the region’s residents get their drinking water from the local rivers.”

Many lines— for sewage, storm water or drinking water— are a century old, said Stanley States, a microbiologist and water quality manager for the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. Deteriorating freshwater pipes might leak up to 25 percent of the water they transport, according to state Department of Environmental Protection data.

Area Rivers are filthy with common ingredients found in plastics, detergents and contraceptives, says Professor Conrad Dan Volz of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute’s Center for Environmental Oncology. Those chemicals have caused male channel catfish in the Allegheny River to develop eggs in their testes, Volz said.

“It’s no different than the smoking controversy,” Volz said. “For years and years, we counted bodies until we had enough data that we could say smoking causes lung cancer. With wildlife, we can tell right away.”

What those catfish tell Volz is that women could be at higher risk for breast cancer and men for testicular cancer from exposure to those chemicals.

“We need to act quickly,” Volz said.

In Los Angeles, two reservoirs that supply drinking water to parts of eastern and central have been shut down after found responsive for cancer causing chemical, Department of Water and Power officials said.

The cause behind contamination of water can be the reaction between sunlight and chlorine, which is a rare case, utility officials added.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plans to drain 600 million gallons from the reservoirs, the Elysian and the Silver Lake, early next year, said a water department spokesman, Joseph Ramallo. The reservoirs will be out of use for three to four months amid drought conditions.

High levels of the carcinogen bromate were found in early October by a commercial customer who ran a laboratory test, officials said. The utility confirmed the finding, immediately removed the reservoirs from service and notified the Department of Public Health.

“The formation of bromate from the chemical reaction in the reservoirs was unusual and unexpected,” said Lea Brooks, spokeswoman for the state’s Public Health Department. And, chemical is dangerous only after long-term consumption, officials emphasized.

The two reservoirs supply the water for about one-third of 1 percent of the city’s annual consumption, or about the amount the entire city consumes in a day, Mr. Ramallo said. Some water from the reservoirs may be used for irrigation or firefighting, but none will be used for human consumption. The rest will be dumped into the Los Angeles River, which drains into the Pacific Ocean.

L.A. has the nation’s largest system of reservoirs that store treated water before distribution, but federal water regulations require the city to phase those out in favor of tanks or covered reservoirs to protect drinking water from contamination.

In past, whether you have been informed or not informed about the risks of lead poisoning, but now there is a rule change effective December 10 that will require water utility companies to test the quantity of lead more stringently and promptly and thoroughly inform consumers of any problems, the Environmental Protection Agency announced. This came after it was revealed in 2004 that lead levels in Washington, D.C.’s, water supply were intolerably high and that consumers had not been promptly informed. 

High-level quantity of lead can cause many health hazards for both children and adults. In children, too-high levels can delay mental and physical development and cause a host of health problems, including reduced IQ, attention deficit disorder, and hearing loss. Adults can end up with high blood pressure and kidney problems as a result of too much lead in their system.

It is revealed that most exposure comes from swallowing or breathing in paint chips or dust, but the EPA estimates that about 10 percent to 20 percent comes from drinking water; in formula-fed infants, the figure is 40 to 60 percent.

Since regulators have phased lead out of gasoline and other products since the 1980s, the severity of the exposure problem has dropped dramatically. In 1978, for example, 13.5 million children had elevated blood levels; in 2002, the number had dropped to 310,000.

But now many scientists argue that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current threshold of concern—10 micrograms per deciliter of blood—is too high. They worry that any level of lead exposure is harmful.

In July of 1991, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established an action level for lead in public drinking water at 15 micrograms per liter, which is the same as 15 parts per billion (ppb).

Water suppliers must routinely test household tap water to check lead levels. If lead levels in the water are above the EPA action level and can not be quickly corrected, the water supplier is required to notify homeowners and take steps to reduce lead levels in the drinking water.

As the toll of polluted lakes and rivers in Morison County is going up, two water bodies soon will be the latest to be added to the county’s rolls of polluted rivers, lakes and streams, Florida Department of Environmental Protection bureau chief Eric Livingston told county commissioners.

The list of polluted water bodies is the result of a state and federal initiative to examine every county’s rivers, lakes and streams; determine which are polluted; and determine how to clean them.

In the ongoing presentation, Livingston told commissioners that Lake Eaton, which is in the Ocala National Forest, and Daisy Creek, which empties into the Ocklawaha River, are troubled.

In Marion, high and fluctuating oxygen levels have been found in Lake Eaton, which suggests an unhealthy cycle of algae, bacterial growth and dying vegetation.

As for Daisy Creek, lead and cadmium discovered and the median level of lead in the creek was 0.81 ug/L (micrograms per liter). The median level of cadmium was 0.025 ug/L.

