Public Water Supplies

In 1974 congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which put in place regulation for water quality for which all public suppliers needed to follow. To this day, congress continues to update and change these regulations to assure that if your drinking water is supplied by a city or association, it is safe. Nevertheless, you are ultimately responsible for the quality of water that you and your family use. The public supplied water runs routine tests for a specific list of contaminants, some tests are run monthly, and some are run on an as-need basis. Also, the city or association does not test the water that is in your house. Your house can be a source of contamination. From pipe joints sealed with lead based solder, plastic pipes sealed with glue to name just a few of the things that may be leaching into your homes water supply.

Here is a list of common sources of pollution:

Human Generated: Lead, copper, zinc (all from household plumbing systems), waste oil, chemicals, gas, cleaning solvents, paint, soaps, grease (all from household waste), fertilizers, chemical pest control, weed killers (from household gardening activities), heavy metals like arsenic (from land mining or farming), nitrates and bacteria (from human or animal waste – farming activities and septic systems), multitude of possible waste streams (from local businesses or industries, gas stations, dry cleaners, underground storage tanks, landfills or local dumps), railroad stations or tracks have great possibilities of spills and runoff.

Naturally Occurring: Arsenic, lead, chromium, cadmium (called heavy metals; can come from underground rock formations leaching off into a source water supply), nitrates and nitrites (can also be a natural product in drinking water), bacteria and microorganisms (naturally found in nature).

All of these compounds, either naturally occurring or being sourced from a human activity are things that you don’t want your family drinking. Most of the above compounds can not be seen, tasted or smelled. Without the proper testing you would never know if you are drinking them or not.