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Drinking Water Treatment Summary

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Water Treatment Considerations:  The first thing to consider, even before you start examining different types of water treatment systems, is the actual quality of the water supplied to your home.  If you decide to treat your drinking water, you will then need to determine which of the solutions below is best for your needs.

Water Treatment topics covered on my website include:

What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Truth in Advertising - The Importance of Certification: 
Certification Details
What's The Best Drinking Water Purification Method For You Filtration:  Two main types of filters: Sediment and Activated Carbon filters are discussed below, and sometimes they are combined into a single unit.  Some filters also employ KDF media.  A third type, Reverse Osmosis (RO), is a type of membrane filtration that works differently and will be considered as a separate topic. 
Drinking Water Scams Reverse Osmosis:  Water pressure is used to force water molecules through a membrane that has extremely tiny pores, leaving the larger contaminants behind.  Purified water is collected from the "clean" side of the membrane, and water containing the concentrated contaminants is flushed down the drain from the "contaminated" side - or in some systems, returned to the home water supply.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Distillation:  To remove impurities from water by distillation, the water is usually boiled in a chamber causing water to vaporize.  The pure (or mostly pure) steam leaves the non volatile contaminants behind.  The steam moves to a different part of the unit and is cooled until it condenses back into liquid water.  The resulting distillate drips into a storage container.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Boiling:  In an emergency, boiling is often the best way to disinfect water that is unsafe because of the presence of protozoan parasites, bacteria or viruses.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health UV Disinfection:  Water passes through a clear chamber where it is exposed to Ultra Violet (UV) Light.  UV light effectively destroys bacteria and viruses.  However, how well the UV system works depends on the energy dose that the organism absorbs.  If the energy dose is not high enough, the organism’s genetic material may only be damaged rather than disrupted. 
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Ozone Disinfection:  The ozone molecule contains three oxygen atoms whereas the normal oxygen molecule contains only two.  Ozone is a very reactive and unstable gas with a short half-life before it reverts back to oxygen. Ozone is the most powerful and rapid acting oxidizer man can produce, and will oxidize all bacteria, mold and yeast spores, organic material and viruses given sufficient exposure.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Chlorine Disinfection: Chlorination is a water treatment method that destroys disease-causing bacteria, nuisance bacteria, parasites and other organisms. Chlorination also removes soluble iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide from water.  Chlorination is not usually a point of use treatment method except in emergency situations.  Instead, it is used to treat all the water entering a home.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Ion Exchange:  Water softeners and deionizers operate on the ion exchange process (specifically a cation exchange process where positive ions are exchanged).  In this process, water passes through a media bed, usually sulfonated polystyrene beads.  The beads are supersaturated with sodium (a positive ion).  The ion exchange process takes place as hard water passes through the softening material.  The hardness minerals (positively charged Calcium and Magnesium ions) attach themselves to the resin beads while sodium on the resin beads is released simultaneously into the water.  When the resin becomes saturated with calcium and magnesium, it must be recharged.  The recharging is done by passing a concentrated salt (brine) solution through the resin.  The concentrated sodium replaces the trapped calcium and magnesium ions which are discharged in the waste water.  Softened water is not recommended for watering plants, lawns, and gardens due to its elevated sodium content.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Activated Alumina:  Activated Alumina is a granulated form of aluminum oxide. In this process, water containing the contaminant is passed through a cartridge or canister of activated alumina which adsorbs the contaminant. The cartridge of activated alumina must be replaced (or regenerated) periodically. Activated alumina devices can accumulate bacteria, so treated water may have higher bacteria counts than raw water.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Point Of Entry (POE):  Whole house water treatment (where all water entering the home is treated), is indicated when the water has problems that affect all areas of the home. The most common example is a water softening ion exchange system that removes calcium and magnesium ions (and some other ions) from the water. Hard water, while quite healthy to drink, can cause scale buildup in pipes and on fixtures, interfere with the effectiveness of soap, and shorten the life of appliances, like dish washers and hot water heaters. Other POE water treatment systems are designed to remove iron and manganese, adjust pH levels, add chlorine or other disinfectant, etc.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health 'Altered' or 'Enhanced' Water:  No discussion about water treatment would be complete these days without mention of what I call "altered" or "enhanced" water - water that has been treated in some way to allegedly modify the physical, chemical, or 'energy' properties of water to allegedly provide some health benefit to the body. These treatments fall under a wide range of categories, including: pi mag; oxygenation; hydrogenation; various 'catalytic', vortex, magnetic, & photonic treatments; microclustering; super-ionization; homeopathic succussions; etc.
What Various Contaminants Can Do To Your Health Bottled Water:  Did the water in the bottle you just purchased really come from the beautiful spring shown on the label? How can you be sure the water in the bottle is any cleaner or safer than your tap water? How does the cost, both short term and long term, compare with other water purification options?