Pollution in the other lakes in the Orange Creek Basin Plan is phosphorus, typically from fertilizers, Marion County clean water engineer Mowry said.

Livingston was at the commission meeting to ask the county to sign on to the department’s Orange Creek Basin Management Action Plan, which spells out a series of projects to clean lakes and creeks in Alachua County and Orange Lake in northern Marion County. The commissioners unanimously agreed to participate in the plan.

But, the cleanup of the lakes, including Eaton Lake, will not be done overnight as their deterioration probably took 50 years, Livingston also mentioned.

By all account, water is an ideal drink to maintain good health. But drinking tap water is no longer safe. Scientific study discovered that chlorinated tap water is a skin irritant and culprit of many skin disorders including acne, eczema and various kinds of rashes. Minus, an essential vitamin —vitamin E — for healthy skin is lost by chlorinated water.

To disinfect water, chlorine is used by water supplying authority. This technique — relatively inexpensive and easy to use — has been in use for many decades to make water suitable for drinking.

For decades, researchers have studied the long-term effects of using chlorinated tap water and most have found a link between chlorinated water and an increased risk of cancer, particularly cancer of the bladder. Scientists found that chlorinated water destroys vitamin E and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Loss of these fatty acids results in acne breakouts and skin rash. It destroys intestinal flora, the useful bacteria for digestion and preparation of vitamin K in the alimentary canal and generates free radicals. Free radicals increase toxicity and clog hair follicles.

Chlorine is a halogen that damages enzymes. Recent research has suggested that Trihalomethanes— a chemical compound found in chlorinated water — reacts with naturally-found organic compounds in water to form organochlorides. Organochlorides directly affect your immune system and store within your body in fatty tissues such as breast, mother’s milk, semen and blood. Weak immune system also stimulates sebaceous glands to produce more sebum that in turn results in acne.

To eliminate chlorine and other deadly elements, people are recommended to use water filters. Water filters have the ability to eliminate chlorine from water as well as other health risks related to inhalation and skin absorption of these chemicals.

There is a saying ‘old is gold’ and it has been proved once again by water filters. When it comes to cutting down the repugnant earthy taste of some tap water, older the water filter better is the taste — this fact has been discovered by scientists in Australia.  Panel of scientists writing in the Inderscience publication International Journal of Environment and Waste Management has explained that bacteria which grow on particles in a sand filter effectively extract the compounds that produce the taste.

Gayle Newcombe — Research Leader at the Applied Chemistry Unit of the Australian Water Quality Center in Salisbury, South Australia gives further reasons, “Although adverse odors do not present a risk to human health, their presence often leads to a misconception that the water is unsafe for drinking.”

Gayle and her colleagues have investigated the effect of sand filters in extracting the most common earthy molecules, geosmin and methylisoborneol, from the water supply. These two compounds occur naturally in water and are non-toxic.

Demonstrating at the Australian Water Quality Center and Bridget McDowell in the School of Chemical Engineering at The University of Adelaide, they said that geosmin and MIB can be removed using biologically active sand filters. In such filters, the particles of sand are allowed to accumulate a biological film of beneficial bacteria that absorb and break down the biodegradable odor molecules.

Testing sand filter material taken from working water treatment plants, the team found that sand taken from a 26-year old filter had a well-established biofilm and was able to remove any detectable traces of geosmin and MIB in less than two weeks. And on the other hand, Fresh filter sand with no biofilm was essentially ineffective, removing less than two-thirds of the geosmin and MIB even after several months of operation.

The team is now investigating how to accelerate the development of active biofilms for water purification. Now, this can be a challenge to water company to provide consumers fresh tasty water. If it is achieved, millions of people can have access to quality drinking water.

Changing climate is now a bigger question as it is playing havoc in many ways. And in the latest bang, the West’s natural water-delivery system is collapsing under the strain of growing temperatures, causing disturbance between people and the dry land they dwell in.

In the arid and dry West, most climate experts say rising temperatures will cause droughts, deep droughts spanning decades, droughts that, by some accounts, will bring about a dust bowl. 

In fact, damaging indication of climate change is on the rise and in that respect,   Mountain-snow runoff already bears the scars of climate change in the highest elevations, where winter now arrives later and ends earlier. There, snow melts before downstream users need it, or vanishes in the mild-spring winds. 

Paul Brooks— a University of Arizona hydrologist— said, “Snow and runoff are part of a wonderful natural system that stores water through the winter and releases it in the spring, just as we start needing it for agriculture and the growing urban environment.” “The problems occur when you start to shift the timing,” he added.

Scientists say this seasonal shift will deepen as temperatures rise. The change threatens not only the water but also the way it is stored and released in a delicate relay from storm clouds to mountains to streams and reservoirs.

he research suggest that if the timing falters, then situation would become alarming like, water supply would reduce and forests and other wildlife habitat would weaken. Wildfires would grow. Hydroelectric power production would suffer.

An environmental engineer and director of the Western Water Assessment in Boulder — Colo — Brad Udall said, “Changes in runoff are only one step away from the warmth in global warming.” He also included, “Right after temperature increase, what should pop into people’s mind is the question of water.”

On this planet , there is much more water than there is land, but still 1.1 billion people lack access to an improved water supply - approximately one in six people on earth.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF state that even in the United States, which has one of the best supplies of drinking water in the world; threats to drinking water quality still exist. Even though, in the United States forty-eight million people receive their drinking water from private or household wells.

In naming 2008 the U.N.’s International Year of Sanitation to highlight the problem, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “The international community has failed to deliver on this basic right. Today, more than 2 billion people around the world lack access to basic sanitation services.”

Ban further added “an estimated 42,000 people die every week from diseases related to low water quality and an absence of adequate sanitation. And this situation is unacceptable.”

There are many reasons which make water quality susceptible and most of the water around the world is vulnerable from climate changes, to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, to possible terrorism attempts, and to industrialization.

But, today there are many water treatment technologies that can provide a better quality of water. There are also new technologies that take existing methods and improve upon them to provide better efficiency, lower energy consumption and lower cost.

Among the most popular aesthetic products, for at-home use, are the water pitcher and water faucet mount filters. They can eliminate chloroform, industrial and agricultural pollutants, metals, off-tastes, chlorine, sediment, and cysts such as cryptosporidium and giardia, which are derived from animal waste. These are fine products, but are not designed to stop all bacteria and viruses from entering the water supply.

The other water treatment methods are reverse osmosis, ion exchange, filtration, ultraviolet treatment to eradicate chemicals, pathogens and other dangerous contaminants. But, before you invest in a system, each water treatment device or method should be analyzed and tested. There are many water filters manufactured by top water filtering companies which you can rely upon for quality drinking water.

In the field of water filtration systems, Cleanswater.com has sprouted up as one of the leading players in providing quality water filters in the US market. Cleanswater.com provides products that are considered as the cutting edge in technological progress and the highlight of our achievements is that we keep us always abreast with changing technology, so that we can offer the best water filtration system to fulfill each and every need of customers.

We offer a wide range of water treatment products that effectively addresses requirements of all sections - home, office and industry. We deliver only products of Aquasana.  All these water filtration products are manufactured by leading global player Sun Water Systems, Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.

Our extensive range of products includes Water Filters, Water Filter Catalog, Premium, Under Counter Filters, Shower Water Filter, Counter Top Water Filters, Under Counter Water Kit, Whole House Water Filters and Replacement Water Filters.

We relentlessly perform tests and thorough check-up — both internally and externally — on our products and their components to ensure that the high quality of our products is maintained. By focusing on research and development, we have ensured that Aquasana always has an edge over its rivals.

At cleansewater.com, we ensure you the best of customer service round the clock. Plus, besides this, we offer 100% Guarantee on all water treatment systems; in addition, all Aquasana products come with 100% money back guarantee. We have online presence and you can order our products from the luxury of your bedroom. Avail our fast shipping services. And another plus point of our services is that we offer great discounts, up to 20%, on all Aquasana products!!

The market is abuzz with news. A golden opportunity awaits customers. In this summer season, grab the huge discount offer that is coming your way from the leader in water filtration products — Aquasana. This type of discount in water filters from the number one player comes once in a blue moon. Now, you will find these quality water filters at 20% discount that is much cheaper than many others. In addition, you will also be impressed by their delivery speed and great customer services.

Aquasana is an award winning manufacturing company that uses cutting edge technology to design its water filters. In these water filters, water goes through different stages of purification that helps removing lead, cysts from the water, as well as chlorine up to 85%. It also removes turbidity, and particulates from the water. While you may not be able to see these things in your water, they are there, just as you do not see the chlorine, but you can smell and taste it as well.

As benefits of chick and stylish Aquasana water filters are huge. There are also countless choices in water filters available like whole house water filters, shower filters and home water filters that can be used for domestic, commercial or industrial purpose. To install all these, no real tools or technicians are needed, you can simply install your filters wherever you want and begin enjoying your fresh water, cool, clean water. If you want a chlorine-free shower, install shower filter of Aquasana. If you want filtered water to your entire house, then install whole house water filters. The water you will get from Aquasana whole house water filter would be much cheaper than bottled water.

So, save your time, money and most importantly life by buying Aquasana water filters and the right time to buy is now because this is a limited offer. Simultaneously, you can avail free shipping within USA along with 20% discount.